Reset the Assumption Button - Please!

Buford, Maynard and Cooter are back from their little hiatus. This month they draw on their down-home wisdom and irreverent outlook on life to explainify the decline of the "American Empire." They take a look at five basic assumptions about societal functioning that together shed some light on the sometimes inexplicable events we see in our work and our lives every day. And of course, they also offer up a humble opinion about some changes in thinking about the future of work they - and we - would like to see. Enjoy!

Push the reset button - please!

The boyz be back. Too much time out in the woods gets ya to thinkin'. Maynard allows that things just seem to be toooo crazy these days. Ya jest know there was probably somebody named William of Bradforshire-on-Thames or some such back in Merry Ol' England around 1760 who had the same rev-o-lation that Buford has just now come to.

Good ol' Bill from Bradfordshire undoubtedly could see the British Navy being defeated, a little colony way over across the deep blue sea rebelling and kickin' some Red Coat butt from behind rocks and trees, and the German economy making the birthplace of the Industrial revolution irrelevant.

So back in the here and now, we've got ol' Buford cogitating on the parallels between those events and (hmmm, let's see) Afghanistan/Iraq, an assortment of banana republics, and - oh yes - China. Buford's kinda worried that the good ol' US of A is on a steep downhill slide into the hog slop pit. This ol' dog can't hunt anymore. We just ain't the big 600-pound gorilla on this planet we used to be. It feels like the US brand in the planetary marketplace is turning into a sub-prime collaterized debt obligation. Wake up America!

So, what we wanna know is, where did the train go off the track? Well, it turns out that ol' Cooter the data dog's been out sniffin' again. Now we freely admit we've been singin' this tune before, but not quite as bluntly as you're gettin' it here this time.

Remember our ol' buddies Bill Strauss and Neil (the Hook) Howe? Well, if the brain ain't quite working up to speed go check 'em out at http://www.fourthturning.com/.

Here's the bottom line: Big Things is happenin'. Tomorrow ain't going to be the same as today, let alone yesterday. Buford harkens back to his granddaddy Billy Ray tellin' him 'bout the crash of '29. And the real old stories from right after the war (the real one with Johnny Reb and the blue coats). Yep, seems like that kinda of Big Damn Change is here again. (We'll be back to the "What do you do?" in a few; give us a chance to spout a bit here, we're on a roll).

But first, back at the ranch, Buford, Maynard (as in sub-prime intellect), and Cooter have started in ponderin' and philos-o-phyzin'. Ya know, maybe some real basic stuff is just wrong. Maybe what we been thinkin' is the rules just ain't the rules anymore. Now that would make a passel of difference. Kind of like the boys down at the feed and grain playin' checkers but it's really a chess game.

Whoa boy, that's goin' to smart. Assumptions. Hmmn?? Ya know what happens when you "assume" somethin' without thinking about it? You make an **s out of "u" and me. Joke folks, gotta chuckle sometimes no matter what.

So Cooter runs across Cousin Dan out there in Preskit. He hears Dan runnin' off on how the big ego train of 'Merica is messed up. 9-11; Katrina; I-we gotta have the oil-Raq. It's all comin' together. Check out the Prescott College web site to see what we're talkin' about.

So, In Our Humble Opinion (you was wonderin' if we'd ever get to it, weren't you?), we need to push the re-set button on our assumption machine. Same-o, same-o, back to the island empire; the rules changed and they didn't see it coming.

There's five of 'em that really matter (Maynard counted 'em up). Here it is and why it ain't so.

The up-until-now view: what's good for business is good for everybody. Like ol' granddaddy used to say, '"You can just suck the juice outta the lemon for so long 'till it dries up." Gotta put something back, fool. Bull hooey! Gordon Gecko, get outta here. Can you say sub-prime? Who made the buckos on that little rip-off? Oh mi-god! You mean capitalism may just not work?. What we've been thinking for the last 200 years or so just doesn't cut it any more. Huh? Feudalism was a great system - once. (Just hang on to your shorts there, Harry; we will get to the "Okay, so what?").


You'll love this one. Giving people all the facts can change their behavior. Now that's real good. If that worked how come people still smoke cigarettes, drive Hummers, eat junk food, and take drugs? We could go on and on, but hopefully you get our drift. Our whole education system is built on that basic assumption. And we've talked enough over the years about how screwed up our edgy-cayshun system is. Is anyone listening? You could probably wind up the ol' time machine and go back to Athens or somewhere back when they thought logic ruled all human behavior. No way Jose!



Time is money. Might have been true in an industrial era, but that's not where we are any more. Let's see, they should have paid Michelangelo by the hour? Right, if there was an artists' union. Creativity and innovation know not the bounds of time (say that again, with feeling: "Creativity and innovation know not the bounds of time" - that's our most elegant sentence in this whole darn rant). This assumption sort of ties back to our first one. Putting your value into minutes and hours ass-u-mes certainty. Is that what will solve problems? Erik Fromm said it best: "The quest for certainty blocks the quest for meaning."



Sustainability is a zero sum game. Not true. Just go and ask General Electric. Investing in environmental issues, goin' Green, and all that may tarnish the bottom line this quarter, but it builds future markets and improves efficiency. Even the boyz know that spreading a little manure around the corn field makes things better. Frankly (don't call me Shirley) we are at another crossroads. What did Yogi say? "When you come to a fork in the road, take it!" We're bettin' on taking the fork towards bringin' business, earth, and humanity together. Cooter found a good read on this stuff: Google Capitalism at the Crossroads by Stuart Hart and check it out yourself.



Now the biggy! What if we are not in control? What if Buford and Maynard aren't at the top of the e-vo-lutionary chain? (Okay, okay, that may not be the best example.) It takes a lot of conceit to think that we poor humans are as good as it gets (and it's actually a frightening thought). Tell you what, one of these days (hopefully soon, real soon) somethin' is going drop out of the sky and show us that there are other sentient things out there; and that, dear hearts, will shift a whole bunch of thinkin'. It's a good bet the Mayans thought they were "it" until those funny lookin' Spaniards hit the shores. Then what? Where are they today? Ponder that.


This is some heavy thinkin'. In Our Humble Opinion (second one!) hittin' that ol' Ass-ump-tion Re-set Button will give you a different view of the world and perhaps help change how Maynard and Buford get through the day. Ol' Cooter is probably already there.

Going back to those outmoded ways of thinking one more time, we might even see a world where:

Businesses would put more back into their communities and environment than they took out. Damn, being responsible. What a concept. Anyone (like our ancient ancestors) living off the land could tell you that this approach is the only way to keep going for the long haul (for you fancy pants, that's called being sustainable). Let's respect that wisdom.

How to learn: whoa, try experience. It ain't all about facts and logic. We've been tryin' that and look where we are. Living life is way more than reading a book. Want to help people do the right thing? Give them the experience - show them the way - don't just tell them what to do. Learning in the gut takes living.

Its how you spend your time, not how much you spend. It's not how long you talk to someone, it's what you talk about. The trouble is we don't know how to measure that. As they say, there's just no accounting for it. Notice how those words (spend, measure, accounting) get in the way of realizing value? We are going to have to invent a new language before this way of thinking changes.

Substitute need for equity and effort? Okay, this one smells like a whole new way of organizing (getting our stuff together). It might even mean respecting government, accepting the majority's decisions, sharing resources, and doing things for the common good that we can't do individually. That's a pretty radical view. But it's happened before, hasn't it? Just ask King George. Today we call it "global sustainability."

One of us had a professor who once pontificated, "You must show humility in the face of the data." The other heard all too often, "The data are always friendly." Perhaps the trouble is that we don't have all the data yet. But a dollar to a doughnut, we're not the only ones. Take that ego and shove it. Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad. Or maybe it should be (in John F. Kennedy's words), "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."

We know those are fighting words, but that's Our Humble Opinion, and we're sticking to it.

Now we're not saying we have all the answers. But we do have some darn good - and important - questions. We think it was Einstein who suggested that you can't solve problems with the same kind of assumptions that caused the problems in the first place. And that, dear hearts, is just where we are today. It's time to hit the re-set button on the Assumption Machine.

Actually we think it's already re-set. The new rule book is out but most folks are still playing with the old one. The boyz will have more to say about this new world we're all living in today in the coming months. Buford, Maynard, and Cooter are waiting patiently for your thoughts.