Some of the main philosophies that influence my practice are the following:

Utilitarianism- Breaking it down to ‘utility’ has a coldness to it. I prefer to think of it as everyone having a purpose. We are all here to contribute something, even if it is not obvious what that something is. When initially studying philosophy, I latched onto something I read in John Stuart Mill’s book, On Liberty, “In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric.” Even though it was written in the 19th century, I believe it still holds true today. If everyone has a purpose, and mine is to help catalyze people out of stuckness, then my purpose is to help you live your purpose.

Existentialism- We are able to choose our own purpose, and the ideal is to live authentically. In order to do this we need to be self-aware and take responsibility for ourselves and for our choices.

Humanism- People are full of potential, and given the right conditions they can reach this potential.

My main interests are Psychology (in general); Neuropsychology and its sub-categories, such as Neuromythology; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; and Chaos/Complexity Theory as applied to Biology and Psychology. As you might guess, I have an organismic view of people and people systems, such as businesses. I have noticed they behave much like Ecosystems in a lot of ways, such as having Keystone Species (species = particular positions/roles) and Carrying Capacity (budgets, limited office space, etc).

I experienced, witnessed, and continue to witness, chronic stress from the threat of layoffs and other consequences of budget cuts, such as being unable to attend important conferences and other educational events integral to maintaining competence with changing standards and expectations. The chronic stress creates various health problems for individual staff members, fuels hostility between protected and unprotected workgroups, leads to increasing levels of burnout, creates distrust because of broken promises, and fans the flames of resentment towards the people at the top who (from the perspective of those at the bottom) have no idea what they are doing. Some of this is unavoidable. There are/were inevitable layoffs during the prolonged recession and slow recovery. Other aspects of the chronic stress may have been avoided with better communication within the organizations, better communication to external entities, respectfully including everyone in the decision-making regarding how to move forward, allowing for creative workarounds when possible (job sharing, for instance), and making sure that major changes are not based on short-sighted and/or misinformed reasons.

I learned a great deal from these experiences. And I am convinced work-life is not inherently miserable, despite what so many people have told and shown me over the last few decades. There are businesses, non-profits, and government agencies out there who treat their employees humanely, communicate well, learn from mistakes, innovate, and create pleasant workplaces. And they are doing well! It is not hurting their bottom line. It is not making them uncompetitive in the marketplace. And they do not have to be anomalies.

As the Chief Operations Officer of a simulated Benefit Corporation, I was the resident expert on the Triple Bottom Line. This gave me renewed hope for the direction of Corporations. Even if an organization does not apply for B-Corporation status, they can implement many of the practices of a B-Corp, and many are already doing so.

This is a chicken/egg situation. I do not know if I was drawn to working in libraries because of my values, if my values were shaped by working in libraries for so many years, or both. Regardless, I place a strong value on privacy rights, which translates to confidentiality in research and client confidentiality in my practice. I also place a strong value on free speech (you may have seen the library campaigns to get people to read banned books). This translates into a desire to make sure all voices are heard, particularly when a change is going to be implemented. Getting everyone involved, and sharing more perspectives and ideas, is vital to a motivated and engaged workforce.

Because staff may not feel safe sharing their thoughts, ideas, or perspectives, I combine both confidentiality and free speech. I give them a safe space to share their perspectives while maintaining confidentiality so they do not need to worry as much about retaliation. This also relates back to collecting data from my Psychology research background. The information is important, but minimizing risk for the person sharing the information is also important. I have found that by interviewing people one-on-one, they are often more open during group meetings as well, which increases communication overall.