PREFACE

I remember a trainer saying: "Once you have learned an idea, it is very difficult to unlearn it." In the last few years, I have come to realize the truth of this. As with many things, there are two sides to the coin. On the one hand, it is exciting to learn a new concept. Your outlook on life changes when you understand a better way to explain your experience. On the other hand, most of us defend what we have been taught and become familiar with if it is challenged later on.

I discovered a new concept that helps me understand myself and people around me when I read Behavior: The Control of Perception by William T. Powers. I find it useful to be able to visualize an internal organization of the mind which can explain how and why people behave and interact. The principles I learned are far more detailed, testable and convincing than any of the explanations for human behavior I had considered before. The idea that all behavior (action) is the control of perception (and conversely that perceptions alone do not control, or cause, actions) explains how we live our lives. It explains conflict and stress and shows how we can reduce them. As I explained experiences to myself using this idea, it made sense to me. Gradually, I internalized the idea. I now want to share it with my family, friends and professional acquaintances.

While the idea is simple and easy to test and demonstrate, it is very different from the ideas I was taught when I grew up. I now realize that every person assimilates or develops some concepts explaining human behavior, and that these can vary greatly from person to person. Common in our culture are ideas suggesting that people make each other happy or disappointed, that stimuli determine what we do and how we feel, that we are conditioned by circumstances in our environment, or that we control our actions. Well founded or not, the ideas a person decides to believe in are woven into a personal web of understandings and beliefs. We live based on this web and like to think that others understand things the same way (so obviously true from our own point of view). We easily disregard lack of evidence, inconsistencies between ideas, or failures we experience when we apply our understandings. To be understood, new ideas must fit what we already "know." If a new idea is too different, it won’t fit and won’t be accepted, no matter how well others say it can explain experience.

This explains why a new idea is easily misunderstood or rejected by those with a commitment to established ideas, while it can be easily understood and accepted by others. The idea that the purpose of all our actions is to control the state of our personal perceptual world does not fit well with the theories and language of today’s psychologies. Therefore, many people schooled in today’s psychologies have found this idea difficult to understand and accept. Those who have no particular opinion usually find this idea obvious once they have seen it demonstrated.

Grasping a new idea that conflicts with some of the ideas you have accepted already requires a very open mind (a healthy skepticism of everything) and some effort. There is a threshold effect here. The idea and the physical model explaining control of perception must be understood before its full usefulness is realized. Once you understand the idea, you will see how it gives you the capability to reason about human behavior and human relationships from first principles in every situation. You will see why there is no set of rules for behavior taught by any training program that will always produce intended results in a real world of widely changing circumstances.

I sincerely hope you find this introduction of perceptual control theory with applications to management and leadership clear and relevant. I will appreciate any thoughts or experiences you have upon reading it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Several friends have supported me as I developed a training program and papers to explain PCT and suggest applications.

The seminal insight and writings of William T. (Bill) Powers are the solid foundation on which my work is based. Bill Powers is a warm human being who walks his talk, an untiring champion of clear thinking and a patient teacher. Members of the Control Systems Group, an association of researchers exploring PCT, have helped me keep every phrase as correct, clear and unambiguous as possible in order to avoid misinterpretation and confusion with conventional thinking. Translating the elegant framework of human understanding we call PCT into bite size pieces of explanation and direction for everyday life has proven a challenge. Ed Ford has traveled this path before me and has written about how to improve personal relationships. Applying insight from the first principles of PCT, Jim Soldani was able to effect lasting improvements in the performance of a manufacturing plant. I am grateful for permission to draw upon the work of both Ed and Jim. Based on traditional research and personal experience, Mike Bosworth has developed and teaches a non-manipulative sales program called Solution Selling(R) which fits well with conclusions drawn from PCT. Mike's suggestion that I develop a program to teach sales managers how to develop and maintain productive personal relationships with salesmen got me started on my mission. The first three papers in this book are reprints of articles published in the Engineering Management Journal. My editor, Dr. Ted Eschenbach, made many helpful suggestions for clarification, especially where PCT leads to conclusions that surprised him.

Dag Forssell, March 1995