Integer Leadership Consulting

This never comes as a surprise but it is always extremely disappointing and sad. Halpern’s editorial in the WSJ this morning, Britney Spears, ‘Breaking News,’ reveals our culture’s incessant and insatiable appetite for network celebrity gossip. Further, to Halpern’s point, how TV news channels choose to tap into the shallow and often prurient interests of a culture fixated on the moribund lives of others…like Britney Speaks…over substantive issues of gravity and import is fundamentally a deplorable commentary on the west’s inability to confront the real issues of pain and suffering and existential angst or hopeless. I’m not sure if the news channels create the appetite or the appetites of the consuming public inform the interests/programming of the news channels. Regardless, I am stunned by the shallowness, pettiness and narcissistic focus of much of our culture that would rather fixate on Spears-like dramas rather than engage in the more “neo-cortexian” issues which invite critical reflection, thinking, thoughtful rumination and intelligent discourse. The issues that matter (and yes, the issues that matter to me) that so profoundly shape relationships, health, politics, institutions, children and adolescents, suffering and pain, redemption and hope are quickly cast aside in favor of the temporal and fleeting matters that change nothing. We are enraptured by the pathology and dysfunctions of our culture while we spin further into the abyss of hopelessness and despondency. Our self-absorption is increasingly a cultural disaster. We have sold our soul for a pot of porridge.

But not to be outdone by the superfluous and shallow, I want to engage with others who can acknowledge the above reality, as Halpern has, and rather than walking away in disgust, climb into the trenches and engage our culture to “think deeply about the issues and themes of life that matter.” The tail needs to wag the network dog. If we lead the networks will follow (well, maybe not). For this to happen, something deeper in the human soul will need to ignite. Perhaps when the unconscious process of “amusing ourselves to death” moves into our consciousness, we will begin to reengage with others and participate with those institutions that are postured to positively intersect this global network of ours. Perhaps there are a few folk who can pull themselves away from the TV long enough to think deeply, think for themselves, demonstrate courage and bring healing rather than spend their days thanking their lucky stars that they are not like Britney Spears.

Shellenbarger has written a fine piece (WSJ: 10-1-07) that should not surprise any senior leader. What is embarrassing is that Shallenbarger’s piece should be “new information” to senior leaders. Bottom line: when corporations provide a supportive and engaging environment where employees can thrive as valued human beings profits follow. There is a logical order here that should be respected, honored and followed by top leadership. It is a non-negotiable reality that people who feel authentically valued and esteemed are more often deeply compelled to deliver for the organizations that provide the environment where valuing and esteeming takes place. Conversely, those more obdurate senior leaders who simply refuse to admit that cultivating the value and professional development of employees is a waste of time and money continue to provide those draconian work environments where issues of value follow way after the bottom line if they follow at all…and yet they wonder why the most talented and visionary employees walk out the front doors. Pity the leader who by their arrogance and ignorance places the cultivation of people at the end of the corporate gravy train. Shellenbarger is spot-on correct. So tell me, after all this time and evidence, why do so many senior leaders continue to opine, “Who cares?”