Breakthrough
Newsletter
VOLUME XII ISSUE NO. 4 | APRIL 2020
How to be Happy Even When You Are Sad, Mad or Scared:

How to be happy...How to be Happy Even When You Are Sad, Mad or Scared is available on Amazon.com. It is a book for children of all ages (including those in adult bodies). Buy it for the children in your life so they can be better able to “feel and deal” - feel and accept their emotions and deal with them in a way that avoids being driven by them. You can order the book at https://www.amazon.com/How-Happy-Even-When-Scared/dp/1072233363
Avoid Authoritarianism Continued
Trusted Leadership
Trusted leadership will be process oriented. It will exhibit qualities like truthfulness, intelligence, practicality, open-mindedness, and compassion. Trusted leaders will be servant leaders who see that their role is to serve; not to be served. They will be open minded, surrounding themselves with people who are competent and candid. They will be humble enough to acknowledge publicly that they are not all-knowing. They will not need to repeatedly tell everyone how great and wonderful they are.
 
One of these qualities without the others falls short.
 
Authoritarians
We see driven self-centered people in every part of life - political, business, social, and religious. They are driven by ideology, power and greed. They feed on fear and frustration. When they are in leadership positions, they can do a great deal of damage. Remember authoritarian leaders like Stalin, Hitler and Mao and their roles in world war, famine, genocide, and political persecution.
 
Self-centered, authoritarians make sure they are safe and secure. They buffer themselves with a circle of loyalists. In the extreme, an authoritarian leader will eliminate "the others" physically. In less extreme circumstances, they marginalize and disenfranchise the outsiders.
 
Ideologues, using rhetoric, lies and blaming, attempt to do away with the rule of law or distort it to their advantage. Self-centered autocrats create their own brands of ethics and values. They vilify the opposition, removing them from government and private sector positions, replacing them with "loyal" followers.
 
They treat the free press and anyone who speaks out to contradict the leader as enemies of the people. They scapegoat and blame. They replace free expression and candor with a single voice professing the party line. They make lots of noise to block out any dissension, until they amass enough power to cut it off. Truthfulness is discarded. The authoritarian leader takes credit for any good and blames others for anything bad.
 
Compromise and collaboration with 'others' become impossible. Scapegoating and blame distract attention from leadership weaknesses, real causes, and to make the authority figure look like a hero.
 
The Desire for a Savior
Particularly in stressful times, reliance on authoritarians who promise to make everything alright is understandable but short sighted. It leads otherwise well-meaning people to grasp at straws and help to create a dysfunctional future. Germans, suffering from economic problems, and faced with conflict among extremists, elected Adolph Hitler. People want a savior to sweep away the old and bring in the new.

Honest Process Focused Leadership
Instead of seeking the next great dictator or the party that promises "Greatness" seek a leader who relies on process as opposed to personality and rhetoric.
Seek a leader honest enough to accept the positive and negative parts of the old when bringing in the new. Someone with the courage and open mindedness to even see the positive aspects of opposing positions. Someone who attempts to find win-win solutions.

A realistic process centered approach is founded on fact and science, tempered by fairness, caring and compassion. It roots out causes and provides remedies when the causes cannot be rooted out. It recognizes that everything is caused by a process as opposed to someone. It recognizes that there are paradoxes and no perfect simple solutions to complex problems. It recognizes that there are trade-offs and difficult decisions to be made.

To change an outcome, change the process - the sequence of events that create an outcome. 

The process may be naturally occurring or designed. The outcome can be anything - a solution, a product, war or peace, physical, economic and social health, angry outbursts or emotionally driven withdrawal. There is always a process whenever any result or change occurs. And, there is continuous change.

The process-oriented leader seeks to maintain a healthy process; not to only achieve some fixed goal or win a battle or an election but to set in motion ongoing improvement that benefits all.

Elect Trustworthy Leaders
A process-oriented leader sees the reality of a continuous movement that does not begin or end with a term of office. The process-oriented leader looks into the future and paints a picture of what is likely to happen as current behavior carries forward into the future.

Authoritarian leaders take credit for the positive and blame others for the negative. Trustworthy leaders recognize that it is effective decision making and follow-through are responsible for positive outcomes.

Don't be deluded by rhetoric that fuels fear and division. Realize that all it takes is a few years to turn a country into an authoritarian dictatorship led by demagogues and ideologues (from the right or the left) who will harm many for the " greater good. "
May we learn from experience and value free expression, and a middle road between extremist ideologies that balances appropriate government with fairness and personal freedom.

May we elect trustworthy leaders.
Performance and Open-minded Mindfulness
Open-minded:  questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty. 
 
Mindful: consciously aware; concentrated. 

Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.
By George Pitagorsky

Success is measured in how well and how regularly you meet expectations. But what exactly are expectations, and how do you effectively manage them when multiple priorities and personalities are involved?
Using the case study of a Project Manager coordinating an organizational transition, this Managing Expectations book explores how to apply a mindful, compassionate, and practical approach to satisfying expectations in any situation. George Pitagorsky describes how to make sure expectations are rational, mutually understood, and accepted by all those with a stake in the project. This process relies on blending a crisp analytical approach with the interpersonal skills needed to negotiate win-win understandings of what is supposed to be delivered, by when, for how much, by who, and under what conditions.

Managing Conflict in Projects
By George Pitagorsky

Managing Conflict in Projects: Applying Mindfulness and Analysis for Optimal Results by George Pitagorsky charts a course for identifying and dealing with conflict in a project context.

Pitagorsky states up front that conflict management is not a cookbook solution to disagreement-a set of prescribed actions to be applied in all situations. His overall approach seeks to balance two aspects of conflict management: analysis based on a codified process and people-centered behavioral skills.

The book differentiates conflict resolution and conflict management. Management goes beyond resolution to include relationship building that may serve to avoid conflict or facilitate resolution if it occurs.
 
The  Zen  Approach to Project Management 
By George Pitagorsky

Projects are often more complex and stressful than they need to be. Far too many of them fail to meet expectations. There are far too many conflicts. There are too few moments of joy and too much anxiety. But there is hope. It is possible to remove the unnecessary stress and complexity. This book is about how to do just that. It links the essential principles and techniques of managing projects to a "wisdom" approach for working with complex, people-based activities.