Motivation and Sensitivity Back in the imaginary time frame known as “the day”, coaches, teachers, team members and interested parties prodded with criticism in order to motivate the object of the criticism to do better. This tactic was the foundation of my upbringing and was a motivating factor in much of my personal improvement. Coaches, all over, have called male members of the team “girls”, and often times, much worse feminine references, to “inspire” the team to perform better. The objective was a, not so subtle, constructive criticism used to point out flaws in performance and inspire better performance and dedication to craft and goals. This tactic has been a motivating factor in this country’s success sparking innovation and increasing productivity. Today, this long practiced notion of constructive criticism has been morphed into something akin to undermining attacks on the character of the object of the criticism. When police agencies, in the face of numerous incidents that ended with tragic results, are asked to train better and be less fearful of minorities, the result is a circling of the wagons by the police agencies, while union reps attack the suggestion as anti- police. For example, the mayor of NYC who is currently under attack from police, is being blamed by union reps for the tragic killing of two police officers in their squad car by a deranged gunman, who killed his girlfriend earlier in the day. Union reps have targeted the mayor for criticism, since he became the mayor, for his comments on improving police relations with minorities, which helped him win election, with no support from police. The mayor relied on the empirical evidence that the city’s stop and frisk policy, almost exclusively targeted toward black and Hispanic males, was oppressive. The policy, which some argue, implies that race and gender are probable cause for police involvement, resulted in 90 percent of those stopped not being charged with any crime. Many have argued that this tactic wastes the officer’s time and distracts them from “real” police work. Police agencies have to come to grips with the notion that constructive criticism based on tragic incidents and empirical is to enhance their effectiveness and relations with every facet of the community. The criticism is not an unwarranted and undermining attack on all police officers. In the wake of the second most severe economic situation in over a century, suggestions for reform to financial agencies and corporate America to prevent any similar economic calamity from occurring in the future, which would inevitably land in the laps of the shell- shocked and fearful middle class, were met with marketing campaigns by the banks and the Chamber of Commerce that suggested that the president was anti-business, even while his economic policy led to their recovering and normalcy before every other facet of the society. The recent federal funding bill seeks to roll back regulations on financial derivatives, which were the foundation of the economic crisis of 2008, the president begrudgingly supports the legislation, yet big business lobbying groups are still criticizing the president for being anti- business and anti- America. Entities instilled with the public economic trust should be open for suggestion on improving and preventing calamity resulting from greed and nefarious activity. This sensitivity to and rejection of any motivation to improve from outside their specific culture is the single most undermining factor to implementation of equality, justice, opportunity and productivity. The choosing to be less than what an entity could be, for whatever reason, has a deleterious effect on the social fabric of the nation. Constructive criticism is the motivator of productive change, pushing for better results, challenging the status quo to innovate and fosters the traditional notion of building a better model for success. This practice is an imperative in our society and has been a integral facet to the success this country has enjoyed. The desire to improve and do what it takes to be better has to be a foundational objective if this country, the most successful experiment in the history of the world, is to continue its growth and development. Just because one is in the spotlight of constructive criticism, based upon quantifiable information, does not mean they are under attack from an opponent. It often means society values their contribution, so much so, that it cares to be critical and desires they reach their full potential. SG
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 16:39:46 +0000