managing perceptions, truth and Chesty Puller

Well.

I am going to briefly discuss the Korean War and a marine … to ultimately share some thoughts about managing perceptions.

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“Remember, whatever you write, this was no retreat.

All that happened was we found more Chinese behind us than in front of us. So we about-faced and attacked.”

–  

Marine General Chesty Puller as he refused to call the retreat a defeat let alone a retreat

===

Please note … I believe Chesty Puller is the most decorated Marne in the Corps history.

Oh.

It should also be noted he stood tall, and still, before entering a ship and stated this to a fleet of reporters.

Yes.

He went ‘on record’ with this statement.

Did he put his balls <and his reputation> on the line? You betchya.

Sometimes managing perceptions is all about making the people who need to believe … believe.

By the way … this takes more than a lot of kahones … you gotta believe it yourself.

Trust me … Chesty believed in everything he said … and his Marines.

Now.

The difficult thing is that even though you believe … you need others to not only believe but ‘do’ … and sometimes those you need to make the perception a reality … just cannot deliver.

Sure.

They do the best they can.

And sometimes they even go far beyond what normal capacity is capable of … and they still cannot deliver.

And that is where the rest of us can fail the best of the best.

We fail to discern between perception and reality. And we fail because we make it black & white.

The perception is ‘x’ … they didn’t deliver ‘x’ … therefore ‘x’ is not reality.

What a bunch of baloney.

Even Marines do not achieve an objective on occasion.

Is that because they are ‘lesser than’ the perception of what we expect of a Marine?

Absolutely not.

It is simply because despite the fact they went farther than any normal human being could have ever expected … they simply didn’t reach ‘x’ <the objective>.

Milestones, goals and objectives are tricky things.

Upon a razor thin line perception and reality dangles <and balances>.

In my mind … we are too harsh and unforgiving with regard to meeting objectives <meeting perceptions> and exactly the same time we are too apt to encourage bluster and puffery <which makes it even more difficult to discern what is truly falsely managing perceptions and good management of perceptions>.

In my mind … to avoid this false harshness means we people just need to be smarter and less judgmental and more discerning.

We need to think a little bit harder and be less quick to judge in the absence of some thoughtfulness.

Why?

Because we need more Chesty Pullers today … and I believe it is harder to be a Chesty Puller today than ever before.

Anyway.

I am using to Chesty and the Korean War today because it was about 60 years ago that the 2½-mile-wide DMZ <demilitarized zone> that separates North and South Korea was officially established. The Korean War doesn’t get spoken about often because it came upon the heels of WW2, was fought on the other side of the world in a limited geography and was followed by a morally conflicted war in Vietnam.

Oh.

One more thought about managing perceptions.

==

“We’ve been looking for the enemy for several days now.

We’ve finally found them. We’re surrounded.

That simplifies our problem of finding these people and killing them.”

–

Chesty to reporters after the Marines barely had time to set up base camp when the Chinese People’s Liberation Army attacked their position.

==

Well.

Managing perceptions is tricky.

I often believe it is all about part attitude and a lot of behavior.

All words and it is just puffery <smoke & mirrors>.

All actions and you run the risk that people believe you just got lucky <i.e., you made it up as you went along and it was sheer luck, and non-replicable, that it was successful>.

Managing perceptions is a combination of communicating what will be … and delivering what is. Oh. And in the best of all worlds … not saying a thing about ‘what was’ and let the world talk about it instead <because that is where legends are created>.

As Blake said “… If the doors of perception were cleansed … everything would appear infinite.”

In other words … if you manage perceptions … anything seems possible.

In other words … people start thinking about what is … they start thinking about what could be.

Anyway.

You know … I began this thought about managing perceptions by speaking about attitude.

Here is what I mean:

“… there are not enough chinamen in the world to stop a fully armed Marine regiment  from going where ever they wont to go” – Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller

Half the battle can be won before it even begins … with the right attitude.

Chesty not only created a perception of the Marines … his attitude built a behavior within the Marines.

Huh?

No opposing army was going to stop the Marines from going wherever they wanted to go.

They believed it … and you know what? The majority of the time it became ‘truth’ <reality>.

Uhm.

Think about this.

We do this every day.

We do this with our children <telling them they can do anything and be anything they want”>.

We do this with our friends <encouraging them to be better and do better>.

We do this with our employees and organizations <getting everyone to believe in a vision or mission>.

This is managing perceptions.

And managing perceptions is often about managing attitudes … which ultimately means managing behavior.

If you can make someone ‘believe’ … they can do some pretty amazing things.

Uhm.

On this razor thin line does behavior lie.