I have posted to Amazon.com and to my web site a review of Bill's book
"Making Sense of Behavior." The text is reproduced below.
If you buy only one book this year it should be Making Sense of Behavior by
William T. Powers. Powers' book is subtitled The Meaning of Control and in
it he presents, in plain and persuasive language, his view of human beings
and their behavior. His view? We are all "autonomous control systems it
is our nature to seek goals and oppose disturbances [to the attainment and
maintenance of our goals]."
In his book Powers does what other theorists and theories don't, namely, he
gives us an explanation of the human phenomenon that is technically
satisfying and, at the same time, an explanation that resonates with our
deeply held notions about ourselves. Who won't like this book? The same
pompous airbags who have seen fit to saddle us all with one empty-headed
theory after another about the nature of human beings and their
behavior. The truth, like quality and beauty, is something we all know
when we see it. You'll recognize the truth in Powers' book.
Powers is no intellectual slouch. An engineer by training and a scientist
by calling, his approach is as intellectually demanding and as
scientifically rigorous as any to be found. Nor is his theory of recent or
easy vintage. He has been hard at work developing it for almost half a
century. He first articulated it in a 1973 book titled Behavior: The
Control of Perception and he has elaborated it in various papers since then.
Powers' central thesis is simple enough: All we know of our world we know
through our perceptions. We act, then, not to control the world but to
control our perceptions of it. Hence, behavior as the control of
perception. Best of all, Powers provides a simple, elegant experiment
requiring nothing more than two rubber bands and two people that we can use
to test his theory. It is difficult to argue with.
So what? What are the practical implications of Powers' theory? Well, for
one thing, the transactions between employer and employee need to be
negotiated instead of commanded or demanded. If that seems obvious,
consider this: for the most part, so do the transactions between parent or
teacher and child. Remember, we are all of us "autonomous control
systems," even the children among us. For another, Powers offers an
interesting if not novel approach to conflict resolution, namely, taking it
"up a level." (I leave to the readers of Powers' book the fun of
discovering of what that means.) Finally, in the midst of all this
autonomy is the unavoidable conclusion that we are inescapably accountable
for our own behavior. (Management will both love and hate that one.)
The bottom line of Powers' message is plain and profound: I am in control
of me. That's all there is and that's enough. Moreover, the inevitable
consequence of attempting to control others is conflict.
But why take my word for it? At $14.95, Power's book is a bargain. Buy
it, read it and then you tell me what you think. I'll post your reviews on
my web site.
Fred Nickols
The Distance Consulting Company
"Assistance at A Distance"
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
nickols@worldnet.att.net
(609) 490-0095