Exciting News and Give-Aways From Human Dymensions
Final Newsletter for 2014
Well, this is the last newsletter for 2014 and is packed with research, news, fun, information and give-aways. In keeping with the theme of the new book this newsletter will take a focus on Following and Leading.
Book Four Released – Purchase Now
The fourth book in the series on risk is now available.
http://www.humandymensions.com/books
You can enter a competition for the book, download the first section free and read a brief overview here:
https://safetyrisk.net/latest-book-by-dr-robert-longfree-download/
It’s not too late to come to:
A video on the book launch will be posted following the launch here:
http://vimeo.com/humandymensions
Leadership Processes and Follower Identity
There are not many books in the leadership Genre that tackle the issue of following, similarly there is not much in the field of ethics – Lord and Browns book Leadership Processes and Follower Self-Identity is an exception. What is most effective about the book is its foundation in social psychology. Most importantly the book covers the mechanisms that link followers and leaders.
Harm On Line – A Leadership Problem
One of the insidious characteristics of many forms of harm is they are not visible. One of the most difficult barriers to helping is old saying ‘seeing is believing’. Those who are harmed at work and suffer mental health issues are rarely counted in safety statistics. This enables many companies to champion the absurd ideology of ‘zero harm’ when in fact, they simply count visual harm. One of the growing causes of harm happens out of sight, out of mind and on line – cyber bullying.
The November issue of Scientific American Mind (issue 96) has a special article on the topic called Virtual Attack. One of the most powerful forces that enables disbelief is non-visibility. If we can’t see harm, it musn’t exist or the person claiming harm is ‘putting it on’.
Researchers have uncovered and named the forces behind cyber-bullying and the toxic verbage that delights anonymous predators. The problem doesn’t just exist in schools but is common in the workplace and on so-called professional social media sites. In the old days bullying was more visible and physical, now it is more invisible and psychologically destructive.
The problem with the invisibility of cyberbullying is that people won’t confess or speak up if the organisational culture suppresses reporting and confession. Organisations that set ideologies of absolutes and perfectionism in risk and safety suppress reporting and drive cyberbullying underground. Often the results of an invisible campaign are too late when things finally surface, costing the organisation and individual dearly.
The problem of cyberbullying will not be solved with a punitive regime of penalties, these don’t work in cultures of secrecy. Instead, organisations need to tackle cultural problems with cultural solutions, not systems solution. In our book Craig and I discuss the nature of the funnel mode of leadership. This kind of leadership creates secrecy and suppresses transparency, information and ‘telling’ goes down the funnel but doesn’t come back up. Bullying thrives in such a culture often perpetuated by mantras of zero and absolutes in company discourse. The well known case of the suicide of Alec Meikle tells the story of how secrecy and bullying kills people. (http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/downer-edi-manager-greg-smith-was-disappointed-alec-meikle-did-not-report-bullying-coroners-court-told-20131210-2z3vv.html)
The article that folows in the magazine is entitle A Digital Safety Net and discusses how victims of cyberbullying give cues and signals online that they are suffering. The articles suggest further reading:
- The Online Disinhibition Effect. John Suler in CyberPsychology & Behavior, Vol. 7, No. 3; pages 321–326; July 28, 2004.
- Replenishing Connectedness: Reminders of Social Activity Reduce Aggression after Social Exclusion. Jean M. Twenge et al. in British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 46, Part 1, pages 205–224; March 2007.
- Trolls Just Want to Have Fun. Erin E. Buckels et al. in Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 67, pages 97–102; September 2014.
- National Crime Prevention Council on Cyberbullying: www.ncpc.org/topics/cyberbullying
- The Pain of Exclusion. Kipling D. Williams; January/February 2011.
- When Nice Guys Finish First. Daisy Grewal; July/August 2012
- College Students’ Responses to Mental Health Status Updates on Facebook. Katie G. egan, rosalind n. Koff and Megan a. Moreno in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, Vol. 34, no. 1, pages 46–51; January 2013.
- Friends Don’t Let Friends Suffer from Depression: How Threat, Efficacy, Knowledge, and Empathy Relate to College Students’ Intentions to Intervene on Behalf of a Depressed Friend. nichole egbert, Lori B. Miraldi and Krishnamurti Murniadi in Journal of Health Communication, Vol. 19, no. 4, pages 460–477; april 2014.
- i Will Listen campaign: http://naminyc.iwilllisten.org
- Are Social Networks Messing with Your Head? david disalvo; January/february 2010.
- Managing Your Digital Afterlife. carrie arnold; september/october 2013.
It’s Y That Matters – Special Feature on Associates
Human Dymensions introduces Principal Associates Gabrielle Carlton and Rob Sams. Rob and Gab have not only completed the Graduate Certificate in the Social Psychology fo Risk with Dr Long but have been delivering Human Dymensions tools and programs for all of 2014.
Rob and Gab both direct their own companies in their own right and have permission to use all Human Dymensions tools, products and services. Each company has taken the ‘y’ and inserted it in their company name to signify the affiliation.
As each name demonstrates Gab specialises in resilience
http://resilyence.com/
and Rob specialises in communication, collaboration and risk
As our work increases we are now developing more associates James Ellis, Hayden Collins, David Whitefield and Max Geyer. Some more information on new associates in 2015.
Rob and Gab have also made a neat set of videos that explain the fundamentals of the social psychology of risk, you can view the videos here: https://safetyrisk.net/talking-risk-2/
Both Rob and Gab are available for consultations, cultural evaluations, training and skill development workshops. You can email them here: Gab and Rob
Find the Dog
Here’s you chance to win a copy of Rob’s and Craig’s latest book Following-Leading in Risk. Simply be in the first 5 to respond and tell us where the dog is and the book is yours. Please note, prizes generally go off in less than 10 minutes of issue of the newsletter, sorry its the quick and the dead. A nice quick test of visual perception. Please include your postal address in your response.
Post Graduate Program Update
Enrolments are close to full for 2015. If you wish to undertake the Program starting 2-6 March 2015 you need to contact the convener Brad.Markham@acu.edu.au as soon as possible.
A full cohort are progressing in the Post Grad Diploma Program which includes one residential unit in Melbourne on Holistic Ergonomics. Unit outlines for the Program can be viewed and downloaded here: http://www.humandymensions.com/post-graduate-studies
Inaugural Psychology of Risk Conference 2015
Set this one in your diary, there has been nothing like this conference before. ACU, Human Dymensions and the Centre for Leadership and Learning in Risk are sponsoring the first Psychology of Risk Conference in Australia. The conference will be held at The Australian Catholic University in North Sydney on 25,26 March 2015.
This conference has no regulators, no lawyers, no bureaucrats, no zero nonsense and none of the fear centred stuff floating about. Just practitioners presenting on the application of psychology of risk to their workplace.
Keynote presenters include: David Fitzgerald – Telstra; Graham Long – The Wayside Chapel; Matthew Gill – Former General Manager Beaconsfield and Rob Long – ACU.
In addition, more than 20 practitioners from the field will be presenting workshops (in concurrent format) on the application of psychology of risk principles to the workplace.
For more information and to download a flyer, go here.
If you want to register early to secure a place please email your indication here and we will post you a registration form. An ACU registration portal will be up soon and this link will be set underneath the button on the Human Dymensions website.
Your Chance to Win a Free Registration to the Conference
On the last page of the conference flyer you will observe a scene of people. The first 2 people that can describe what they are doing will receive a free registration for the conference. The clue is that you need to know about the work of Human Dymensions to get this right. Unfortunately, people connected to the context of the photo are not eligible for the competition.
‘The Hitler Problem’ in Leadership
The leadership discourse most often omits discussion on ethics, learning and followers and most often thinks and talks about the characteristics of the leader. There are so many types and styles of leadership that one could be confused in thinking which is right? Some are listed here and here but there are many more. Some have names after Japanese or other cultural locations and leaders all trying to grab a piece of the lucrative leadership market. I was sent advertising yesterday for a 12 month part time MBA. We get flooded by all this stuff on skill development for leaders, wanting our attention but that attention moves our thinking away from ethics and following.
If leadership is essentially a relational activity and ethics is about the quality of relationships, it seems strange that the two don’t go hand in glove? With all the scandals about in high places (ICAC NSW, ADFA, Union Corruption Commission, Children in Care Royal Commission and corrupt parliamentarians) it is clear that there is a a major disconnect when it comes to how we understand leadership and ethics.
Levine and Boaks (Journal of Business Ethics, 124: 225-242. 2014) tackle this issue head on in a thorough analysis of the problem and what to do about it. Do we expect our leaders to be ‘good’? Do we think our leaders have to be narcissistic to be successful? Do we expect leaders to be ruthless at the top? Levine and Boaks call this ‘the Hitler problem’. That is, people attribute ‘leadership’ to Hitler because he is deemed ‘successful’ regadless of ethics. If we separate method from methodology, ends from means then dictatorship can be deemed leadership. I would argue that regardless of position, a lack of ethics eliminates leadership by definition. How can someone be defined as a leader when their fundamental values are to manipulate, overpower, control, coerce and dominate followers?
Talk and Reflection
Talk and reflection are the two topics in a special report in the Sept/Oct edition of Scientific American Mind (issue 94). In Let’s Talk Dingemanse and Enfield study the nature of conversation ‘infrastructure’ across a range of cultures and also bringing to bear extensive research into animal communications. Whilst the study of conversation is not new, research into functional grammar is new (see further the work of M.A.K Halliday, not for the faint hearted). Grammatical code and recognising cues to interact are culturally determined as one learns the code of response. It seems the skill of conversation is something one learns, especially accepted patterns of when not to interrupt and how to respond. The less humans exercise conversations, the less they are able to learn the code of how to converse.
A critical part of the power to converse is also connected to the ability to reflect or, engage the metacognitve mind. Those who neither spend time reflecting or conversing soon lose the social skills need to be accepted and understood. In some cultures, particularly indigenous cultures the power of reflection and conversation are greatly values and yet in other more mechanistic and materialistic cultures such activities are viewed as non-productive. Given the isolated nature of social media and the materialist and individualistic nature of modern western society, there is a risk that young people may lose the capability to engage and connect in these ways. As we depend more on systems to manage relationships and less on reflection and conversation, we risk the passing on of conversational infrastructure in our workplaces too.
Competition for Copy of Real Risk, Human Discerning and Risk
How’s this, you second chance to win a book. Bet you didn’t expect this, that’s the nature of unpredictability. Simply check out the two baby pics above and list the differences. First 5 correct entries win a copy of Real Risk, Human Discerning and Risk.
Don’t forget to include your ‘snail mail’ address with your entry.
Contacts
Enter your description If anything from this Newsletter has been of interest, please make contact at: admin@humandymensions.com
or visit the website: www.humandymensions.com
or Rob’s Blog: https://safetyrisk.net/author/rob-long/
Rob’s blog is hosted by Dave Collins and his excellent site Safety Risk Dot Net: https://safetyrisk.net/
Email enquiries: admin@humandymensions.com
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