Year of Chicken Little: The sky is falling, and we are powerless to stop it

By Stan Johnston

The world will end on Monday. Not because a “Biblical numerologist” told Fox News. I know because the sky is falling – apparently all the time. Everywhere I go people are fretting about, well, everything. Welcome to the Year of Chicken Little.

Better known as Henny Penny in Europe, the character is a perfect metaphor for today’s insecure world of accelerating change. In the original children’s tale, a young chicken believes the sky is falling piece-by-piece after an acorn hits her head. One bad knock causes Chicken Little to believe everything will be bad going forward. Worse, others quickly jump on the bandwagon. Sound familiar?

While hiking, I have had pine cones drop on my head. It is not a pleasant experience. But I didn’t immediately leap from “a pine cone hit me” to “everything is coming down on me.” Unfortunately, we live in a cynical era. In China it is the Year of the Dog, but the global mood of 2018 is distinctly chicken: The sky is falling, and we are powerless to stop it.

For weeks I’ve been reading that April 23 was the day a numerologist predicted the world would end. It’s another in a long string of hope-draining headlines that dominate our media. From Syria and North Korea to Trump and Stormy, from #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter to chemical weapons and opioid epidemics, we expect most news to be a bummer pretty much daily.

In China it is the Year of the Dog, but the global mood is distinctly chicken

My European friends are suffering through the Year of The Henny Penny with news of Brexit, terrorist attacks, poisoned spies, Catalonia crackdowns and economic challenges. How did we get so negative about life, at least in the headlines?

When I worked on newspapers, subscribers often complained that we only printed bad news. I did personal audits and found the good and bad were pretty much equally distributed. However, readers were more interested in burglary arrests than the food bank 5K run. Just saying.

Even the mistaken belief that disaster is imminent is old news. A few of my favorites:

• The Russians are evil and could nuke America at any moment. If living in Moscow, the Americans are evil and could nuke Russia at any moment. (A time-tested acorn.)
• All civilization will grind to a halt on Jan. 1, 2000, because of the Y2K computer issue.
• The Mayan calendar predicts the world will end in 2012.
• The Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole that could engulf the planet in 2008.
• Aliens in flying saucers have invaded our planet (several times). Some will come down and take True Believers away in 1954. Or 1997.
• In 2000, the alignment of Earth with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will result in a new ice age.
• Jesus will return by 1844 (“The Great Disappointment”). I mean 1988. No, make that 2011. Or 2018.

How should we respond to noisy pessimism? Most important, don’t join in. Consider the consequences faced by Chicken Little’s friends:

After being hit by the acorn, the hysterical young chick takes off to warn the king and is soon joined by others. In the most familiar version, a fox invites them into its den: “They all go in, but they never, never come out again.” Having the story end with our team getting eaten could be too harsh for 21^st Century children, so the newer PG version lets the chick get rescued and speak to the king – who tells them only what they want to hear.

The story goes back more than 25 centuries but still resonates as a cautionary tale about paranoia, mass hysteria and not believing everything you are told. Whether it’s Fox News or Foxy Loxy, we must resist the temptation to see the world through a veil of gullible fear.

Now today’s good news: The sky is not falling. Who will tell the king?

PS: I am returning to WordPress after two years on LinkedIn. For those posts click here.

World Cup champions show my company how to win after suffering setbacks

I like sports metaphors – in part because I love competitive sports, and in part because I started my career as a sports journalist. While covering events such as the Super Bowl and World Series, I watched teams rise and fall. Some even found a way to rise yet again (except for the Chicago Cubs, of course).

A wonderful recent example is the U.S. women’s national soccer/football team, which won the World Cup on Sunday by beating Japan 5-2. As the team was being showered with confetti from above, cheers from the crowd, and praise from the announcers, I thought back to a very different scene four years ago. Then the Japanese women were celebrating and the U.S. women were in tears.

It made me consider how good organizations emerge from adversity stronger.

In 2011, the U.S. women led the championship game until giving up a late tying goal. Then in the penalty phase, player after player failed to execute. The team lost and was devastated. A year later, head coach and leader Pia Sundhage announced she was leaving. That was followed by off-field controversies around players like goalie Hope Solo, who also publicly criticized new coach Greg Ryan. That led to yet another coaching change, with Jill Ellis taking over last year.

The team had many doubters and more detractors entering World Cup 2015. Was this generation of American women past its prime? Would they come up short again and forever live in the shadow of the ’99 championship team?

When your performance is public record, you have nowhere to hide if you stumble. You also have to expect mistakes will be examined and criticized in a public way. Sure, it’s more fun when they gush over you for winning – as the world did on Sunday with the U.S. women. But many of those same pundits were calling for their heads four years ago.

So how did the team battle back from that major setback?

Most important, they never stopped believing in themselves and each other. They determined to remain positive and confident.  They returned to the fundamentals that brought them success in the first place. But they also were willing to change. They bought in a new coach and new talent, such as Julie Johnston (not that her last name matters). They tested new formations and began using longtime stars like Abby Wambach off the bench.

They also didn’t fall into the blame game. No one coach or player lost the World Cup final in 2011. They recognized every person in their organization had a role in its results.

I feel the same way about where my company (NetApp) is today. Our “coach” has changed recently, and our performance is under public scrutiny. But the responsibility falls on every employee – not just the CEO. Since the key issue is execution, like it was for the U.S. women in 2011, I think NetApp can learn from that team’s experience:

We must believe in ourselves and teammates. Stay positive. Be confident about our ability to help customers succeed. Get back to fundamentals while being open to change. But most important, every person in the organization has to make a commitment to give their best. Nothing less will get it done.

In business, it’s naive to believe you will only have confetti moments. Eventually you experience defeat. In those moments, the best teams form a collective determination to change the outcome next time. The U.S. women had to wait four years for their chance.

Our moment is now. And I like our odds.

Stan Johnston, strategic messaging manager for NetApp, was sports editor of The Sacramento Bee and St. Louis Sun in a previous life.

Upcoming World Cup in Brazil will be an inflection point for soccer in America

Jergen Klinsmann understands the stakes in Brazil.

In the technology industry, we often talk about “inflection points” – events that change how people behave so much they affect progress, positive or negative. Those inflection points include the advent of the Internet and mobile smart phones. The upcoming World Cup in Brazil is an inflection point for soccer in the United States.

Last week the U.S. Men’s National Team head coach showed he knows this is a crucial moment by cutting its best-known player, Landon Donovan. Coach Jürgen Klinsmann put his chances of winning ahead of popularity, and the present ahead of the past. “I have to choose the 23 best players based on what I see today,” said Klinsmann.

The debate among Donovan supporters, of course, is what defines the “best” players. Donovan is certainly one of the top 23 players in terms of skills. However, this team is designed for a run in the tropics, not the suburbs of L.A. This is a month-long tournament in grueling humidity of up to 99 percent in northwest Brazil this time of year. It starts with three games in three cities over two weeks of group play (June 12-26). The second stage – the round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals – runs from June 28 to July 9. The championship game is July 13 in Rio De Janeiro.

Landon Donovan admitted he was behind in fitness, a key player assessment issue for Brazil.

Michael Bradley, the most talented and important U.S. player in Brazil, understands clearly what is needed: “For us to go into a World Cup and have a real chance at making a run, we’ve got to be the fittest team there,” he said after a 2-2 draw with Mexico in April.

When Klinsmann said other players had a slight edge over Donovan, he wasn’t talking about skill on penalty kicks. The coach clearly knows player fitness will be a differentiator in this tournament, and the stakes are far too high to compromise on that.

It’s such an important moment, I believe it’s what Intel co-founder Andy Grove once called “a strategic inflection point … an event that changes the way we think and act.” In world football, the World Cup has the weight to do that in entire countries, impacting the perception of the sport and even the nation for years by its sheer mass of worldwide interest and exposure.

Many consider the U.S. failure to get out of its group stage in 2006 to be a negative inflection point, after a young 2002 team that included Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley got to the quarterfinals. I witnessed one of the positive inflection points in the late 1970s, when Pelé came to the New York Cosmos to help kick-start the North American Soccer League. The upcoming World Cup is such a moment for soccer in America for two reasons:

It’s time to show progress or retool.

Even after cutting Donovan, this may be the most experienced, capable and competitive men’s team the U.S. has ever fielded top to bottom. The whole world knows it. Yes, they’re in a tough group in Brazil. But there are no excuses at this point. I appreciate the fact Klinsmann understands that. With veterans like Bradley, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard along with a fit and underrated bench, failure to get out of group stage would be a setback for the domestic development program and recruitment of players with dual nationalities. Winners want to play with winners.

It could impact professional soccer in America for years.

Grove also talked about inflection points in industries – say, Major League Soccer, the top American/Canadian professional league. With 10 MLS players on the 23-man team, the reputation of the league will be impacted by their performance in Brazil. Players like Dempsey and Bradley have made recent high-profile moves to MLS from top European leagues. They could gain significant credibility for MLS if the U.S. men’s team could get to the second stage. Failure to get out of group stage would be a PR disaster for MLS, validating its reputation of being a nice place to retire – and significantly affecting its negotiating position in contracts.

Michael Bradley is the most important and talented U.S. player in Brazil.

As far as inflection points, it’s not the fall of the Berlin Wall or landing on the moon. It’s not even as far-reaching as the invention of the curling iron. But this is a turning point for the worldwide reputation of U.S. soccer on several levels, and everybody knows it.

Like all good inflection points, this will be driven by one key event. The good news: About six weeks from now we’ll have clear winners and losers. There are no ties in this game. Klinsmann gets that, and I’m grateful.

In the end, the progress of soccer in America over the next four years will rise or fall on the won-loss record of one team in one tournament. Oh, and it’s against the world’s best players in withering conditions. Such is the way of competitive sport. At this level, you have to earn respect every day. Just ask Donovan.

byStanley is written by Stan Johnston. He started his career as an award-winning newspaper writer and editor. Currently he is on the global marketing team of NetApp, a Fortune 500 technology company based in the Silicon Valley.

Revive major-league baseball with Europe’s relegation system of demoting losers

Compelling sports drama played out across Europe the past few weeks as professional soccer leagues ended their regular seasons. But the drama wasn’t just in title races. For many teams it was a fight for survival at the bottom of a system called “relegation” – a polite way of saying you’re demoted to the minor leagues. Not just individuals. They kick out entire teams and their communities. And it might be just what major-league baseball needs.

The relegation system could boost interest in major-league baseball, and not just by bringing more teams into the playoff race. It brings a “Hunger Games” mentality as the pressure mounts on at-risk teams, players, managers, owners, and even entire communities – facing the potential of seeing only minor-league teams the following year.

In European club soccer, a late-season game among the bottom four teams can draw as high a TV audience as the top four. Best-case scenario is when one of the endangered teams knocks somebody out of the title race.

Here is how relegation works, with England’s Premier League as an example:

The Premier League has 20 teams. At the end of the regular season, the top four teams qualify for the best European playoffs – the UEFA Champions League. (The Champions League title game on May 43 will draw a higher global TV audience than the Super Bowl.)  Where it gets interesting is the other end of the standings, or “fixture.” In the EPL, the final teams are “relegated” to the next level down of professional “football.” In major-league baseball (MLB) terms, that would be Triple-A ball.

Consider the possibilities If Major League Baseball had implemented a similar last season, relegating the final four:

That means MLB would have lost teams in Chicago, Miami and Houston and replaced them with teams from the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, a small resort town called the “Pearl” of Mexico’s Yucatan’s gulf coast, the capital of Mexico’s major coastal state (Oaxaca), and the family sin capital of the United States.  It actually would make sense if the final four teams also qualified for a regional professional baseball tournament of champions – with teams from Cuba, Puerto Rica, Mexico, Panama and other countries.

Obviously that won’t happen. Why? You don’t earn your way into the MLB. You buy your way in. (OK, some may say Manchester City bought its way to the title this year, but that’s another blog.) Baseball still sees itself as the American game, ruled by tradition on and off the diamond. That means changes like this take generations. Just the facts.

While a lack of accountability on a club level does offer fans security by guaranteeing their team will be in the league (if not in that city) next year, it also reduces the drama and new opportunities that could be generated.

On the other hand, as a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan I understand a relegation system in the MLB would almost assure we would lose the Chicago Cubs to the International League for long stretches. Who else would I love to hate after so long? I guess the status quo has advantages.

byStanley is written by Stan Johnston. He started his career as an award-winning newspaper writer and editor. Currently he is on the global marketing team of NetApp, a Fortune 500 technology company based in the Silicon Valley.

How I kicked the single-car habit and found 4 compelling reasons to use public transit

My mother often said, “necessity is the mother of invention.” She was right, of course.  Hard times like our Great Regression often inspire ingenious solutions that endure beyond the crisis. Some, like the death of my car, even produce a change in direction.

I am among a legion of Americans who idolize their vehicles, especially automobiles. I took the driver’s license test on my 16^th birthday. Certainly driving was a status symbol as a U.S. teen back then, but getting a license wasn’t just a luxury for me. I worked my way through college commuting 40 miles round trip to the St. Louis City rail yards during the summers. I made good money, but five summers of pounding rail spikes and driving a Chevy Corvair offered daily challenges.

So imagine how I felt becoming completely dependent on public transportation after more than 40 years of frequent driver mileage and the convenience of on-demand private transportation. Just before Christmas 2012, my beloved Subaru Baja finally bit the head gasket, and more, with a price tag way not worth the results. My wife and I decided to rent a car for a few weeks while we did some homework. Of course, that means she got a rental and I “got” to take public transportation.

At the beginning it was kind of interesting, mapping out various routes and learning the schedules. My weekly routine includes a 120-mile Amtrak train trip between our home outside Sacramento and Santa Clara in the Silicon Valley, with daily light rail and bus connections from a rental in the hills east San Jose to my job in Sunnyvale. The first few months I alternated between being annoyed at having to wait and being fascinated by all the new stimuli. However, that feeling passed quickly and was followed by a genuine maturing process, with a change of behavior.

Bottom line: Public transportation has become much more than just our last resort to get from Point A to Point B.

In many countries, it already is the first choice – and not just to reduce carbon emissions and traffic sprawl. Public transportation gets us out of our comfort zones by breaking down walls and forcing us to interact with a broad slice of society. It helps reduce stress levels and isolation caused by single-passenger cars. Most of all, it introduces us to new and interesting people. Some actually think and act different from us. Some even teach us new lessons.

Eventually I got a new car, but I continue to ride the rails. When I no longer needed to use public transit, I simply chose to use it. For me, four things drove that decision:

4 Reasons to Use Public Transit for Your Commute

The People
Consistent face-to-face interaction with people of different backgrounds enables you to make new friends outside your normal circle. Call it your non-virtual social network. Real connection.

The Pace
While waiting at a train station or bus stop, you often have a chance to pause and appreciate life around you – from a stunning sunrise to an act of kindness. Real-time.

The Perspective
Life can seem very small when you’re wrapped up in the stress of your daily life. This interesting crowd will quickly interrupt routine and broaden your view of the world. Real diversity.

The Planet
Contributions made by public transit toward environmental responsibility and sustainability are tangible and well-documented. It doesn’t just feel good; it does good. Real world.

Necessity forced me to find alternatives to a private vehicle, but I was amazed at how much value I found in the solution. I also learned I had a 40-year addiction to wheels-on-demand. But I’m on the road to recovery.

Ecclesiastes career perspective: To everything there is a season

By Stan Johnston

When you find yourself closer to the end than the beginning of a long journey, it’s natural to reflect on what you learned – or still need to learn. That’s true in your career, too. It’s just harder in my case, because I’ve had more careers than most people have had jobs. But in all of them, I found guidance and a healthy perspective from the life of a king who died about 931 BC.

King Solomon
(Getty Images)

The book of “Ecclesiastes” gleans much of its insights from the successes and failures of King Solomon, whose gift was wisdom. He wasn’t perfect, but I think his wisdom came from understanding that fact. “Ecclesiastes” is traditionally translated as “Teacher.”  I certainly learn from its mix of practical and inspirational insights. However, it’s not for the faint of heart, because this Teacher doesn’t pull any punches in laying out our common state as human beings.

Bottom line: Life is tough. In the end, we die and hand the fruit of our labor over to someone who didn’t earn it. And it doesn’t matter how rich, poor, good, or bad a person we were. The same fate awaits us all. Ouch.

But then the Teacher changes the conversation: To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven…

The list that follows delves into the most unavoidable and difficult issues we face – life and death, wealth and poverty, war and peace, love and hate, among others. (The Byrds did a fine job with that theme in the classic ’60s song “Turn, Turn, Turn.”)  It occurred to me this section could be emulated to frame the story of our careers. Why? Our jobs often consume the lion’s share of our lifetime.

Stay in the game long enough, and you see it all. Inevitably we live through economic, geo-political, social, technological, and industry-specific events that impact us – all on top of normal business cycles. Sometimes those enrich us, and sometimes they devastate us (and our families). All teach us, if we are open.

Unfortunately, those lessons often seem most clear in the hard times. Even wise leaders like Solomon can get distracted by the trappings of success (I rest my case at 700 wives and 300 concubines). My wife and I coined a simple phrase over the years: “Not too high, not too low.” We say it at key points to remind each other life is a series of seasons, all with purpose if we choose to learn it. Here is my view of a career from that perspective:

LEARN, LEARN, LEARN

In everyone’s career there are seasons
And a time for every experience under heaven

A time to work and a time to play
A time to lead and a time to follow
A time to plan and a time to act
A time for profit and a time for loss

A time to speak and a time to listen
A time to spend and a time to save
A time to cooperate and a time to compete
A time for doubt and a time for faith

A time to be hired and a time to be fired
A time to remember and a time to forget
A time to laugh and a time to cry
A time for fear and a time for courage

In every career there are seasons
And a time for every person to learn, learn, learn

© 2018, Stan Johnston