Distinguishing fact from opinion: a critical skill as the election approaches

As we close in on election day, President Trump touts his "plan" to defeat COVID-19.  Sounds like a fact, doesn't it?  Meanwhile, Joe Biden says Trump doesn't have the requisite leadership skills to govern.  Sounds like an opinion, doesn't it?  

Distinguishing fact from opinion is a critical skill not only in choosing a candidate but also in finding our way through life in general.  Professor Justin McBrayer thinks so anyway.  I received an email from the good professor yesterday, reminding me of a dialog we had a few years ago.  McBrayer wrote a piece in the New York Times about how his second-grader was being subjected to flawed reasoning on the matter.  I responded with a blog post that I shared with him.

My post which is printed in full below doesn't rise to the level of McBrayer's new book, Beyond Fake News: Finding the Truth in a World of Misinformation.  You can find out more about the book on his website here or in a five-minute video clip here.  The book is available at places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but you can also use the author discount code FLR40 on the publisher’s site to bring the paperback price down to $27.96.

How to tell right from wrong... It ain't easy!

Do your kids think there are “moral facts”?  Are there circumstances where it is okay to lie, cheat or steal?

Philosopher and college professor Justin McBrayer concerns himself with such questions and was upset enough about what his second grader is being taught in school to air his opinion in the NY Times.  He discovered that the common core curriculum, by its definitions of fact vs. opinion, teaches our children that values (or value claims as he describes them) are not facts.  They are opinions.  

Connecting the lessons his son is being taught in the second grade to cheating on college campuses, he observes “that the overwhelming majority of college freshmen in their classrooms view moral claims as mere opinions that are not true or are true only relative to a culture.”

I sent the article to my brother who is a bit closer to this issue than I.  He has worked on education issues with Georgia’s state government and his wife spent her career teaching grammar school.  He expressed amazement that “parents of grade school children extend small things into the cause of the world’s problems.”

He’s probably right.  But, there was something about Professor McBrayer’s argument that stuck in my head.  Then, it came to me. What’s missing in his essay is any mention of a social contract, an implicit agreement among members of society who embrace a common set of values. “All Men Are Created Equal”, for example, is part of a value system that forms the basis of a social contract.  In a literal sense, it is not a fact. Some people are created smarter or stronger or prettier.  However, the statement — which is really meant to convey “All Men Have Equal Rights” — drives legislation and government enforcement of equal opportunity laws.  That is part of the social contract that we accept prima facie.

I agree with Professor McBrayer that it’s appropriate to separate mere opinions from value statements.  "Copying homework assignments is wrong" is a statement of our values and a good lesson to teach our children.

However, children’s values are learned more in their activities and day-to-day experiences than in classrooms.  Kid’s taught to play golf are charged with scoring and adhering to the rules.  There are valuable lessons in this activity that have nothing to do with fact vs. opinion.  They have to do with personal responsibility and how we treat others.  It’s a social contract of a sort.  

Another example of how children learn comes from comparing parents’ behavior to what they say.  You can tell your kid that it’s wrong to lie.  But, they learn that lying is part of the fabric of society.  If Mom tells someone how nice he or she looks and then tells Dad how awful that person looks, the kid learns that - at least in that situation - it’s okay to lie.  Ultimately, they figure out that an overwhelming number of people cheat on their taxes or steal office supplies from their employers. 

Teaching kids not to lie, cheat or steal is important.  And, Professor McBrayer is right when he says, “consistency demands that we acknowledge the existence of moral facts.”

However, in a world where the social contract is constantly evolving, distinguishing fact from opinion is an important skill. People’s values go well beyond clear rules about what is right and what is wrong and our perspective is constantly changing. Witness the change in people’s attitudes about gay marriage, for example.  

Moreover, I contend that many “moral claims” are relative to culture.   In a complex global community, moral relativism is required to address society’s larger issues.  

In politics… How much should we tax the rich to provide for the poor?

In medicine… Should we administer an experimental drug to a critically ill patient?

In business… Are we treating our customers ethically?

In foreign affairs… When should we send troops to defend another nation?

In a post a few years ago (From Deadly Sin to Virtue), I quoted Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore professor and co-author of “Practical Wisdom:  the Right Way to Do the Right Thing”.  He compares finding what’s right to jazz improvisation.  The notes are on the page but the musicians play a variation that results in beautiful music. 

In American society, our response to people and institutions that are unprincipled is to create rules to govern their behavior.  But, that doesn’t work.  What we need, Schwartz asserts, is the moralwill to do the right thing and the skill to figure out what that is. 

Let’s figure out how to teach that lesson to our children.

WHO WILL LEAD? 

The case for a third-party vote

So far, each of the two major party candidates for president reflect the opposite sides of the culture war.  As an independent voter (I haven’t voted for the winner in a presidential contest in 24 years), my frustration with the major parties continues.  Our choice seems to be limited to the lesser of two evils.

 

I consider myself to be a right leaning moderate and would normally hold my nose and vote Republican.  But, if you believe as I do, that character matters, that leadership matters, that Trump’s failures during the pandemic and our racial strife are disqualifiers, it’s easy to declare yourself a never Trump-er.  On the other hand, I can’t say he hasn’t accomplished anything of value.  He has lowered taxes, reduced business regulation, confronted China, facilitated an historic peace agreement in the Middle East and begun to rebuild the military, all which appeal to this former Republican and much of which his opponent would reverse.   

 

Of course, anyone who believes all those achievements are positive developments would find it difficult to vote for a Democrat — any Democrat.  That difficulty is compounded by the casual way in which leading Democrats would toss our prosperity aside in pursuit of higher taxes, more mandates on businesses, expanded entitlements and government “investment” in green technology.  If you think Biden would govern as a moderate, check out the progressive wish list that forms his official platform.  

 

I am not alone in my view of the candidates.  Recently, the Gallup organization found that 37% of Americans think neither major party candidate would be a good president, the highest such percentage since the pollster started asking that question.  And, yet, an analysis by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics concludes in part, “[t]hird party candidates typically poll better than they perform.”  Perhaps that’s because many people believe, as one Democrat friend put it, a vote for a third-party candidate “is a vote for Trump.”  Or, perhaps it’s because disaffected voters who don’t live in swing states realize that no matter how we cast our ballots, our vote will go to the majority winner in our state – Biden here in deep blue New York.  So, we stay home. 

 

I vote third party because it helps me sleep at night to vote for something I believe in rather than the lesser of two evils.  So, on November 3^rd, I’ll cast my vote for the only woman running for president this year – Jo Jorgenson of the Libertarian Party (and for Kevin Wilson for Congress in NY-25).  If you think that’s a wasted vote, I would ask you to consider how the major parties would react if the 37% of us who disapprove of both Biden and Trump voted for someone else. 

 

WHO WILL LEAD?

The search for unbiased news... a shoutout to local journalists... RBG

I just cancelled my subscription to my hometown newspaper.  I’ve been reading the New York Times since sixth grade; but I no longer think of it as news.  It’s opinion disguised as news.  The final nail in the coffin for me was the firing of editor James Bennet following the publication of a controversial op-ed written by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR).  I don’t agree with the senator; but I want to hear what he has to say.  Bennet was forced out as a result of the groundswell of disapproval from the progressive group of journalists who dominate the newsroom.  I needed to look no further than the public resignation letter of columnist Bari Weiss for validation of my view of the Times.  The inmates are running the asylum. 

 

The search for unbiased news led me to AllSides website.  A non-profit group that analyzes major news sources and regularly updates us on where each news outlet fits, its website is a wonderful source of information about the media.  Eschewing terms like radical or extremist, it places each news source in one of five columns.  It looks like this.  

 

 

 

Each day, the site features a major news story as reported right, left and center in a graphic.  Here’s what it looked like the day after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. 

 

 

 

 

 

A shoutout for the locals

 

Rochester has been in the national news lately due to the coverup of the alleged homicide of Daniel Prude at the hands of Rochester Police officers.  The revelation has brought protesters into the streets, much as we’ve seen in other cities across the nation.  Our local daily newspaper — Gannett-owned Democrat & Chronicle — has been covering the events tirelessly and, most important, objectively.  Reporters Will Cleveland, Steve Orr, Justin Murphy, Victoria Freile, Matthew Leonard and Brian Sharp among others have reported both sides of the story without emotional language, ensuring that both sides are heard.  It’s great to know there are real journalists out there.  

 

RBG

 

No matter which way your politics lean, you have to admire Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  She fought for her passionately-held beliefs, overcame insurmountable obstacles and succeeded where others failed.  She did so by following the rules while advocating for changing the rules.  Her passion was matched by her perseverance, her integrity and her intelligence.  She was a true American hero.  

 

WHO WILL LEAD? 

Is it time to return to campus?

The pandemic has us questioning the safety of just about everything we took for granted just a few months ago.  With the school year upon us, we must now worry about the safety not only of our children but also ourselves as those wee ones may not get sick but could act as carriers of the virus.  The opening of college campuses poses an even greater risk as students travel from all parts of the country.

The possibility of converting college education to an online -- rather than in person -- experience, has many questioning the cost of a college degree.  Of course, if such a conversion caused a reduction in tuition, the universities would still be stuck with the massive overhead of the land and buildings they own.

The debate is not new.  Following the Great Recession, many questioned the value proposition of a college degree as many graduates couldn't find jobs with incomes sufficient to pay off their student loans.  Historical data continues to support the value of a degree in terms of lifetime income differentials between those that have one and those that don't.  But past is not prologue.

I have been questioning the value of a college degree for some time.  I first wrote about it in 2012 (Is the education we want the education we need?), pointing out that industrial powerhouse Germany relies on an apprentice program to enable the middle class to obtain good-paying jobs. 

In the following year, my headline read "Don't Send Your Kids to College."  In that post, I suggested we not take it as an article of faith that a degree will provide the skills to get a good job and recommended parents and students take "responsibility for the outcome, discovering what employers want" to get the training and education that's right for the job market. 

In 2015, I suggested we replace our expensive universities with a lower overhead model that combined online education with semi-annual visits to lower cost facilities in "It's time to replace our universities with..." 

Later, I asked the rhetorical question "When will the university bubble burst?"  Perhaps the time is NOW!

WHO WILL LEAD?

Ending police abuses requires culture change NOT systemic change

This post was published in the Rochester Beacon on July 26, 2020

There has long been a law prescribing it is illegal to shoot someone in the back.  But that law did not save Walter Scott.  Although unarmed and not threatening his killer, he was shot in the back by a South Carolina policeman while running away during a routine traffic stop.  It is certainly appropriate to ban chokeholds by the police in the wake of George Floyd’s death.  But I doubt the law will save anyone’s life.  Laws by themselves haven’t been shown to protect people of color.  Hence the call for “systemic change.”  

But what is systemic change? And, how will it change the outcomes for millions of African-Americans who have suffered not only the abuse of police officers but also ongoing discrimination in their pursuit of economic opportunity – from housing, to banking, to employment.  

The challenge for legislators, particularly at a federal level, is that there is little they can do to change outcomes that hasn’t already been done.  We have extensive legislation backed up by the courts that prevent discrimination in every arena.  Victims of discrimination can – and have – pursue(d) remedies in court and win.  Beginning with major civil rights legislation in the 1960’s and continuing as educational, business and government opportunities opened up for African-Americans, the system can be said to have already changed.  And yet, discrimination persists. 

While “systems” must continue to be examined to root out discriminatory practices.  The primary focus of leadership, particularly in municipal governments and police departments should be on culture.  While training and routine practices define the system, behavior and language define the culture.  In some cities, the behavior of police is less a function of race than it is of police department culture and its momentum.  

Consider the case of Freddie Gray.  He died in the back of a Baltimore paddy wagon because of the negligence of police officers involved in his arrest.  Six officers were criminally charged.  Three of those officers were African-American, as were the city’s police commissioner and mayor.  No reasonable person would assume any of them were guilty of racial bias against members of their own race.  Yet, Freddie Gray still died.  

The question now is how do we change the outcomes?  Not only how do we prevent police from doing harm but also how do we modify the behavior of thousands of educators, bureaucrats and employers to ensure people of color have the opportunity to improve their lives?

While federal legislation is important in signaling direction, we must rely on thousands of cities and towns to examine their own institutional behavior.  It is unlikely that such dramatic change will occur spontaneously and simultaneously.  We must hope there will be a handful of local governments that will experiment boldly, have some success and serve as examples to others.  Change management is hard work and few organizational leaders have a clear understanding how to achieve it.  Success in this realm requires a willingness to challenge orthodoxy, take on powerful people and suffer the slings and arrows of detractors all while maintaining focus.  

Numerous business turnarounds have been documented in academic studies and the Turnaround Management Association certifies professional businesspeople with expertise in business turnarounds.  Consultancies that specialize in municipal turnarounds are fewer in number.  Nevertheless, there are concepts that translate from commercial turnarounds that would serve in the effort to change police department culture.

Communication

Leaders must constantly communicate to be effective.  Consistency and clarity are essential. The chief executive and his or her lieutenants should all have the same brief stump speech telling everyone “where we’re going (goal), why we’re going there (purpose) and how we’re going to get there (plan).”  The same short speech should be delivered whenever the subject comes up.  It should be repeated so often that subordinates begin to roll their eyes when they hear it.  

Of course, a speech has no meaning unless it’s backed up by action.  A plan should be developed that is clear on what will be done, who is accountable to do it, and how success will be measured.  It’s easy to lose sight of goals in the throes of getting it done.  So, it’s also incumbent upon leadership to celebrate each milestone achieved in the context of the stump speech: where we’re going, why we’re going there, how we’ll get there.

Change the metrics

Police officers who are fast, proficient and productive are highly rated in many police departments.  But the measures by which productivity is measured are based upon crime statistics.  Such measures as response time and clearance rates are widely accepted as prime measures of effectiveness particularly when coupled with a reduction in  crime rates.  The data required to calculate those measures are easy to collect.

But these measures are only part of what makes a good police officer in the minds of community members.  Officers must have the soft skills and emotional intelligence necessary to engage with the community and gain the trust of its members.  In Rochester, the current police chief was a prime mover in the development of a new set of metrics before rising to his current role.  The document outlines more than a dozen new measures in the categories of Community Engagement and Service.  

New metrics and leaders who hold officers accountable to them are essential to any effort to improve police effectiveness.  By themselves, however, such an upgrade will not change the culture of a police department. 

Break up power centers

No chief executive (or police chief) wants to be dragged into day to day management of the detailed activities of their organization.  So, they often rely upon those who have more influence than their position would normally indicate.  They may have achieved their status by some combination of expertise, tenure, effectiveness and relationships developed over a long career.  They are the kind of people on which chief executives of businesses, government bureaucracies and police departments come to rely.  They make the trains run on time.  

Such people represent the status quo. They have an entrenched interest in continuing the momentum of an organization.  As important as they are, they are also the people who should lose their jobs.  That is not to say they should be fired.  A bigger title, a move into a senior advisory role or a promotion may be required to keep them in the fold and to curb their natural tendency to fight the changes leadership endeavors to make.  

Breaking up power centers forces leaders to become engaged, to learn the details and to engage with key people on the front lines.  A new perspective will be gained.  An understanding of how things must change will be emerge.  Relationships with the people delivering critical services (police officers in this example) will improve.

In any turnaround, this is the most difficult phase to affect.  Allies will falter.  Doubt will be sown.  Opponents will engage in disinformation.  This is where resolve and true leadership is required. 

Find peer group leaders

Enlightened leadership – new metrics, organization changes, front line engagement – will excite some of the participants.  For sure, many will demur and many more will fight change tooth and nail.  But some will be surprised – delighted even – at the effectiveness of a new program and the opportunities it presents.  Most police officers, after all, are initially motivated to pursue their careers by a desire to serve.  

Senior leaders must find those acolytes and highlight their successes.  Awards should be given, publicity should highlight their results, and, over time, those who have delivered on the new program should be promoted.  Their peers will follow their lead if they see them as supported by senior leadership.

Ground truth

It’s easy to ascertain the effectiveness of corporate programs.  Customers will be pleased; more units will be sold, and, prices can be raised.  Life’s not that easy for government leaders.  No matter who or how many citizens are pleased, the loudest voices will come from detractors.

The ground truth – the real impact of any set of change programs – can only be validated by leaders getting out and engaging with community leaders and members.  How are they feeling about what’s happening?  Have they noticed the changes?  Are their expectations of the police being met?  Are there examples of something that pleased them?

The simple act of asking such questions will have a positive impact not only on the community but also, by extension, on the police officers themselves. 

Listen

President Harry Truman famously kept a sign his desk saying, “The Buck Stops Here.”  It’s a simple phrase conveying that he was accountable for not only his successes but also his failures.  True leaders take responsibility for all of it.  True leaders don’t play the blame game.  True leaders listen to those on the front lines.  They admit mistakes.  They adjust their sails and find a new course.

Any new program will be seriously flawed.  Mistakes will be made.  They may be big mistakes.  They may be small mistakes.   But mistakes will be made.  Community leaders should be transparent about what’s going right and what’s going wrong.  Failure to admit mistakes will undermine any progress that’s been made and risk loss of support from subordinates and the public.  

This list is not exhaustive.  But it is foundational.  Any change management program – any effort to change organizational culture – will vary depending upon the circumstances of each city and town.  But these concepts must be included.  Only leaders who make an honest assessment and take bold action will succeed in the effort to improve the lives of people of color.  

Many of these themes are echoed by Rochester’s police chief LaRon Singletary.  In an interview published in the Beacon, the Chief outlined the thrust of his Community Policing Plan and the importance of accountability and engaging members of the community.  The challenge, of course, is that the real results are difficult if not impossible to measure.  For members of the most affected communities, the question might be, “how do you feel when you see a cop coming down the street?”  If one feels safer because of his or her presence, it’s a mark of success.  If one feels as though they should run away, there is more work to do.  

WHO WILL LEAD?

Now is the time to invest in green energy

The following post was published in the July 17, 2020 edition of the Rochester Business Journal

The pandemic has knocked a surging economy flat on its back.  Predictions on its recovery range from the V-shaped curve we’d all like to see to the forecast by the Congressional Budget Office that implies it will take a decade to return to our former glory.  Many, including Wall Street Journal columnist John Stoll suggest we put our green dreams on hold saying, “businesses that were trying to save the world are now simply trying to save themselves.”  It’s a fair point.  But it ignores some fundamental principles of how we should analyze our businesses at the bottom of the cycle and make strategic investment decisions.

Guiding a company out of distress into a stable and competitive future is no small task.  Survivors will have spent time reevaluating their companies with an eye toward eliminating unproductive activities and unprofitable products and services.  The outcome for those who succeed will no doubt be a leaner, more efficient enterprise.  A disciplined approach to restructuring balance sheets and operations will yield an opportunity to develop new strategies for the future.  And, those new strategies should include green energy and carbon neutrality.  

We all know the big picture.  Nicely summarized by the Trump administration’s National Climate Assessment, “Human-induced climate change means much more than just hotter weather… These changes… [will] affect human health, water supply, agriculture, transportation, energy… with increasingly adverse impacts on the American economy…”  The Boston Consulting Group has quantified the impact in a report titled “How to Change Course on Climate.” BCG projects a 30% decline in per capita GDP by mid-Century if we do nothing to address climate change.   Reversal of that decline calls for us – all of us, locally, nationally and globally – to eliminate carbon emissions by achieving carbon neutrality in our operations.  

Fortunately, we have reached a point where it is not only economically feasible but also advantageous to deploy green energy.  There are local businesses offering community solar power with no upfront investment at a cost lower than conventional energy.  Others will help you electrify your fleet.  The Greater Rochester Regional Economic Development website provides examples of local companies who have improved their businesses as well as their carbon footprint by deploying green energy. 

Resources are available and the table has been set.  The next step is to include green energy and carbon neutrality as critical strategies for your business.  Raising the consciousness of your management team, exploring green options and implementing those that place you on a more sustainable path will undoubtedly improve your results both in the near term and long term.  

No one solution applies to every business.  But there is a solution for your business.  

WHO WILL LEAD? 

The Conservative Approach to Defunding the Police

This post was published in Rochester's daily newspaper, The Democrat & Chronicle, on June 21, 2020

Will Hurd is the only black Republican in the House of Representatives.  In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he laid out his proposal for reforming the police.  Included was the implementation of best practices for police departments to be eligible to receive their portion of the $2 billion the federal government provides to police departments annually.  Implicitly, Rep. Hurd is saying Congress will defund police departments that don’t meet federal standards.

 

The clarion call to defund the police sounds like one end of a binary choice: either eliminate police department budgets or leave things as they are.  Of course, neither of those options are acceptable.  

 

At a local level, defunding the police will take a different form in every community.  In 2013, the city of Camden NJ dissolved its unionized police department and signed a service agreement with the county to provide shared services according to Bloomberg News.  The police were trained in non-crisis intervention and provided with body cameras.  The result has been a reduction in crime and improved community relations.  Last week, Camden police marched in solidarity with #blacklivesmatter protestors.  

 

Would Camden’s solution work in Rochester?  

 

The best approach is for each city to adopt solutions well-suited to their specific communities.  Can the federal government extrapolate a single, one-size-fits-all solution for the nation?  Would connecting that solution to funding have its intended purpose?  It’s unlikely. 

 

There are effective resources the federal government can apply to assist communities.  However, the very nature of large, well-funded federal programs attracts influencers who would undermine its intent and render it ineffective.  By the time lobbyists for police unions and lawyers for social justice organizations got through with it, there would be nothing left of Rep. Hurd’s good intentions.  Bureaucrats would create a set of rules, mayors would declare themselves in compliance, police chiefs would issue carefully worded policies, and nothing would change.  

How about this?  Eliminate the $2 billion in federal funding altogether.  The overall system of taxing Americans and redistributing the funds through federal programs is inefficient, ineffective and unresponsive to the needs of our communities. It would be better to leave the funds in our communities and trust local leaders to affect change.  They would be more responsive and more likely to craft something that works.   

Of course, that’s my libertarian fantasy.  It’s not as though eliminating $2 billion in funding would return that money to taxpayers or the cities we live in.  Two billion dollars is a rounding error on a federal deficit funded by funny money created by the Federal Reserve.  So, we must have our portion of the $2 billion.  But I would rather trust our African-American mayor and local community leaders address our need for reform.  Central planning doesn’t work.  Never has; never will. 

 

WHO WILL LEAD?