Most of us enjoy drama, that is, as long as it is where it belongs, on television.

In the office, not so much.

So it probably won’t be a surprise to any of us that the culture of downton Abbey, the English Edwardian Period, was almost a perfect fit, set-up by the culture to generate a simmering pot of hidden agendas, plots, conflict and drama.

What you might not have considered is the ingredients of that “culture soup” — and if they might exist in your own workplace.

Today, I’ll talk about three of them, … and how to spot ‘em, starting with an example.

Season three begins with the quick end of a long time partnership. Suddenly Thomas Barrow, valet to Lord Grantham, is trying to get O’Brian, Maid to his wife, Cora, in trouble, so he takes advantage of the culture.

The Set Up

Barrow find Mosley, a sort of slow character, looking for a job for a friend’s daughter. Barrow tells him that Ms. O’Brein is going to leave soon, so perhaps she could ask for the job. so Mosley asks Lady Cora, in front of a large group, if his poor relation might be considered for O’Brien’s job. The room is obviously suprised.

Then the magic happens.

Lady Cora did not know that O’Brien was leaving, but she can’t admit it, because to admit it would mean that the mistress of the house is less informed than the servants.  In order to save face, Lady Cora pretends to know about this plan, giving credibility to the lie.

Next Cora confronts O’Brien.

Well.

Sort of.

She tries, Cora is bound by the rules of the age; she can not ask directly. Instead, Cora has to be indirect, asking “Do you have anything to tell me? Is something going on? Oh I really do wish if something were going on you would tell me.”

Of course, O’Brian has no earthly idea what is going on.

Cora leaves confused and sad that O’Brien won’t “tell her the truth”, when in reality that is exactly what O’Brien did; it’s just that the indirect methods fail when the other person isn’t in on the gag.

Finally, there is scarcity and competition. The reason that O’Brien and Barrow are fighting is because Alfred, O’Briens Nephew, has arrived to Downton to pursue a career, and Thomas is not willing or eager to help Alfred advance quickly.

Saving Face, Indirect speech, scarcity and competition. Put them together, bring to a boil, and have a breeding ground for secrets and scandal, which can lead to unofficial favors, which is really just the flip side of blackmail.

It may make for good television. It’s a nice place to visit as long I have an off button, but I sure wouldn’t want to work there.

And Workplace Culture

Leaders in the workplace build culture every day by their own example. And by leader, I do not mean someone with an impressive title.

By leader, I mean that people actually follow you.

So think about it: When was the last time you said “I don’t know” when discussing something, or were willing to save face, admit a mistake?

When was the last time you were direct when a straight answer could harm you? Or helped out someone who might, just maybe, benefit at your expense?

Writing cultural critiques of Edwardian social norms, that’s easy. Spotting the problems in your office, that’s probably easy too.

Taking steps to change it yourself?  That’ll take a little more work.  (Here’s my first step.)

What else is in the soup — and how can we avoid it?

“Move to low cost-of-living area of the world, set up shop working remote, work ten hours a week while building a huge nest egg.”

Whole books have been published on this model, along with terms like “The Nouveau Rich”, people who get to earn wealth while enjoying the easy life.

And yet …

It seems to never actually happen.

Or, at least, it doesn’t seem to happen much.  Often the people living the “Jimmy Buffett Life” are already millionaires living off interest.  Often the person speaking is selling something (perhaps a dream) more than a reality. We can do better.

Then I met John Hunter and learned about his technology business.

John is not independently wealthy.  He did not have a big IPO, and does not have have a revenue stream.  Nor does he have a best-selling book on, say, how to live cheap.  Instead, he was a practicing programmer and IT program manager who moved from Virginia to Malaysia, on the expectation of taking a year long “sabbatical,” and, if he could find a way to make it work, to stay a bit longer.

And Now

John has been in Malaysia for a bit over a year now, with no sign of returning anytime soon.

I thought he was worth talking to, and sharing here.

Matt Heusser: ’Inverting’ your life, that’s kind of a big deal. How did you decide to up and move?

John: I had been thinking about it for years.  Originally my focus was on moving to cheaper area in the USA (and with warmer weather).  At that time my plan was to make the move into a full time job – with the plan to transition out of that into working for myself in a few years.  Then I started to think of building up some sources of income (management consulting, management seminars, income from my web sites and rental income) and move without a full time job.  I worked primarily on building up web site income for years.

I was mainly focused on just building what I wanted while seeing if also I could have that make some money.  I did put a bit of effort into thinking about making money to guide my effort, but very little.  I also did a bit presenting: about one management seminar a year.

The main factors that got me to move were: figuring out I could make it work financially and deciding it was better to try something that could be great than to just do what was expected.  If it didn’t work out, then I could return to a more traditional ‘job.’  Also I found limits with my strategy of working side projects while fully employed.  I like the side-job approach,  but I had reached a point where I couldn’t move nearly as fast as I wanted on my web sites and I hadn’t made progress on seminars or consulting.

I also don’t think much of the fake barriers we erect.  There were two time where I was in a job where going part time wasn’t an option; both times I managed to convince management to let me go part time in order to get more time for my side projects.

The main reason I decided on going to SE Asia (or somewhere else cheap) was I thought I needed that very low expenses to make it work.  I also wanted SE Asia because I wanted to use some of my free time (at least 7 weeks a year) to travel.  As it turns out I think I was significantly overly conservative.  I could easily have done this by moving to a cheap area in the USA.  I think maybe my expenses would be double in the USA but still that would leave me in good shape.  This is actually very good news for me, as I am convinced I won’t have to go back to a “real job” when I move back.

Matt Heusser: What is life like in Malaysia?   How much does it cost to survive for a year?

John: I am enjoying it.  Great weather, good food, all sorts of great travel opportunities (though I haven’t taken nearly enough advantage of that).  It can be cheap.  My apartment is $800 a month (large unit, 3 bedrooms) overlooking Singapore, and the complex has a very nice pool which I use regularly).  Saving a bit on that wouldn’t be tough especially if you wanted to share an apartment (they don’t have many small units – most have 3 bedrooms though in the last 2 years they have started to build 1 bedroom units – though aimed upmarket with fancy finishing touches so not that much cheaper than older, much larger units).

Health insurance and food are cheap.  I don’t have a car and taxis are cheap (owning a car is not cheap).  Electricity is cheap but has graduated charges (the cost per unit of electricity increases the more you use, so if you go over a level they consider excessive costs rise dramatically – I did that 1 month but most bills have been under $20).  This is actually a cool economic strategy.  Essentially they subsidize electricity for most users by charging those using very large amounts of electricity (who mainly are going to be rich people living in big houses using a lot of air conditioning) very high rates.  Alcohol is not cheap, that isn’t an issue for me but may add hundreds of dollars a month to expenses for some people.

I don’t have fancy habits but I live on $1,300 a month easily without feeling deprived.  All told, surviving on $16,000 for the year is easy – not including my travel.

When I interview contractors, I think they are often cagey about income and expenses. Listing your hourly rate (or what you ‘need’ to survive) ‘sets’ the expectations of some potential customers and can drive away others — it can even alienate your peers. So when John was willing to talk about expenses, real expenses, in Malaysia, I was impressed. At $16,000 a year means not a lot per hour to survive, or else not a lot of hours a week.

Next time, I’m going to talk to John about the other side; where he got the income.

When the director of the Central Intelligence Agency quits fifteen months into the job, that is news.

When that director is a retired Army general and former commander of US and International Forces in Afganistan, something is going on.

When the whole issue is due to email security and privacy … we are in unchartered waters.

The Quick Back Story

According to the Associated Press, general Petraeus had an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, that began shortly after his retirement.  While showing incredibly poor judgement and opening himself up to blackmail, this act was not illegal.

Again, according to A.P., Petraeus wanted to avoid a paper trail, so he and Broadwell shared an email account.  They would create draft messages and share them with each other, then delete the message, eliminating the trail of evidence.

Then things get weird.

A Tampa, Florida socialite named Jill Kelly starts receiving anonymous, harassing, private emails and complains to the FBI.  The FBI takes the investigation seriously, and, after a series of events, Petraeus resigns.  The primary theory is that Broadwell logs into Patraeus’s other accounts – perhaps they have the same password, perhaps he leaves gmail logged in – and finds email to Kelly, creates an anonymous account, and begins the harassment campaign.  The FBI works this backwards and eventually Petraeus is forced to resign.

Whew.  With me so far?

General Petraeus’s successor in Afganistan is Marine Corps General John R. Allen, about to be appointed to the position of supreme allied commander Europe … except the FBI found a bunch of “flirtatious” emails from him to Kelly as well, and his appointment is on hold.  (The New York Times referred to it as “hundreds of emails“.)

Now let’s talk about IT policy.

Implications on 21st Century Technology

When known for some time that What Happens In Vegas is unlikely to stay there – thanks to the smart phone, everyone has a camera and an internet connection.

One thing this new wave of technology gives us is the ability to melt down incredibly quickly.  Anthony Weiner, for example, sent an explicit photo and some inappropriate emails, and his political career was over.

Yes, Weiner was doing … other things, the real things that killed his career.  Twitter and the iPhone didn’t do him in, but they made it incredibly easy to create evidence in seconds – where a polaroid and a hand-carried letter might not.

A second surprise around the Petraeus scandal is the expectation of privacy.  By creating an anonymous account, our email harasser expected anonymity   Once the FBI got involved, all pretense of that was gone.  If anything you do online is trackable to an IP address, you might do well to consider it public.

There is at least one more unexpected twist to the story, because the investigation went wherever it found evidence.  By contacting the FBI, and giving them access to her computer, Kelly allowed the FBI to get access to all her email – including the records of General Allen.

Conclusions

I have no easy answers; records you thought you deleted have a way of showing up in system caches.

Except, perhaps, that this situation might be a good chance to take a look at your company’s policies about internet use, separation of personal and work email, about information retention and lifecycle management, or as a good story to use to encourage people into right behavior.

Or, perhaps, just perhaps, the Petraeus Principle will come to be about how to deal with failure with integrity – by admitting mistakes and taking responsibility for our actions.

Many of us are familiar with the movie Jerry Maguire, which begins with Jerry writing a mission statement for his business.  He writes about how the company had lost its way, how to change it, prints out a copy for every employee, comes into the office early, and leaves it on their desks.  (If you haven’t seen the movie, the video is on youtube.)

And, as you expect, within a week, he gets fired.

I hadn’t seen the movie, or even heard the story.

And so, when our company was pursuing a process improvement odyssey” (whatever that was) and I was heading up the committee on quality assurance, I took a page from Karl Wieger’s “Creating a Software Engineering Culture” that differentiated what we really want (improvement!) from some of the things we do to get there (paperwork! metrics!).  I made a hundred copies and put it in every mailbox in the IS department.

Yes, I was that guy.

No, I did not get fired.  I might even have woken a few people up.  I kept my role on the quality assurance committee and we even made a few improvements.

It look a little effort; it took a little creativity, it took a little risk.

When was the last time you had a Jerry Maguire Moment?

Here’s an Idea

Say you work for a company that is a little buttoned down.  A little too stable, predictable, repeatable.  You’d like to lead a sort of insurgency – a culture insurgency – but you don’t want to take a huge risk.

Or maybe you can; you are a manager or leader.  Your job is to improve the system.  You can to do something fun, to let people know it is okay to try new things.  At the very least, some kind of attention might improve retention and morale.

Here’s the idea:  Go to this webpage, save the link to each image as a TIF file, print them out, come into the office early in the morning, and tape them up.

These posters come from Facebook, with names like “Fortune Favors the Bold”, “Move Fast and Break Things”, “Stay Focused and Keep Shipping” and “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”

Now if your company is addicted to risk, these posters might not help.  People might cheer and appreciate it, and problems might get worse.  But, on the other hand, if you are just slowly jumping to the wrong side of conservative, these posters might make people think.  They might force some conversations.

If you have a different problem, you could make up your own posters.

This takes ten minutes and it can actually improve outcomes.

Or you might get fired.  I really doubt it, though – these posters are about inspiring change, not creating revolt.

But if you do, somehow, I suspect that you would be better off at the next gig.

What was the last big chance you took?

 UPDATE:  This post is not a recommendation to go print motivational posters from Facebook.  It is to use those as one possible mechanism to start a light – fun – non-damaging insurgency.  If I came across as the former, well, I’m sorry.  More to come.

So I saw Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States, on USA Today this morning.

He wanted to talk about his new book, “In My Time.”

One statement Cheney made during the interview flabbergasted me:  He claimed the the interrogation techniques used by the Federal Government during the Bush Administration were both safe and effective.

Really?  Effective you say?

Come on folks.  Does anyone else remember the claim that Iraq was somehow linked to the terrorists of 9/11?  Or the claim that we had to go into Iraq because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction?

How about the claim that Al Qaeda had series of complex, secret underground fortresses?  (Follow the link; it is the secretary of defense explaining the fortresses to the American people on national television.)

None of that turned out to be true.

We got that information from people we were pressuring for information!

And we call our interrogation techniques effective?  Really?

From here to there

When I look at the story of this recent involvement in foreign affairs, it seems so familiar.  As if I’ve heard the story before.

Then I remember: I have heard it before.

Replace “American” with “conquistador” and “hidden fortresses” with “seven cities of gold”, and you’ve got essentially the same story: A technologically superior people from across the sea became convinced that the less-tech-savvy people have something they want, and they are willing to use advanced interrogation techniques to get the answers.

After hours, days, or weeks of saying ‘no, there are no seven cities of gold’, tired, beaten and exhausted, the people of the other civilization eventually give up and say “oh, fine. Okay.  The cities are three days ride to the east.  Will you leave us alone now, please?”

That said: this post is not about Dick Cheney; it is about you.

I am not setting to attack a man who served his country as best he could. In fact, quite the opposite: the most charitable interpretation may just be that Mr. Cheney made a certain type of classic mistake. That is, to be so certain you are correct, that the quest for information subtly becomes a quest for data to re-enforce your bias.

You may be going through it right now on a smaller level.

A more personal scenario

If, for example, you’ve never worked on a project that a deadline plucked out of thin air, then had a project schedule reverse-engineered to fit it, well, consider yourself fortunate.

If you’ve never worked near a boss, eager to please senior executives, who made up numerical targets for sales, or website adoption, then wanted you to make the plan to actually hit those numbers, again, consider yourself fortunate.

If you’ve never felt the subtle, or not-so-subtle pressure to hide mistakes, to slide messes under the rug, or to paint a better picture than reality, well … that’s good.

If you can manage to make your entire career without it, well, I’m curious if your company is hiring.

Human nature

Yes, these problems are worse when they involve the clash of entire civilizations.  They are worse when people are desperate for food, water, or shelter.  When we have the benefit of “just” squabbling over the annual raises, bonuses, promotions and stock options, things do seem a bit more civilized. (We do have our stories about Enron and Worldcom, though.)

Fifty years ago, in a little-known graduation speech at King’s College, the author and professor C.S. Lewis had this to say about the subject:

To nine out of ten of you the choice which could lead to scoundrelism will come, when it does come, in no very dramatic colors. Obviously bad men, obviously threatening or bribing, will almost certainly not appear. Over a drink, or a cup of coffee, disguised as triviality and sandwiched between two jokes, from the lips of a man, or woman, whom you have recently been getting to know rather better and whom you hope to know better still—just at the moment when you are most anxious not to appear crude, or naïf or a prig—the hint will come. It will be the hint of something which the public, the ignorant, romantic public, would never understand: something which even the outsiders in your own profession are apt to make a fuss about: but something, says your new friend, which “we”—and at the word “we” you try not to blush for mere pleasure—something “we always do.”

And you will be drawn in, if you are drawn in, not by desire for gain or ease, but simply because at that moment, when the cup was so near your lips, you cannot bear to be thrust back again into the cold outer world. It would be so terrible to see the other man’s face—that genial, confidential, delightfully sophisticated face—turn suddenly cold and contemptuous, to know that you had been tried for the Inner Ring and rejected. And then, if you are drawn in, next week it will be something a little further from the rules, and next year something further still, but all in the jolliest, friendliest spirit. It may end in a crash, a scandal, and penal servitude; it may end in millions, a peerage and giving the prizes at your old school. But you will be a scoundrel.

That is how it works in the IT shop.

How the conflict emerges

There are plenty of books about how to lubricate interaction between humans.  There are books about how to tell jokes, change the subject, compliment the other guy’s shoes; there a books about how to start the discussion from agreement and how to convince the other guy that your idea was his.

I know, because I read all those books, because I kept getting feedback that I was hard to work with.  There is, indeed, some wisdom in those books.

Eventually I realized the problem wasn’t my social skills; it was that I was being ordered to compromise on what I viewed as moral grounds and refused to do it.

Of course I was hard to work with.

I was the guy who said no.

There is more to come, but, for now: Here’s one way to deal with this issue

The Big Secret

The big secret, of course, is the secret.

The boss has a secret agenda to hit the date (to get a bonus), or to hire his contractor (to get the kickback), or to hide the number of failures in production.

You’re not the one with the problem.  You get to sleep at night.

The boss is the one with the problem.

The way to win the game is simple: You need to make it clear that, if the boss doesn’t come clean with this information you will.

It is that simple.

Along the way, you’ll need to create opportunities for the boss to save face, to slowly change the official story, to have the change in direction be his idea.

All of this is possible, it’s even easy.  All you have to do is remember one thing:

When someone else has an integrity problem in the office, and they want you to fix it, someone does have a problem.

You get to decide if that someone will be you.

One final piece of encouragement:  This is America.  You’re not going to starve.  Neither will your children.  Worst case, you have to downsize your life a little for awhile while you figure things out.

I know, I know, when the boss looks at you funny and you are trying to decide if you can afford that vacation in the catskills, it can be a tough decision.

Forget the vacation.

Think about what your children will think of you the day you retire.

Think about what you’ll think of yourself.

More to come.