Not all missions require a high level of passion. Transformation, or the creation of something new, requires a high degree of physical and emotional energy, but maintaining an established business does not. If you don’t need a high level of passion, don’t generate it because in the worst case it will cause chaos and in the best it will demand increased management oversight.

We’ve all seen organizations that don’t have enough energy to accomplish their mission. Those are the ones that eventually get overtaken in the market. But have you ever seen an organization with too much energy and passion? I once mistakenly created this dynamic. A Fortune 500 company brought me in to transform their Information Technology (IT) organization because their services had fallen behind the industry. We were able to arouse a high level of passion in the group by defining a compelling purpose of technology transformation that would benefit customers and internal users. The problem was that we created the passion before we had all of the governing mechanisms in place. As a result, some teams and individuals went off in frenzied directions, pursuing technologies that weren’t part of our standard architecture and solutions that weren’t part of our plans. I remember one team in particular that spent several months writing an application in a language that they knew well and could rapidly write, yet it didn’t integrate with anything else we were using. Although they thought they were helping to achieve our mission, they were spending valuable time and money going in a contrary direction. We had to quickly put better governance in place.

When there is a high level of intensity in an organization, a high level of direction is needed to keep it orderly. This direction is needed to ensure that each individual’s expenditure of energy is coordinated, modulated and targeted toward the group’s objectives, rather than dissipated in other irrelevant or detrimental activity.

In the company described above, we also struggled with employees whose jobs didn’t provide an adequate outlet for their passion. While employees who were working on development efforts were able to channel their passion into creating new solutions, the personnel who were supporting the old legacy systems didn’t have a way to channel or use their passion. Although they felt the desire to be part of the transformation, their jobs didn’t provide the creative outlet. Many of these people suddenly became frustrated and disruptive. They started trying to find ways to become more important in the organization by hoarding information and trying to look like heroes, and some even became actively belligerent and disrespectful of the accomplishments of others. We eventually redesigned their jobs so that they were doing development work in addition to support, and this solved the problem.

When higher levels of passion are needed, using a compelling common purpose to spark an increase in energy will activate individuals by exciting emotions, and it will help channel the energy. However, purpose will help channel the energy only when employees are clear about how to execute their job in a way that fulfills the purpose, and only for employees whose jobs align to the purpose. Organizations in which employees are highly energized by a common purpose must also establish solid boundaries and standards for performance, as well as a tight system of management that ensures energy is directed toward realizing the purpose. And again, if you don’t need a high level of energy in your organization, don’t spark passion and thereby spare yourself the chaos and management overhead that can accompany it.

For more on the power of emotional energy in groups and for some of the research references, get a free download of the Ma$tering Group Energy ebook. Stay tuned for the full publication that will include all of the concepts and references.

The article reminded me of a Vice President who I used to work alongside. We both led parts of an organization that provided Information Technology services to a broader company and to its customers. He routinely said thank you to his employees at every opportunity. We attended lots of meetings together, where we would speak with employees about the status and accomplishments of projects. Without fail, he would never leave a meeting without saying “thank you” to each employee. I got a sinking feeling every time he said it.

“Thank you” is something you say to someone who does something for you. As a leader, it’s fine to say it to an employee who erases a virus from your laptop. But when an employee does something for a customer or another group of employees, they didn’t do it for you, and it’s egotistical for you to act as though they did. Also, habitually thanking everyone can’t be done with heartfelt emotion, so you come across as disingenuous.

You may contend that since you’re the boss, your employees are in essence doing what they do for you. However, if you read almost any research on how modern-day employees think, you understand they have little reverence for the boss. What they get excited about is helping to achieve a broader purpose, not pleasing the boss. When I appreciate an employee, instead of thanking them as though they did it for me, I point out how they’ve helped customers or the broader organization, and I express my appreciation on behalf of them. This increases the employee’s engagement and helps keep their focus on achieving the big purpose rather than on just trying to make me happy.

Employees also get excited about receiving praise and compliments when they’ve done something really well. Mastering their skills and feeling highly competent is important to them. However, compliments and praise only count if they’re genuine and if they’re articulated by someone who is clearly worthy of judging their competence. They mean the most coming from someone who understands the difficulty of their accomplishments, which is often a peer or customer. Again, a routine “thank you” by the boss just doesn’t cut it.

All business leaders want employees to feel engaged, to have a strong desire for the business to be successful. Because engagement is an emotion, it’s important to understand what is emotionally meaningful to employees. They get passionate
when they are profoundly involved in achieving something that personally matters to them. Your acknowledgement of their work can help ignite the passion, but only when it goes beyond the routine and connects them to what really matters.

For more on the power of emotional energy in groups and for some of the research references, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook. Stay tuned for the full publication that will include all of the concepts and references.

Science shows our hearts emit an electromagnetic field corresponding with our mood. When our emotions are negative, such as fear, anger, worry, and anxiety, the field we emit is erratic and incoherent, and it inhibits our brain. We can’t think clearly, can’t remember key facts, and we make bad decisions. A negative person simply can’t function or compete effectively.

When we’re in a negative state of mind, we not only hijack our own capabilities, we also hinder others. We can do this without saying or doing a thing. Our heart fields have been proven to extend at least ten feet from our bodies, and they are detected by the nervous system of others. The signals transmitted by one person’s heart can automatically alter the mood-generating physiology of another person, such as their hormone levels and cardiovascular functions. Researchers have found that three strangers can be in close proximity with no communication, and within two minutes the most emotionally active person will have transmitted their mood to the other two. We’re spreading negativity and literally hindering our entire society’s ability to compete.

Innovation has always been a key strength in the United States. There’s been lots of research on the minds of successful entrepreneurs to determine how they differ from the average person.  Researchers have found that repeat entrepreneurs are able to intuit the outcome of future events at a rate exceeding the average person. This is what allows them to create products and services that will have the greatest future value. However, a person’s intuition is accurate only when they’re in a positive frame of mind. So as we spread negativity in our society, we’re inhibiting the ability to innovate successfully.

We have credible research showing that negative emotions actually create bad luck by introducing order in processes that would otherwise be random. And randomness is at play everywhere, even our weather. We think it’s by chance that we get hit by events such as hurricane Katrina and the massive tornadoes that have been plaguing the United State’s Midwest and South. However, many scientists are hypothesizing that negative emotion is creating these events. In fact, one group of scientists is placing emotion sensors around the world to test this hypothesis. We have good reason to believe that negativity brings bad luck.

In the United States we’re afraid we’re on a negative trajectory, which causes an attraction to the negative. This is why, for example, attacking campaign ads grab our attention, but succumbing to the negativity will simply take us further down. The good news is we all have the power to control our emotions, so collectively we have the ability to create the great nation we all desire. It’s up to us to change the course.

For an expansion of these ideas and for some of the research references, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook. Stay tuned for the full publication that will include all of the concepts and references.

Unlucky Larry

Larry was smart and hard-working, but quirky things seemed to happen to him that interrupted his success. Many years ago we were both computer programmers and worked in cubicles next to each other. I remember one time when he started getting phone calls at work asking for details about the boat he was selling. The funny thing was that Larry had never owned a boat and had no clue as to the origin of the calls. So he made some inquiries and found that there was a listing in a popular classified ads newspaper that detailed a 40-foot yacht for sale, along with a picture of a beautiful boat, for the super low price of $5000. The ad erroneously listed his business phone number as the contact.

From the cubicle next door I chuckled as I listened to him taking call after call and explaining that he didn’t own the boat and didn’t know who did. After a while, he became so frustrated with the long interruptions caused by explanations to boat seekers that he just answered the phone calls by saying, “The boat is sold.”  When even that became too much of an interruption, he decided not to answer the phone at all and just delete the messages later from voice mail. That worked okay until our boss tried to leave a message one day and found that his voice mailbox was full. Larry tried his best to explain that it wasn’t his fault, but he just couldn’t avoid appearing irresponsible to our boss.

These were the kind of things that happened to Larry, and they seemed to happen only to him. I never believed they happened by chance, and now science gives us an explanation.

The Science

Rigorous scientific experimentation has found that emotion has the ability to influence order in processes that would otherwise be random. Researchers designed experiments to determine if certain types of human situations and activities have the ability to shape the outcome of random events. The experiments measured the results of Random Event Generators (REG’s) that were placed in close proximity to people who were engaged in a variety of activities and situations, such as business meetings, spiritual rituals, fun activities, theatrical events, and conferences.

The REG’s were designed to randomly generate a series of numbers. Control statistics on the occurrence of each number were calculated while the machine was left on its own with no human influence. During the experiments involving people, if the REG created output that highly varied from the control statistics, it was considered to be influenced by the person. The experimentation was conducted with scientific rigor and included a high number of trials.

The research found that people indeed can affect random processes, but only in certain circumstances. The effect is generated when people feel strong emotions. In contrast, people do not influence random processes when they are in neutral frames of mind. The strongest impact is created by groups who share a deep emotion.

The experiments didn’t measure the direction of the influence, whether it was positive or negative. However, based on other research performed on the relationship between positive emotion in entrepreneurial businesses and their success rate, it’s logical to conclude that negative emotion orders the randomness in an undesirable manner, while positive emotion generates desirable outcomes.

Randomness exists everywhere in our world. We routinely make random decisions, anytime there’s no logical reason to choose a particular alternative, such as which aisle seat to select when checking in for a flight, or which equally-performing stock to purchase. The consequences can be phenomenal when we end up sitting next to the CEO of our next largest client, or when we pick a winning portfolio. In addition, other people cause random events that impact us, such as whether a mis-printed number will match our phone number. It pays to be lucky.

Larry always did seem to be in a negative mood. He would say he was in a bad mood because life seemed to unfairly pick on him, but now we have reason to believe that the bad mood came first.

For an expansion of these ideas and for some of the research references, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook. Stay tuned for the full publication that will include all of the concepts and references.

The Power of Positivity

Groups of people who work together share an underlying emotional bond, and it determines their success. There’s a huge body of research showing that when people are in a positive emotional state, their ability to analyze information, think of creative solutions, and solve problems is greatly enhanced, as is their memory recall and intuitive discernment.  These are the very traits that a modern organization needs to thrive, and natural leaders are able to create the required positivity.

Transmitting Emotions

As humans, we have the ability to positively or negatively influence the emotions of people around us. The human heart generates and emits a powerful rhythmic electromagnetic field, which changes depending on the person’s emotional state. Positive emotions, such as love and acceptance, create an electromagnetic field that is organized and coherent, and a person emitting such a field is said to be in a state of coherence. In contrast, negative emotions, such as anger and frustration, generate an electromagnetic field that is chaotic and incoherent. The heart’s field has been proven to extend at least ten feet from the body, and it can influence the emotional tone of an entire organization.

The human body is a sophisticated sensory organism that is capable of sensing emotional energy, where our entire nervous system acts as an antenna tuned to the electromagnetic fields of the hearts of other individuals. Scientists have found that the signals transmitted by one person’s heart can automatically alter the mood-generating physiology of another person, such as their hormone levels and cardiovascular functions. So in essence, we can impact each others’ moods without doing or saying a thing. Experiments have shown that three strangers can be in close proximity and within a couple of minutes, the most emotionally active person will have transmitted their mood to the other two. When a person is in a state of coherence, they have the strongest ability to transmit their mood to others, as well as the most beneficial mood to transmit.

Becoming Coherent

So how does a person become coherent? Simply trying to be positive and exude happiness can become exhausting over time. A better approach is to have it naturally arise from within. This can be fostered by practicing a technique such as meditation, which is designed to create a nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. However, not just any meditation practice will put you in a state of coherence. It must include a focus of attention on the heart, and it must include the generation of positive emotion. Meditation practices that focus attention in the mind generally do not induce coherence. The ongoing practice of a coherence-building technique will re-pattern a person’s neural architecture so that positivity becomes the new norm.

Learning coherence-building techniques can be facilitated with the use of a feedback monitor, and I can personally vouch for the HeartMath emWave. I just attach it to my earlobe or put my thumb on its sensor, and it gives me instant feedback on my level of coherence by displaying an indicator light of green (coherent), blue, or red (incoherent). Optionally, it will also sound a periodic tone corresponding to the light color. I can even hook it to my laptop to record my performance during a session. I know from experience that all it takes is a fleeting moment of taking my awareness off of my heart or feeling a negative emotion to quickly turn the light from green to red.

It’s often said that leaders are the ones who set the emotional tone in the group. However, we now know that the person setting the emotional tone is often not the one with the title. Whether you have the title or not, you can exert the most influence by becoming the one who is the most emotionally coherent.

For an expansion of these ideas and for research references, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook.

Scientists have proven that we’re able to read the emotions of other people, which can help us make better decisions about how to provide the best service to customers or where to focus our management time. There’s also credible evidence that we’re able to intuit information about future events. Consider the results of numerous controlled experiments.

From the 1930’s, there have been recorded experiments to determine if people have knowledge of future events. The experiments have taken many forms over the years. Some tested a subject’s ability to guess a playing card before it was pulled from a deck, and after the advent of computers, the experiments were more likely to test a subject’s ability to guess the symbols that were going to appear on a computer screen. In 1989, two researchers, Charles Honorton and Dianne Ferrari, performed a meta-analysis by gathering all the controlled experiments that had been conducted over the previous fifty years. In total, there were about fifty thousand test subjects and 2 million trials. The researchers found that 62 scientists had found proof that subjects could substantially predict future events at a rate greater than chance. Taking into account all of the studies, the odds that the results were due to chance was 10 million billion billion to one.

We’re finding out so much about the power of our emotions. In previous articles, I’ve presented evidence that we can read the emotions of other people. There’s also evidence that our emotions gear up for future events. Consider experimentation conducted by the American parapsychologist Dean Radin and his colleagues at the University of Nevada. They used the fact that the electrical activity of human skin is impacted by the emotional state of test subjects, and the variation in the electrical activity that is conducted by the skin can be measured and charted. As a person’s emotions change due to exposure to emotionally charged words or pictures, the electricity conducted by their skin changes measurably. Radin and his colleagues used emotionally charged photos to determine if a person’s skin would show a reaction to future events.

The researchers measured the electrical conductivity of the skin of test subjects as they clicked through a series of photographs displayed on a computer screen. Most of the images were beautiful scenes of nature, but there were a few photos of dead bodies or pornography interspersed. The computer randomly picked the next image from a large database and would display a blank screen for five seconds before showing an image for three seconds. The experiments revealed that three to four seconds prior to the disturbing images being displayed, the subjects would have a noticeable change in their skin response. This kind of reaction was not present prior to the beautiful images being displayed. These kinds of experiments have been replicated successfully by other universities.

These intuitive abilities can probably be explained by what physicists say about time being only an illusion and that the past, present and future are all really happening now. I don’t claim to know how it works, but the fact that it does work tells me we should pay more attention to our intuitive abilities. It reminds me of my experiences in deciding which IT projects to pursue. In determining which projects to fund during a budget year, we would gather endless data about the return-on-investment and the readiness of the targeted users. We would create huge spreadsheets to rate and rank each project and come up with overall scores for decision making. But every time we made decisions that didn’t feel right, they didn’t turn out well, even though all the data pointed to them being right. Business Intelligence will never be able to give us this type of insight on highly complex, human dependent, business alternatives.

Let’s understand, hone and use our intuitive abilities. For starters, we know that employees are more intuitive when work environments are positive and when we suspend our analytical brain. For an expansion of these ideas and for research references, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook.

The Historical Progression

The story starts in ancient Egypt, almost 3000 BC, where the rulers (pharaohs) seemingly did nothing for the people, but rather spent all of the money building temples to honor themselves. The commoners weren’t even permitted to come close to the temples. Judging by the massive pyramids and numerous, gigantic stone temples, there was lots of manual labor going on, and it was directed by the few elite, for the benefit of the few elite. The power and wealth definitely belonged solely to the rulers.

In contrast, when the Greeks and Romans showed up around 300 BC, they built temples in the Egyptian style, but added corridors around them for commoners to walk around the outside, peer in the doors, and touch the temple. This was a major shift, reflecting the Greeks’ and Romans’ understanding of the value of engaging the support of the people. In parallel, individuals were permitted to engage in business on their own behalf, where they kept the proceeds.

More recently, for several hundred years in Western society, church goers have gotten a seat inside the church, but they’ve generally deferred to a preacher or priest who is believed to be closer to God and therefore has inherent authority. This parallels the general practice in business that persists even today, where even though employees are generally treated and compensated well, they must defer to an authority, who is supposedly more capable. Even this is changing.

What’s Next?

Looking at the state of this trend today, people are increasingly choosing their own spiritual paths, rather than deferring to authority. By any historic measure, involvement in organized religion is in decline, yet Western society has embraced spirituality to a greater degree. In this new spirituality, each person is determining for themselves what they want to pursue. We’re seeing two branches of this trend.

The New Age is a spiritual movement that became strong in the United States in the 1990’s, and its foundation is the idea that the minds and spirits of the people are the creative forces in our world. This movement features extreme religious individualism, where doctrine and authority are simply not needed. Its basic practices are self-help techniques designed to empower followers, helping them heal themselves and become more god-like. As of the year 2000, a study reported in the New York Times stated that 68 million Americans had partaken in New Age practices and these participants were mainstream Americans, not individuals on the edge of society.

The emergence of the mega church is another significant indicator of the shift of power. Mega churches are defined as those that have more than 2000 people attend on a weekly basis, and there are more than 1300 such churches in the USA. These churches are customer oriented with opinion polls to guide which services should be offered and the topic of sermons. They are very democratic and non-hierarchical, and typically members refer to the senior minister by his or her first name. Members choose the services that they see as most interesting and useful in their lives, with no hindrance from authority or tradition. As of 2008, the average five-year growth rate of these churches was 50%, while membership at traditional churches continued to decline.

The popularity of the New Age movement and mega churches illustrate that people are deferring less to authority and instead relying on their own judgment. What does this have to do with business leadership?

Implications to Business Leadership

Modern business rewards the leaders who attract and retain the best talent and create an environment in which employees thrive. Business leaders can use the insight gained from modern spiritual trends to understand the changing beliefs and values of individuals, which will help them create environments which employees find attractive and coherent with their mindset. Employees perform their best when in an environment that is coherent with their values. Some of the lessons that business leaders can glean from spiritual trends are to give workers the freedom to shape how their work is done, provide more decision making authority to employees, and adopt a less authoritarian style.

For an expansion of these ideas and for research references, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook.

Leading Edge Research

I recently completed a course at HeartMath LLC and learned about research showing the relationship between the heart and the brain. Emotions profoundly impact the rhythmic beating of our heart and the signals it transmits to our brain. These signals cause measurable changes in our brain’s ability to think and process information. When our emotions are positive, emanating from the heart, we are in a state of coherence, where the electrical patterns of the brain synchronize with the rhythmic patterns of the heart. In this state, our brain functions at peak levels.

When we experience positive, heartfelt emotions, such as compassion, appreciation and gratitude, our mind becomes far more sharp and clear. Our cortical function is enhanced and we’re able to see possibilities where previously we could perceive only dead-ends. We’re able to rapidly recall information committed to memory and mentally sift through large amounts of data, finding the most relevant facts and making the best decisions. New understandings about the market place and the organization are quicker to emerge, and we’re more adaptive to change. When businesses consistently foster positive, heartfelt emotions in their organization, the performance of their employees skyrocket and enhanced creativity leads to greater innovations.

A recent IBM survey of over 1500 global CEO’s concludes that creativity, adaptability, and the mental aptitude to process growing volumes of data, are the qualities that organizations need to succeed into the future. As the business world becomes increasingly complex and fast-paced, employees are increasingly challenged to find local, instant solutions that work. The capacity to thrive in these environments is engendered by positive, heart-based emotions.

In contrast, when our emotions are negative, such as fear, anger, worry, and anxiety, we severely limit learning, memory, cognition, and problem-solving. This causes decreased productivity, poor or short-sighted decisions, difficulty finding the right words and remembering key facts, a slowed reaction speed, and the feeling of being overwhelmed. People and organizations in this state simply can’t compete effectively.

Have a Heart

Many corporate environments are riddled with anxiety, sometimes even by design, as many leaders believe that employees work harder when motivated by fear. But as a leader, don’t let conventional thinking convince you that having heart in business is irrational or a sign of weakness. Leaders maximize prosperity not by aggravating people into doing more, but rather by nurturing their emotional health. This is the key to the organization’s long-term viability. Among other methods, you can help people feel positive, heartfelt emotions by controlling your own emotions, defining a purpose that resonates, trusting people, and creating more collaborative environments.

For an expansion of these ideas and for research references, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook.

A Bad Act

I once worked for a company where the founding CEO had everyone believing we were thriving. He wasn’t frivolous with money, but he consistently let employees know that the company had enough money to make the right investments and run at the top of its game. Plus, without fail he was generous in charitable contributions in response to disasters anywhere in the world, and he would frequently fly the company’s disbursed management team to fun destinations just to build camaraderie. He was unswerving in these practices, even through periods when the company’s profits dipped temporarily. During his tenure, the company was consistently the most profitable in the industry by a significant margin. When he retired a new CEO assumed the reins.

The new CEO believed in being very thrifty and immediately changed many of the practices that had made us feel like we were thriving.  Without delay, he sent us a barrage of messages telling us we couldn’t sustain our level of spending. A huge earthquake occurred in the world shortly after he assumed office, and he proclaimed that the company was not financially able to make a donation to help the cause. And he instantly curtailed all celebratory or camaraderie-building events that required significant expense. He made these changes at the beginning of his tenure while the company was very profitable, but during his tenure, the company’s profits fell significantly, by well over fifty percent. He would say that profits fell because of market conditions, but the fact is that other companies in our industry were increasing their profitability while we declined.

The Science behind “Act as If”

At the onset of the new CEO’s tenure, I saw a telling shift occur in the beliefs of the people. We began to believe that success wasn’t possible, and we focused on what we couldn’t do rather than what we could do. In short, whereas we once perceived ourselves as thriving, we began to perceive ourselves as failing. It’s not surprising that this led to profit declines.

Neuroscience clearly tells us that people must feel positive in order to perform their best and innovate. You can feel the truth of this in your body. You feel more resourceful and creative when you feel positive. There’s even evidence that beliefs impact the very form of matter. I hold that the change in beliefs provoked the decline in profits.

As a leader, “acting as if” your organization is thriving is one of the most powerful things you can do to achieve success. It solidifies a belief system that triggers the most positive emotions from every employee, heightening their creativity and performance. In contrast, an inspirational speech can prompt positive thinking for a short period of time, but a thriving belief system makes positivity and creativity sustainable. I’ll add that creativity is paramount to success, as a 2010 IBM survey of over 1500 global CEO’s concluded that creativity of the workforce is the number one requirement for handling the unprecedented complexity that businesses face.

Proving “Act as If”

Do we see universal evidence showing that when organizations act as if they are prosperous, this leads to greater business profits? Business research does show that when organizations are generous in charitable giving and employee bonuses, they have significantly higher financial performance. However, it’s tricky to determine whether the generosity caused the profitability or the profitability caused the generosity. Therefore, the study of start-up companies is particularly useful because they all start from a position of zero profitability.

A study of 136 start-up companies in the Silicon Valley found that the companies that were generous, with more liberal spending on items such as employee bonuses, were far more likely to survive five years. Now you may say that their generous employee bonuses sparked greater motivation and that led to their success, but there’s solid research showing that higher compensation does not create higher motivation for people in jobs that require use of cognitive skills, such as those required to get a start-up off the ground.

The cause-effect relationship between “acting as if” and actual achievement is difficult to prove conclusively using our “scientific” method, but indications are that the believing precedes the achievement and “acting as if” your organization is successful is a sound leadership practice.

For an expansion of these ideas and for research references, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook.

What is it about the culture in Japan that makes this scenario commonplace, whereas in the U.S., the museum would have had to supply lockers or a guard to monitor the shelf? The answer reminds me of the culture of an IT group that I used to lead. One of our tenets was “Trust people to do the right thing without the need for lots of rules”, and unlike other organizations I had worked in, we had very few rules guiding the behavior of employees. Instead, this group of about 200 people had a shared commitment to get the job done, and a belief that they were being trusted. As a result, we didn’t experience the bad behavior that I’ve seen in so many other groups, such as people showing up late for work or meetings, and needing to be prompted to put in extra hours to complete a project on time. Contrary to common practice in many corporations and nations, we knew that trusting people compels them to be trustworthy.

Why does this work? It’s easy to understand just by observing how trust makes you feel. When someone trusts me, it’s an indication of respect, and I feel a strong conviction from the core of my body to be worthy of that respect. Contrarily, when a boss or organization imposes rules and restrictions on me, I take that as a sign of lack of trust and respect, and I feel resentful and indignant. This gives me no motivation to act in their best interests. What does this have to do with Japan?

Geert Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist and anthropologist, states that the Japanese and other collectivist nations are far less likely to have explicit rules written into laws as compared with nations such as the U.S. He also points out that Japanese business contracts are much shorter than American business contracts. This implies that the Japanese culture puts more implicit trust in people, and it follows that the Japanese people have responded with a conviction to be worthy of that respect.

This calls into question the practice we have in the U.S. of being quick to introduce new legislation. Between 2000 and 2007, Congress created over 450 new crimes, with the total number of Federal crimes as of the end of 2007 exceeding 4,450. If the purpose of legislation is to provide guidelines to citizens so they understand and exhibit acceptable behavior, the U.S. clearly has less effective legislation than any other rich country. About 2.4m U.S. citizens are behind bars, which is roughly one in every 100 adults. In comparison, as a proportion of its total population, the U.S. incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more than Germany and twelve times more than Japan. If the purpose of legislation is to keep immoral people off the streets, the U.S. fails this measure as well, as each of these countries has homicide rates that are significantly lower than the U.S., and clearly unguarded cameras are much safer in Japan.

This points to a good leadership practice that some people will find counter-intuitive. If the group you’re leading isn’t exhibiting the behavior that you desire, think first about how you can increase trustworthiness by reducing the rules and restrictions.

For an expansion of these ideas, get a free download of the Mastering Group Energy ebook.