Just Blogging

There is a school of thought that suggests that we should continue with the authoritarian, Command and Control model of leadership for no reason other than there is no alternative.

How can we control an organisations production or service if we are not allowed to specify the parameters within which it works?
After all, we have to tell people what to do or they would never do anything, would they?

We are aware of the flaws inherent in this system of management, strikes, low moral, destructive behaviour, but in the absence of any other way to manage we persevere, flogging this same old dead horse.

But there is a model for non authoritarian leadership, and although the model predates the book it is thoroughly explained in Douglas McGregors work “The Human Side of Enterprise.” Written in 1962.
In this book Douglas defines the authoritarian Command and Control model as Theory X management and the non authoritarian model as Theory Y.

In the Theory X model management assume that the workforce are lazy and ignorant, the job of the Theory X manager is therefore to make it so difficult for the workforce not to work that they are forced to do what the manager wants.

The Theory Y manager on the other hand believes that his workforce is intelligent, articulate and imaginative, and above all that they want to do a good job.

The job of the Theory Y manager, instead of telling his workforce what to do, is to create the environment in which they can do their best.

The only way that this can be achieved is by knowing what the workforce actually need in order to do their best, and the only way a manager can do that is to listen to what they want.

Ooops, that is going to be a problem, how can we really listen to what our employees want when we have hundreds or possibly thousands of workers who all need to be heard.

But that is the clue, listening is not a “need” (As defined in Maslows Hierarchy of needs) for the manager. The manager cannot see any benefit to him or herself that would come from listening to the workforce.
“They have not been to college, I have, why should I listen to them?”
So managers never make much of an effort to listen because they do not feel the need to.

Being heard however is a “need” for the workforce.
Being heard gives the workforce the respect that they “need”.
It allows them to become engaged and take pride in what they do.

If listening is not a “need” for managers then we have to look for another way for the workforce to be heard, something mechanistic that will not fail because management don’t need to do it and therefore will not support it.

Such a system is built and is maintained by the workforce.
It is simple and repeatable; it satisfies their need to be heard without having to rely on management who don’t see why they should listen.
It produces practical process improvements whose value can be measured and it makes the workforce feel good about what they do.

Over time management see the measured performance improvements that result from the workforce being heard and then even they start to support the system by asking how they can help.

That last sentence is very important.

In the Nineteen Fifties, Nye Bevan suggested that management for the fledgling National Health Service in the UK should have an “Inverted Pyramid” structure.
He suggested that instead of management being at the top, supported by the rest of the pyramid, the Pyramid should be inverted with management at the bottom supporting the rest of the workforce in their delivery of care to their patients.
This was such a powerful image that few disagreed and the “Inverted Pyramid” model of management became one of the staples of the MBA syllabus.
Unfortunately few have ever been able to bring the academic model to life and our management structure remains solidly pyramidal, (Managers at the top and everyone else underneath), despite the consensus with Bevan that it should be the other way up.

Using the workforce maintained system to allow their voices to be heard initially appears to exclude management, this is deliberate and avoids the damage that can be caused by management who lack the “need” to listen and therefore do not.
When the workforce however are being heard and the consequent performance improvement is evident, managers return to the workforce operated system and ask how they can help to support it because they too want to be a part of the improvement.

From being top down driven traditional “Command and Control” managers they have become, in a very short time, Inverted Pyramid Managers who instead of telling the workforce what to do, are asking what they can do to help.

They have developed a “need” to listen to their workforce.

That is a big deal.

This command is a very useful command and is relatively easy to teach them. After learning the sit command, this command should be a breeze for you.

Getting it to be able to lie down and wait while you go into a shop or walk away is a very useful order and is also key to gaining trust and a good relationship with your dog.

This command should be firstly taught indoors or in a comfortable place he is used to learning and training for you, and then as time goes on and he gets better at achieving success with their newly learnt trick, you should take it into a public place with lots of interests and new smells to distract them. This should test the strength and commitment he has for the down command.

To start, make sure your it is in the mood for training and preferably in a hungry and wanting mood where they will be more than happy to please you if it means they get a treat, just before meal times is generally a good time for training and will help the progress of your dog.

When you are ready to begin and you have your treats to-hand, start by getting him to sit for you as instructed on www.dog-behavior-training.co.uk, followed by a reward. Then let it know you have another treat in your hand for him and slowly lower it in front of him, going lower and lower, as the treat gets lowered closer to the ground your dog will be forced into the down position with their belly firmly on the floor and paws ahead of them.

As soon as his belly touches the floor, the command ‘down’ should be said and you should reward them with praise, encouragement and the treat you used. This makes it associate the command with the action and the action with a reward to help your training process.

If your he steps out of line during the training exercise, gently punish them accordingly. After you have learnt this command and you now think you’re ready for the next step, try taking your dog into a distracting place or area, or playing with their ball around them. When you have your dog under control at all times using the down command it is time to move on to more advanced dog training and you have now got a new trick to show your friends and family.

Teaching your dog to come on command to you is as simple as:

1) Making it worth your dog’s time and effort to come to you

2) The understanding that if he/she does not come to you, there will be consequences
Analogy:

When you the parent tell your child to do something, 9 times out of 10, your child will obey you. Why is this? It is as simple as saying, that your child knows that by not doing what you the parent ask, they are more than likely heading for some sort of disciplinary act. The child by no means begrudgingly obeys you. Usually the child will be quite happy doing what you ask of him/her. The same can be said for your relationship with your dog. By not installing pack seniority with your dog, your dog will walk all over you, control you doing what he likes when he wants. Your dog understands pack seniority, he/she will obey you readily and happily knowing that only good things will happen. (praise, treating)

Being authoritative when dealing with your dog is not cruel or mistreatment, it is a case of you the dominant figure, conveying to your dog that if not obeyed, you the Alpha will react accordingly in order to attain the desired result. In the wild, when a pack member is out of line, the Alpha punishes the individual either by nipping, pinning down, etc. We as humans have taken the place of the wild Alpha and we must continue to implicate behavior that is already in the dog’s bloodline.

When you call your dog, make sure you are ready to react to what your dog’s actions are. At first your dog will not even know what the command is, so punishing him/her for not obeying is not an option!

Below are points to follow:

-When starting to teach the come command, have your dog on a leash.

- Utter the command and gently but firmly pull the dog to you.

- Praise and treat.

- Upon comprehension, continue these actions progressively lengthening the distance that your dog has to travel to reach you.

- If need be at first, you can show the treat to your dog to entice the desired result.

- Upon moderate success, you can throw in distractions to tempt your dog.

- If adding distractions that your dog is fooled by, your “gentle firm” pull should become firmer.

- To test the level of comprehention, give the command and wait for your dog to react. If the reaction is positive, then guiding with the leash is not necessary.

- Upon comprehension, your “gentle firm” pull can cease.

- Always, always reward good behavior.

The frequency of which you practice this exercise, will determine the speed at which your dog learns the command. Your intent is to convey to the dog that coming to you when you call him is the best thing in the world, and if done properly you will attain a crisp outcome sooner than later.

The understanding that if he/she does not come to you, there will be consequences

Lexie Macintyre asked:




Increasing an autistic child’s comprehension of activities and daily tasks that need to be performed daily or even occasionally is one of the most essential needs to build skills such as organization, self help tasks, how to follow directions, and build correct social behavior. As a result this method of autistic teaching of skills helps the child become more independent and increases his or her self confidence. Many of the strategies are simple and straightforward. Here are a few “low tech” support strategies you can use to help your child comprehend and build such skills.

Schedules

It is very helpful to provide your child with a daily, visual schedule. This will help organization skills and develop independence and confidence. A schedule can be made with a 3-ring binder type layout, a clipboard, a whiteboard, or even a poster board that you create together. It should detail what is happening and when and what is next in the schedule. Pictures and words combined make the best schedule so that your child can learn to correlate the words and images to form a connection between the whole word and the picture of the activity.

Picture Communication Symbols

Picture Communication Symbols consist of over 10,000 simple line drawings designed to represent words and short phrases to support children and adults with communication challenges. PCS, which was developed by Mayer-Johnson and is available on their website, is used to improve comprehension skills and encouraged appropriate behavior in autistic teaching of children. You can find them for sale on their site but you can also find some free printable versions on the internet too. If you print out the symbols be sure to use a color printer or color them yourself and laminate for durability.

International “No” Symbol

The international “No” symbol is the red circle with a line drawn through it. It is a very abstract concept of “no” for an autistic child. You can use the “No” symbol to convey several visual behavior management cards. For example, you can use the symbol as a card to place on a door that the child should not go out of. You can also place it over an activity on the child’s schedule to convey that the activity is not occurring that day or you can keep a “No” symbol card handy to display to your child whenever he or she begins to behave or act inappropriately.

Steps Directions

Certain tasks require a number of steps to be completed. For example, washing hands, getting ready for bed, getting ready for school, cleaning up after play, and brushing teeth. Using the task of “washing hands” as an example you can create a card that has images and words for:

Turn water on

Put soap in hand

Rub soap all over hands

Rinse hands

Turn off water

Dry hands

Make images with text for each of these and paste these on a card. Laminate it for durability.

There are many simple yet effective strategies you can use to help your child develop comprehension skills and improve behavior.

People are hooked on taking care of pets these days as they can be considered as one of the most valued possessions of a person. In choosing a pet, we have a variety of choices but dogs are more preferred. One reason for this is the ability of dogs to understand and follow commands from their owners. If given proper training, a dog can understand both verbal and sign commands. However, they tend to learn hand signals easier than words because dogs are very observant of body language.

Since we don’t have an official hand signals on dog obedience training we practice commonly used basic commands and these are the heel, sit, stay, down and come. Through hand signals, you can teach your dog to sit by starting with your arm at your side. You can then move your hands toward your chest, facing your palm upward. This is ideal if you’re inches away from your pet, otherwise try to grab your pet’s collar and gently push its rear into a sitting position.

Teach your dog to heel with your arms coming down in front of your dog with your palm extended forward. You can then command your pet to stay by slowly extending your arm and hand straight down with palm flat landing right next to your pet’s nose without contact. If your dog tries to sniff your hand, you can try to stop your dog in a gentle way. If you want your dog to lay down with its stomach on the floor and its feet in front, do this with your hand open flat, palm facing down and parallel to the floor, with arm bent at the elbow in a downward sweeping motion. Lastly, you can also teach your pet to come near you with your elbow bent and arms outstretched then move your arm to your chest.

It is advisable to combine verbal command with hand signals to enhance your pet’s knowledge about it. They will soon respond to either verbal or hand signal once they learn to relate your hand signal with the desired action. If that happens, it would be easy for the owner to command his or her pet in any way the pet understands. Bear in mind that if you want your pet to impress you then help them enjoy the dog obedience training by giving your pet a treat or some praise that will inspire him to do a good work. If your dog willfully disobeys you, physical punishment is a no-no as there are positive punishments available to increase your pet’s good behavior.

If your dog succeeds in doing these basic hand signals on dog obedience training then your pet is much ready for the advance one. You can try enrolling your pet to learn more of these, though you can also do this yourself for you to have a great bonding with your pet. Equip yourself with lots of information in training your dog by reading books, searching the web or seeking advice from experienced dog owners and trainers.

In her book, The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity, Catherine Ponder lists many laws for prosperity and manifestation of wealth. One of the most important is the Law of Command. You might recognise it as an ‘affirmation’. However, I think it feels like it has more power and oomph if you think of it as a ‘command’.

How does it work? Simply pick a phrase that makes you sit up and notice, and repeat it throughout the day.

The one I used this week was “There is gold dust in the air and it falls on me in great abundance.” I first read this phrase in Catherine’s book and thought about how the man who used that phrase repeatedly really lived his life in knowing expectation that there was gold dust (opportunity, clients, business) at every corner. And so it was.

Then I met a man here in Canberra at a networking meeting who lined up three different joint ventures over breakfast. He turned to me and said, “there really is opportunity for business everywhere, isn’t there?”

That was it - here was another example of a man who had this idea at his command and it was hauling in results, simply because he expected it to be so.

So what were my results after a week of commands? I finalised a joint venture with a fellow coach, initiated another one, received a request to facilitate a mastermind for a group of accountants, and 6 more spots filled in my workshop. VERY cool indeed!

Your task: pick a phrase that makes you feel excited and tingly, and say it often every day. Really feel the command and all its excitement in your body.

Here’s to your gold dust…

Have you ever had to use some command-line program, but couldn’t? A lot of public locations block access to the command-line(cmd.exe) and C: Drive. So, how to get around that? Here’s two fairly easy ways.

First way.
- Open up Notepad
- Type in “start” with no quotations.
- Save it as a.bat file
- Double click it to run

That’s the easiest way, but not always guaranteed to work. Here’s a better way that will work

Second way.
- Open up Notepad
- Put the following:

@echo off

command

comand.com

pause
- Save it as a.bat file
- Double click it to run and voil