Deviations are steps from destructions

It has been said over and over again: The state has to be built by law and rights. Without distinct proclamations of basic rights and basic laws there is probably not a chance to build a surviving society. One man – or woman – may he (she) be a dictator or not would not produce power by himself (herself) to create a sustainable society.
There are of course always deviations from what is expected by the members of the society. There will always be so. Some individuals will always check and try to force through the limits. There will always appear the madmen and the criminals and other odd fellows.
Deviations from the norms are always signs of the dynamics of a changing society. Frequent deviations are signs of destructive tendencies. The changes that will follow will sooner or later become dramatic ones.
Just as a tiny example. I am quite often driving my car on the streets and roads. On some of the roads clear signs tell all the car drivers that there is a speed limit of 70 km/h. I would say that around 80-90% of the car drivers are always, especially if the roads are not blocked, driving faster than 70, often around 90-100 km/h. There are very seldom any checkpoints set up by the police.
But the speed limit of 70 is not there just by chance. It is there because there are so many experiences and so much evidence telling that there will be quite a lot fatal car accidents if you drive above 70 km/h.
But a lot, and I really mean a lot, of people do not care. They are giving examples of how to deviate from the norms and the law and the basic rights – and they are bringing forward evident examples of changes of the society.
Am I happy of the coming changes?
Answer: No. I am not among those who believe that changes per se always are to the best for the inhabitants and the members of the present society. I belong to the ones that want to discuss the changes first – and then taking actions. Too many people choose the other way around: taking actions first. Which means that anything can happen. Anything.

Management by fear

In quite a lot of companies and other organizations, where there are employees, I would say that a quite common management style could, and should, be described in terms of “management by fear”. The message to the employees is often clear cut precise: if you do not act submissively enough, and if you do not behave in a humble and grateful manner enough, you are going to be punished. For example by not becoming invited to the usual promotion road, or by being placed in a room, in front of a computer, with nothing important to do.
This management-by-fear-style is much more common than expected. No, I have not been a victim of that kind of punishment (but I have been kicked out as a consultant by some manager, who, just as an example, suddenly preferred a green-eyed blonde instead of a white haired old man, something that could be understandable from a common human male point of view…), but I have heard a lot of stories told by very experienced and very skilled employees, who have now and then dared to step forward and expressed some personal opinions. And they have quite often ended up in some punishment cell….
People are generally taught that authorities are always right and that the commoners have to live up to the rules set by the authorities up there. But here and there start fresh waves of opposition and demonstrations (for example in Thailand just now)! There is still hope for a better world!

Requirements of the assessment of you

All over the world there are recruitment companies at your service when you need, or think you need, to employ someone. There are, very short, two different steps in the recruitment process: First: trying to find candidates that have the basic, formal qualifications required. Second: Detecting the different layers of capacity efficiencies and personality traits within the most attractive candidates.
The first step does not demand any special, professional skills, but the second step surely does. Investigation of a candidates personality structures requires several skills. The investigation could very well be looked upon as a scientifically based study. You really have to follow some scientific rules in order to collect valid data enough about the candidate. But this is not enough. It requires a lot to really understand the underlying driving forces (the real motives) behind the candidate’s goals, and it is very important to sensitively catch all the expressions and messages that the candidate sends out, not only by what he or she is telling you in words.
The skill of a personality assessor must be developed during a long time of conitnuous work with people and it has also be based on the psychodynamic insights of the human mind.
There is no psychological test instrument that possibly could compensate for lack in these areas.
So, how were you met when you applied to your job? How skilled do you think your assessor was? How fair were the results according to your own points of view?
Content? Satisfied? Well then – congratulations!
Not so very satisfied? Well, my advice is that you´d better start your own investigation – about the assessor.

Belief systems and scientific approaches

Who is running it all? The sun rises every morning and sets every evening. Clouds appear in the sky and let the water come down on the crops. Colours of all kinds make the world mysteriously beautiful – or, in some parts, not so very attractive? How come that there are mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes and oceans? How come that there are tornados, volcanos, earth quakes and tsunamis?
Hundreds of millions of people still believe, this year, in our modern times, that there is a creator of all these phenomenas, a creator acting like a highly skilled engineer with powers above and beyond all imaginations. He (or if it is a she, or perhaps a it) has set up a design for everything, all births of humans included, and this design is by lots and lots of people called an “intelligent design”.
This has of course nothing to do with science and scientific findings. This is truly belief systems. The problem with these modern belief systems is that they act as a sort of mental and other psychic defenses against lots of scientific proofs of how this planet Earth and how all living things on the planet really have developed. This truth could be scary as it reveals that there is probably not any creator to really trust. Just think of it: the creator does not love you more than he (or she or it) loves the wild bears, the wild tigers, the poisonous snakes or the wasps or the cockroaches or whatever, which means that he (or she or it) probably does not love you at all. This kind of reasoning could very well raise the anxiety level quite a lot, which leads to very, very, very strong defenses against all such kind of scientific knowledge. And furthermore: to a lot of aggression. So called “holy warriors” from fundamentalistic believers starts attacking both heathens and people with other belief systems – and there are still really frightening wars ahead of us. Sorry, but I am not so very optimistic about the future of mankind.

Expecting the worst

There is a natural internal driving force within us human beings trying to protect us from scaring experiences or imaginations. Normally, in our daily life, we cut off information that looks like scary events or things. We try also to repress and to deny such life experiences that have given us memories that we do not want to remember. That is why it is so difficult to, just as an example, ask another person questions related to his or her previous life, especially if the questions concern life events that have been hard.
All this is normal. We have our psychic defenses that aim to protect us from the worst scenarios of life. Some people are very “big users” of such defense mechanisms. They deny almost everything of difficulties and they try their best to tell stories of life as an oh, such a lovely place.
But maturity and a good judgement demand a closer relation to reality. This is of a special importance for people working with risk management duties, such as airline pilots or astronauts or medical doctors or psychologists or sea officers. They have to be aware of everything that could happen, particularly if someone makes a wrong decision or put his finger on a wrong button in a wrong moment.
Expecting the worst does not mean that you have to exaggarate everything that could go wrong, but to increase your mental awareness in front of difficult operations – in both your professional and your private life. And increasing your mental awareness makes you better prepared and more skilled if…. and there are always these if-moments in life.

From where comes the music?

The Swedish world famous movie and theatre director, the late Ingmar Bergman, never stopped to ask this question: From where comes the music? I do not think that he received any good enough answer prior to his death. But it is a very good question. From where….
And from where come our thoughts and our ideas and our values? Well, these kind of questions are somewhat easier to answer. Our thoughts are not given to us by our genes. Our genes are just producing the possibilities to form the thoughts. And the ideas. Our thinking stems from “the boiling soup” of our interrelations with the others. All your thoughts and all your ideas are the results of everything you hear from the others around you, including what you read in the books and in the newspapers and in the magazines and upon what you hear at the radio and what you look at when you turn on the TV or when you go to the movie.
That is why you very seldom meet people that have grown up in, for example, a true Buddhist family and who later convert to become a Christian, or a Muslim. Children are, with some exeptions, following their parents. And citizens that have lived all their lives in, for example, Thailand, regard themselves as belonging to the Thai people and not just to any Asian race or folk group.
But I, myself, grew up with a father, belonging to the Jewish community and with a mother, belonging to the Swedish Christian community. So, how did I cope with that situation? Did I become a Jew or did I become a Christian? What do you think?
And I am of course a Swede, but I am very fond of Charlie Chaplin’s reply to a journalist, who once asked him if he was a Jew.
“I am a world citizen”, Chaplin replied.
Chaplin tried really – and succeeded – in thinking “outside the box”. And this is not easy.
What are you doing and how are you thinking? Well inside the box or now and then outside the box?

Psychological tests only are for the unskilled ones

Do you want to know as much as possible about another person? Do you want to know as much as possible about his or her capacities, thinking habits, attitudes, personality style? Do you believe that psychological tests are the right tools to really dive under the skin of the other?
If you use psychological tests only and nothing more I have to tell you that you are out on deep water. Psychological tests only are for unskilled assessors, those who do not know how to find out important parts of another person by meeting and talking sessions. Psychological tests are, mostly, clumsy tools.
But yes, I admit that a lot of tests may be dressed up in very nice layout fashion styles. They look good. But how good are they?
Well, they could be very good, if the testee (the one that takes the test) is very open minded and very honest and really cooperates with the test administrator. Mostly this is the case within the medical care and clinical sector. If you are sick and suffer from a disease you want to get the very best from the medical care unit – you´d better cooperate. But if you are one of many candidates applying for an attractive position you are in a heat filled with competitors. In this case you´d better try to outsmart everyone, the recruiters included. And in those cases the tests are just like quite dull and quite clumsy tools.

Who is the one that will decide over your future life?

Just imagine: you have to undergo a big surgery at a medical clinic. When the surgeon introduces himself you ask him if he is experienced for his job. Oh, yes, he says. And he continues: I am doing this special kind of surgery at least once a year, or, perhaps, once in every second year.
And just imagine: you are entering an airplane as a passenger. The Captain stands in the door, welcoming all passengers. Very kindly you ask the Captain how often he has flewn to this special destination. Well, he replies, not so often. As a matter of fact I am just a freelance pilot and I am flying this kind of airplanes once a year at the most.
And just imagine: you are one of quite a lot of candidates that have applied to a very special position in a company. You are soon going to become interviewed by someone that introduces herself as an expert, a real professional. You humbly ask her how long time ago she assessed candidates to this vety special positions – prior to this moment. She answers honestly: well, I think it was two years ago. Or perhaps ten months ago, I do not remember so well, she says. You are then not so very used to perform assessments to this special profession, you say. No, that is correct, she replies. But I will do my best anyhow. And you just have to rely on my ability, she says.
Why do I write like this?
Well, what do you think?
I just provide you with some real life tales.
It is then up to you to think about it and perhaps to do something about it.

Training for improvements

There are lots of reports from Beijing these days. Olympic games. Lots and lots of superathletes. Fascinating to look at from your couch in your living room. There I could glance at all those youths that now are presenting the most outstanding results. I am sitting laidback. Well, I feel fit for my age, but there are almost astronomic distances between what they, on the screen, and I, in my couch, would be able to perform. I hear stories about the training prior to these olympic games. Four hours of training every weekday. Six hours on Saturday. Only Sunday is free.
I come to think of the questions I sometimes get from young pilot trainee candidates. How can I improve? What do I have to do to achieve the goal of my life – to become an airline pilot in a major, national airline company?
I usually say something about training. Training mental capacities is very much alike training general body litheness and strength. And it is not a special meaningful training to solve some specific psychological tests only. Training your mental capacity is much more to deepen your general knowledge about the world and about yourself, to understand more and more of all the problems that are surrounding all of us, to build a capacity to cope with sudden, unexpected situations, intellectually and socially.
Four to six hours a day? No, not necessarily. But a lot of time anyhow.
There are no free ways to heaven, at least not for us who are normally built from the beginning.

Constructing pictures out of fragments

Everything you see and everything you hear and everything you smell and everything you taste is transferred to bioelectrical signals that are transported to different parts of your brain. Your brain starts immediately an enormous interpretation work. What is the meaning of all signals? How could they become general and main pictures, perhaps music, perhaps scents (as in the movie “The scent of a woman”), perhaps flavors, or whatever? Your brain is always, day and night, all the year around, working as hell to figure out what is what.
The same goes when you are trying your best to assess another human being, his (or her) capacities, personality, social style…whatever. You will perhaps ask him to answer your questions and to solve some problems and to interact with other people, but the only things you will come up with are fragments of the other, which are transferred to those bioelectrical signals that are transported to your brain for further interprations.
There is no objectivity in your experiences or measurements of others. There are just bundles of signals that have to become interpreted.
The skill of a psychologist is related to the psychologist’s interpretation skills, how he (or she) is able to construct meaningful and reliable pictures enough. Some of those I know are quite good in this sense, others are not so very good.
There are techniques for good enough interpretations, but they are not always used.
Do not stop acting critically.