Recent View from the Prairie Articles

June 2025

Sea of Propaganda

We swim in an ocean of propaganda and advertising. AI is making it worse. Nearly anyone can post their beliefs online for all to see. With AI faking pictures, videos, or "recordings" of someone saying something, we can no longer trust any of them. One way to deal with such is to ask, "what if this is false?" In business, we often need to make good decisions without much data. We make these decisions based on our own beliefs and values. It is important to have clear connection to values that build a better future.

Hiring and Retention

Elon Musk called for people to work 80 hours per week. Rarely is that the way to get the best people. The team he assembled is full of people without experience, not knowing where mistakes are commonly made, and are making mistakes that our enemies are exploiting. Hiring and retaining the right workers challenges many companies.

Welcome to the Jungle

Axl Rose sang, "Welcome to the Jungle" with the line "You're in the jungle, baby. You're going to die." The jungle is not civilized. While many romanticize the concept of living in nature, the jungle is not a safe place. What to eat and if you would be alive to eat are always in question. The "supply chain" for meals is highly variable. Today, shock after shock is hitting business supply chains. Managing the supply chain requires visibility, flexibility, and resilience. Managers need to handle natural disasters, political upheaval, and cyber-attacks.

Mental Pollution

When the "dime novel" burst on the scene, critics roundly condemned the writing, the moral and cultural ambiguities, and bemoaned how it was corrupting the minds of our youth. But have books really corrupted youth? Mental pollution takes several forms: learning false information, taking in too much information, and propaganda taking over all channels. We need to learn how to handle the mental polution we swim in.

The Meritocracy Myth

In 1896, an African American born as a slave received a Master of Science degree from Iowa State University. He went on to win patents and was highly influential in improving farming and the use of peanuts. People associate him with inventing over 300 products. This shows that training and ability are far more important than how a person starts. Meritocracy claims that background and expensive schooling should count more. However, they are no guarantee for compassion, morality, or business ethics. For true creativity, we need people thinking outside the meritocracy box. Modern training has shown that nearly anyone can be trained to properly do almost any job.

Creative Destruction

Joann Stores are closing. Many crafters and people who work with fabric are sad. The debt levels were too high to be serviced and there was no way to shrink to greatness. Is this part of the natural cycles of capitalism or is it a sign of something toxic? Creative destruction is an accepted aspect of Capitalism. Creative destruction works only when the community has resiliency.

Move Fast and Kill People

When we stagger out of bed and get ready for work, we often follow a routine. We have a "process" we use over and over again. One of the most powerful parts of modern management is how we develop and rely upon processes to perform functions over and over again. While some people attempt to circumvent such processes and processes do need to be rethought on a regular basis, destroying a process can destroy the organization. When people's lives are at stake, following a well thought out process can be essential to survival. Back in 2011, JC Penney was struggling and the board brought in a new CEO.

Turn Problems Around

Does singing a country song backwards bring back your pickup and dog? While humorous to think that it might, this saying is about looking at problems from the other end. Many times, we get caught up in one way of thinking and turning the problem around is a great way to see our problem in a new light. When we look at the potential failures of investments, we might be able to see things we missed when full of enthusiasm.

World Champion or DEI Hire?

In early February, the basketball world was shocked by the Luka Doncic trade. Many wondered if the manager really knows how to evaluate talent. When looking at someone, do we see only the surface and call that person a "DEI hire" or go beyond the surface and recognize a "Tiger Woods", a world champion? History is full of cases where people did not look beyond the surface and let champions walk to their competitors.

Greatness or Just Average

A small business person wanted a new video ad. They were able to use AI to generate such a video within a short time. For small business, AI is a great way to generate ad copy. Many writers view writing ad copy as one of the worst jobs they could have and using AI instead frees them from that. But AI generates average marketing, not great marketing. Great marketing tells a story, an irresistible story.

Leadership

Many people strive to be leaders, but lack leadership. Often, they think that the most important thing is to be loud and speaking often, even making up stuff. But leadership is first and foremost about moral authority - when others trust someone to make the next decision fairly and in a way that benefits the most people. Leadership involves vision, communication, and structuring things so that others can do more.

Once Rich - Staying Poor?

The ruins of Chaco Canyon are impressive. They show that in the 1100's, a vibrant and wealthy civilization flourished in northwest New Mexico centered on that canyon. Today it is a ruin. The only people living there are park employees. Mississippi was once the richest state in the Union. Today it isn't. Place after place has been wealthy and slid into a decline that can last hundreds of years.

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