FITZROVIA – Batman Syndrome* is when you have achieved all sorts of fame and fortune, and regular life holds no challenges, so you start to do anti-social, dangerous things.

In the case of Bruce Wayne it’s putting you knickers outside you tights and fighting crime.

In the cases of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dominique Strauss-Kahn it’s something else.

I don’t know if this is a real syndrome. I haven’t done the socio-psycho research to prove it. But it certainly helps explain a lot.

Both the head of the IMF and the former Governor of California had form.  They were known to have gotten into trouble before.  But they escaped censure. So it escalated.

And the point of interest for us mortals is to look out for when it might start to exhibit itself in the work place.

I can see, for example, shades of it what I call “first time as a Prefect” management style. This is when people get drunk on their new found responsibilities and start using their power in weird and unhelpful ways.

In the case of these two major political figures that’s quite an understatement.

Calling people on their bad behaviour has been a feature of politics forever.

It is starting to happen with journalists and CEOs too.

But it’s not yet common in most offices and workplaces.

Don’t think it’s not coming though.

The cape and tights didn’t help DSK and Arnie.  They shouldn’t help people in business either.

/df

* Not to be confused with this Batman Syndrome which is described as the inability to move one’s head without moving your whole torso.  Although…

MY KITCHEN, VERY EARLY — Out of the corner of my eye I spotted an article this week:

The Environmental Protection Agency set the value of a life at $9.1 million last year … [recently] the agency [had] used numbers as low as $6.8 million.

So said The New York Times.

And that is a very interesting state of affairs. 

There used to be a concept in journalism of how many deaths in a third world country it took to warrant similar space to a single death in our own.  An unseemly concept, I know.  But one that can be shown in research.

When I was a boy in Africa you could buy a drivers licence, with the right amount of money or friends.  And so The Standard and The Nation used to compete for the number of deaths they could declare in a single matatu (see photo above) accident.

This week the heart-stopping story of a US journalist who was assaulted by a crowd of men when she was separated from her crew in Egypt, is a good example of our different views on the newsworthiness of a life.  There were 3.5 million people convicted of crimes in Egypt last year.  And 48 people executed.

In the USA it is estimated that someone is sexually assaulted every 2 minutes.

When I first started working in the 1980s, I was in a newsroom with a researcher friend called Christophe.  A lovely, peaceful guy.  He used to whisper is the library stacks with a woman called Rosemary about the inequities of the world.  And how businesses and governments, and people who didn’t care — like you and I — were responsible for making the world the mess that it is.

Christophe got his big break when a boss decided to approve his request to go cover a ‘peace’ conference in Libya.  It turned out to be filled with radical groups, including neo-nazis.  Christophe was thrown from the roof of a building.  Not yet 30 years old.  It took quite a while to even get his body back.

So why is the cost of life important?

Because it has a direct, if subtle, impact on all of us. The higher the value, the greater the cost of insurance.  The higher the penalties for things like environmental mismanagement.

And at the same time companies like GSK spend a fortune in Africa to save lives.  Or Rio Tinto [disclosure: they are a client] who invest in communities in ways that bring health and safety — as well as work — to small communities.  There is no set level of investment or any really, really clear return on that investment.  (And, yes, Christophe would never have accepted it as useful enough.)  But the world is starting to balance out its responsibility for the cost of a human life.

Whether it’s demands for better social support mechanisms in countries where ‘consumerism’ has run the economy — like Egypt — or businesses that are finding themselves drawn into communities where they have hired smart people — like call centres in India and Ireland.  There is a bigger and more global cost to supporting the 6 billion people on the planet.

In Uganda the population has doubled to 33 million in the last two decades.  In the next 10 years it will double again.  The US insurance industry and regulators don’t value those lives at $9 million each.  Or Uganda wouldn’t be in 162nd place, of the world’s 182 national economies.

For western economies and ‘first world’ nations think of it like this: your kids have just brought home about 5 friends each.  You should be prepared to feed and support them all.

/df

MY KITCHEN — Nothing like a Saturday morning read of the papers to generate a good old rant. 

This morning I am caught by the Independent’s cover story on women in senior business roles in the UK.  Have a read if you want numbers and even if you just want to read quotes from male executives that will make your blood boil.

There lots of good arguments for why there aren’t more women in senior roles in business.  You can even try to make them compelling.  You can call for new government policy, or new regulations to promote or “positively discriminate” against women.  But that’s not the problem.  The problem is that we spend too much time finding reason why women can’t take senior roles — and not enough time putting them into the jobs.

There is no earthly way that some of the women I have worked with need any support or positive discrimination.  They are on average better consultants and managers than most of the men I have worked with.  They just need to be hired and promoted.

You can grab a piece of paper and start writing reasons why women aren’t being hired and promoted into senior jobs.  But it is irrelevant. 

There are many reasons why we should never have created a pension programme for people.  There are good reasons why we should never have pursued manned air flight.  There are millions of reasons not to get out of bed tomorrow.  But we still did and we still will.

We’re a tiny business and we have senior people off on maternity leave.  We have people on flexible hours.  We’re not making a lot of money. But we strongly feel that we still don’t have enough women in the office.  We’re trying to hire more.

If you have ever worked with people you don’t need to ask what it is that women add to business that men can’t.  You know.  You just have to go sit with a bunch of guys at the pub to know that boys have their limitations.

Let’s stop making excuses and just get more women into senior roles.  Business, the economy, the country and society will definitely be better for it.

/df

HYDE PARK — I watched an episode of Mission: Impossible with my 11-year-old yesterday.  It was 1968 and they had to trick a bad guy into believing it he’d been frozen for 12 years.  So they froze him and he “woke up in 1980″.

It was great to see what 1980 looked like from 1968.  There were rocket cars, flat screen TVs, lots of buttons to push, and no more money. It was all just cards.  But, yea, there was still an attractive woman to take your order and/ or your bedpan.

I often wonder how far short we have fallen of my grandmothers’ sense of what the future would hold? 

Last week a lady came in for a visit,  she’s been laid off while on maternity leave and had been told convincingly by someone that ‘mothers never get their good jobs back’.

That winds me up.

She’ll need flexible hours and maybe short weeks, but she’s ready to work… and yet she’s convinced the world is not ready for her. 

There must be a better way. 

We’ve got the flat screen TVs, the Internet, we’ve even got cars that go like rockets.  But 51% of the population think they can’t work and have a family.

/df

TCR — My mother’s maiden name was Young. And her sister’s called Carol. So, I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but I feel quite proprietary about Carl Jung.

Jung and Freud are also set to be the subject of a saucy film about their relationship with a Russian emigree. It will be out next spring and star Keira Knightley. So I’m sure we’ll all feel a but different about Carl and Sigmund soon.

Today though the subject is Carl Jung, leadership and communication. Jung’s view on human behaviour, motivations and character types has been fully adopted into our world view. Western societies (at least) just assume his views to be true.

Which is remarkable when you consider how mad they were at the time. And even how controversial Jung and Freud’s lives were seen to be even after they had died. If you talk to business leaders about MBTI (as I don’t really like to do) or about the transition curve, performance management, reward, promotions, and the like they’ll often spout something about enlightened self-interest or leading with the need which all owe some debt of gratitude to my errant Swiss relative.

What radical ideas on business are we creating today that will be a commonly held belief by the time my grandchildren are retiring?

It’s worth thinking about.

/df

PICCADILLY LINE — Sometimes you have to wonder if they say these things just to wind up the Brits. UEFA and FIFA officials that is.

Sepp Blatter, the president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has commented on the England football captain John Terry losing his job. Terry, who is married with twin babies, was found to have been having an affair with his fellow defenseman’s fiance.

Blatter said that in some countries his behaviour would have been applauded. Citing Latin countries like France, Italy and Spain.

Is that true?

No.

But it does raise an interesting question: what level of responsibility does an organisation have in the so-called personal lives of it’s employees?

I have worked in a business where there were liaison’s between bosses and people who reported to them. A bit like the David Letterman business that America was overwhelmed with in 2009. And many businesses do not see that as a problem.

What do you think?

/df

EARLSFIELD — There’s a Caffe Nero on the high street here where I take refuge on Saturday morning while waiting for kids’ activities to finish. This morning I have counted 15 dads and babies. Other days I have seen more.

There’s no special club or association as far as I know.

It’s just that Saturday morning in South West London hardened moms seem to get up and say: “Take the child and get out! And don’t come back for at least a few hours.”

So the place is over-run. The dads seem to come in pairs or small groups. They’re not all younger than me. But they’ve all got babies under 2 and enough courage to at least pretend to have an intelligent conversation with another dad while actually looking after their kids. (These aren’t the dads of even 10 years ago. They know how to look after their kids.)

And judging by the conversations these dad’s are only moonlighting in child care. They’re deep in the heart of organisations on a week day.

So men have less available time these days. They aren’t on the golf course or meeting colleagues at the pub. They’re not members of dinner clubs or the Rotary. They’re not even getting up early to play footie. Unless it’s with a toddler. And that’s a deep societal change.

It means the working weekends, 12-hour days, 5-day travel schedules are going to be resisted more and more. ‘Family friendly’ policies may sound hokey and American, but they’ll be coming to you soon enough.

/df

DUBAI AIRPORT — I am not sure why, but I have avoided writing about this in the 6 years I have been blogging. I think it’s like some strange martial art — the moment you have the gall to think you are good enough, you will be taught a lesson.

I love working across cultures. In the last 12 months I have worked on at least 4 of the 5 continents (depending on how you count them.) And all I know for sure is that I know nothing. I am always aware that there are local customs and practices that will catch me unawares.

This is in spite of so many indicators that suggest otherwise. As I wrote recently, you can hear Michael Jackson everywhere. This week in Kuala Lumpur car after car went by with stickers in their windows with the McDonald’s arches saying “McDonald’s Drive Thru VIP”.

“Ha! Ha!” we can laugh. “You see! We ARE all the same! McDonald’s and drive thru…”

But that may actually be a good example of how we are different. What is a drive thru VIP? Why the heck have a sticker in your front car window? (Amongst my investigating of Malaysian culture, I left these questions unanswered.) All you have to do is walk into a McDonald’s in the Muslim world to know the difference — like the Slavic mafioso and his daughter at the buffet here in Dubai, demanding to know where the bacon is!

A few things to think about as you head across town to meet the feared guys from that other school, or as you jet off to far off lands to share a windowless meeting room with people you think you know.

1. Stop, listen and think

Don’t let a few familiar things make you believe that values, morals and behaviours are going to be the same as yours.

Which is not to say that your mum didn’t raise you well. But your views on politics, timekeeping, religion, humour, etc. are not always shared by everyone else… Just because you KNOW that they are right, doesn’t mean everyone else has to.

2. Only speak when it improves the silence

Regular readers will know I love this LBJ quote. But, like the constant blathering of the ubiquitous CNN and BBC TVs of airports and coffee shops, too many of us like to talk to fill the silence.

Why? Some accents, attitudes and postures single us out as people to be avoided faster than if we were training a big helium balloon with the word “dork” written on it.

When you are in a new cultural situation, why not keep your own counsel for a while, and see if you can’t think of something intelligent to say when you do open your mouth?

3. Keep your hands to yourself

It may surprise you. But not everyone wants to shake your hand. In fact, in some places people simply can’t. Likewise the awkward habit of westerners of trying to pat people on the back, grab their forearm, etc. I am about as white and western as any person on the planet, but if you try to do that locking thumbs hand-shake that athletes now do, or high-five, or bump fists with me… I am going to quietly take you off my Christmas card list… (Oh, you’ll be sorry then, won’t you!)

The same goes for our fascination with questionable hand signals. Thumbs up, pointing at people, drawing a finger across your throat, etc. Don’t.

I was putting a picture of George Bush doing the ‘Texas long horn’ hand sign in my presentation recently… you know the one?… and my business partner Paul told me that when he was a child in Rome a guy on his street got killed for doing that. It means you are a cuckold.

4. Read everything

There’s so much available in local newspapers, online, in your library that you should never be sitting on a plane or a bus playing games on your phone.

Local newspapers are fantastic for what they tell you… and what they don’t. You may know about political issues in a country only to find them completely absent from the local media. Quick! What does that tell you?!

Yes. That’s probably right.

5. Be unfailingly nice

Maybe this is something that your mum taught you. It really doesn’t take much to qualify as charming. Re-watch some old Cary Grant movies if you have to. The trick is simple:

- Say please and thank you
- Smile
- Show gratitude when appropriate
- Say ‘no’ firmly, but without malice
- Watch a little before you act

It’s easy for people to say that the world is going all wrong. We’re good at finding new disasters to replace the old ones. But one thing that I find constantly reassuring is how much people will work to get along.

One woman in a hijab in my course this week in KL will always be burned into my memory. She had a brilliant, warm smile, and she used it indescriminately. It helped me settle. And she was kind enough to make me think a tall, pasty guy from Westmount might have something useful to say to a dozen diverse professionals from around the South China Sea.

Brilliant.

/df

THE CENTRAL LINE — I read an article this morning that I have been mulling over all day. There are probably many reasons not to write about it… not least because I am not a woman… but I can’t think of any reason that is really good enough.

It has to do with the different way in which men and women are forced to face the world of work. The article that got me thinking is about the wife of Michael Chabon. He’s a brilliant author whose books (including The Wonder Boys which was made into a film) were part of a new wave of American fiction in the 1990s. She is an author in her own right and many more impressive things. Her name is Ayelet Waldman.

She has been booed on Oprah, castigated by the all-women team of hosts at The View and generally disrespected in many ways.

And the controversy she has caused can be summarised in a few words:

“It would be nice if women could be flawed, likable, intelligent, and able to talk about both their successes and failures.”

That probably seems pretty straight-forward. But it’s maybe worth looking into her book Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace. There are definitely some shocking things in what she says. She talks frankly about how she feels about her children… how much she disliked endlessly pushing a swing… and talking rubbish in the playground.

And for me there is the root of the issue: why do we continue to expect women to do things that few men would consider:

• subjugate all their ambitions (and self) for the love of their children?
• balance the irreconcilable demands of motherhood/ supportive wife with any personal ambition?
• (and receive — so all the statistics say — consistently less pay for doing so?

The most illustrative story I read from Waldman was one she and her husband tell of him simply holding a child in his arms while ordering a cafe-latte one morning, when someone told him he was “such a great father.”

The contrast that draws is what it takes for a woman to be told that she is even a passable mother.

We can’t really go on working like this.

/df