Direct Mail

Dag_Forssell · June 5, 1992, 7:14pm

[From Dag Forssell (920605 12:15)]

The following is a direct mail letter aimed at the Chief Executive
officer of a corporation. The purpose of the letter is to attract and
hold the CEO's interest and induce him or her to request further
information. This letter is is the very first step, leading to an
opportunity to teach PCT in a company and get paid. (I have been
preparing full time for 15 months now and have learned a lot).

This rendering is version six. Reactions and suggestions from CSG friends
will be appreciated and considered for version seven. I hope some of you
will find the ideas useful. How well the letter works remains to be seen,
of course. I have already concluded that I did not get far with versions
one through four, having mailed 440 letters.

I am anxious to be correct in what I say. The response rate will be low,
but those who do reply will know what they are getting into. When I am
teaching and get attacked by the company's people experts (which is
bound to happen), I am prepared, and so is the CEO.

This is a closed loop feedback learning process, with much action sending
mail and little feedback from replies. So you reorganize (rewrite), and
try again.

Page 1

(Purposeful LeadershipTM letterhead)

Adam Smith, CEO June 5, 1992
Smith & Smith Inc.
1000 Main Street
Smithsville, State, Zip

Dear Mr. Smith:

I am writing to introduce you personally to a new perspective on human
interactions, which has many implications for leadership. This
perspective gives an executive insight that allows him or her to inform,
influence, align and lead people with mutual respect. He or she can teach
people to be more effective and more cooperative. Employees can be more
effective and satisfied, while the company as a whole responds better to
the leader's direction and becomes more productive.

This perspective also will make it much easier to understand and teach
Total Quality Management programs, such as the Deming Management
Philosophy.

Describing this perspective so you get the point immediately is a
Catch-22 challenge, because it is a different concept altogether from
what predominates in our world today. The language we use reflects the
currently predominant concept. To describe something fundamentally
different with that language misses the mark easily because the words
mean something conceptually different to the reader than they do to the
writer.

Let me to use an illustrative analogy:

In an era when "everyone knew" that the earth was flat, scientific
explanations were developed for navigation and astronomy. Many problems
with these explanations persisted, but people worked around them. There
was no alternative. The explanations were taught to succeeding
generations by experts, who derived status from their knowledge.
Non-experts took it all for granted without much thought.

I cannot say what "everyone knows" about human behavior, but experts on
the subject employ a 17th century perspective of cause and effect to guide
their research. Any book on experimental psychology tells you that the
way to learn about behavior is to set up an experiment, then vary the
stimulus (independent variable) and watch the response (dependent
variable.) With this scientific method our experts have made many
experiments and formulated many explanations which have found their way
into our language, culture and management practices. Non-experts take
these explanations for granted without much thought.

Many problems with these explanations persist despite all the research,
but people work around them. There is no alternative. Our understanding
of what motivates people is very poor. We clearly lack a good model or
"paradigm" to help us understand why people do what they do. In our
ignorance, we tend to spend our energies in debilitating conflict again
and again, instead of in productive cooperation.

Page 2

When Copernicus and then Galileo introduced the new fundamental insight
that the earth is round (it has been round all along), the problems of
navigation and astronomy were placed in a bright new light. The new
insight did not invalidate the common sense observation that the earth
appears flat locally, but science moved from a dead end to progress,
which in a few centuries has brought us far.

But the experts of the day could not (and did not want to) comprehend the
new paradigm, because they had already internalized the flat paradigm in
all its details as their personal reality. With time, the experts died
off, and new ones grew up, embracing the new paradigm on its merits
because it solved many of those persistent problems. They internalized
the new perspective, and science progressed from there.

Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathematica," published fifty years after
Galileo, was resisted also for similar reasons. It took fifty years for
it to be fully accepted. Looking back, we take it for granted. (As a
result we are able to predictably go to the moon)! The evolution of
science is much more than a steady accumulation of knowledge!1

1Footnote: The phenomenon and process is described in Thomas Kuhn's
seminal book: "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," which introduced
the term "paradigm."

The 20th century understanding of the phenomenon of control, includes the
appearance of simple cause-effect relationships in a larger framework.
Applied to people (people have been controlling all along) and developed
into a detailed model by William T. Powers, it provides a fundamental
insight that puts the problems that result from human interactions in a
bright new light. Because the new insight is basic, it has consequences
in many ways in many areas of an organization and the results from using
this insight can be dramatic and far reaching.

There have always been natural leaders, successful salesmen, wise parents
and good communicators. But it is rare that they can explain what they
do and why. Their insight and skill is intuitive. The benefit of a good
understanding of control is that you gain explicit clarity and can learn
to function as well as the intuitively wise people. With practice even
better, since you will know what you are doing.

The new insight into the phenomenon of control does not invalidate any
wise common sense observation or practice. It just provides an enhanced
understanding of seemingly intractable problems. It provides new
diagnostic tools and shows why cookbook formulas for behavior are
inappropriate. It requires that you think for yourself. You (and other
non-specialists) can evaluate it better than established "experts"
because their existing education and status will tend to blind them to
the new perspective. (In his book: "Future Edge", Joel Barker says: "When
a paradigm shifts, everyone goes back to zero." The old knowledge is
obsolete. The experts lose their advantage).

This perspective on control is already well developed. But no doubt it
will take time - into the 21st century - before this successful
development is embraced by a majority of experts. You can take advantage
of what "everyone will know" in the 21st century right now to improve
your company's competitive position. But to do it, you must be willing
to think for yourself. You will actively participate in a scientific
revolution.

The Purposeful LeadershipTM programs explain and translate this new
perspective into skillful use of diagnostic tools that give you the
capability to work on productivity. That includes effective
communication, teaching effectiveness, resolving conflict, supporting
self-motivation in employees, team building, Total Quality Management,
leadership insights, effective performance appraisals, effective selling
concepts, and development of corporate and individual mission statements.

Page 3

The basic principles can be taught in a day to any attentive person, who
can also verify them. People trained in the "hard" sciences will
appreciate the scientific approach and elegant simplicity of the program,
and everyone will be able to begin applying the principles as soon as
they understand the underlying model of control and have had some
instruction and practice with applications.

Some people will think that "understanding the phenomenon of control"
promises a new way to control other people. It is precisely the other way
around. We show how people control themselves at all times. When you
understand control you can work with people, rather than get into
conflict despite the best of intentions.

I have 25 years experience in engineering, manufacturing, financial and
marketing management. My formal education includes an MBA from the
University of Southern California and a Masters degree in Mechanical
Engineering from Sweden.

I will be pleased to send you an introductory 39 minute audio tape (with
script for reading and illustrations) which explains the background,
scope and applications of our programs. The introduction includes a
demonstration/test which will allow you to determine if your associates
can recognize control in action.

When you receive the introduction, I think you will find the
demonstration both enlightening and entertaining. Please feel free to
share it with your technical, operations and sales managers at any level
for their evaluation. This is a win/win program to greatly increase the
understanding and effectiveness of anyone who deals with people.

Sincerely,

Dag Forssell

(Simple form for request for tape & script).

       23903 Via Flamenco
     Valencia, Ca 91355-2808
      Phone (805) 254-1195
       Fax (805) 254-7956
Internet: 0004742580@MCIMAIL.COM

Dag_Forssell · July 3, 1992, 4:38am

[From Dag Forssell (920702)]

Bill wrote me the holograph in LCS II as his suggestion on how to introduce
the subject of my seminar. I have been reluctant to use it, because it seems
so powerful that it would just strain the credulity of the message if
introduced prematurely. It has occurred to me that the flat earth / round
earth "module" provides a framework where I can take advantage of Bill's
statement to generate curiosity put it in perspective. So far, I have had a
1% response to my letters. 12 companies have requested my intro package.

Here is letter version 9, hot off the word processor. I will mail 300 or so
come Monday. Any comments will be welcome and useful through Saturday.

_word_ means underline, right? Italicized titles not shown.

Copyright 1992 Dag Forssell. Permission is granted for quoting within the
mailing list CSG-L, and for use in Closed Loop and other publications of CSG.

(Letterhead) (Page 1)

William T. Powers, CEO July 2, 1992
CSG International
73 Ridge Road CR 510
Durango, CO 81301

Dear Mr. Powers:

You may be interested in the only fundamentally new perspective on people
that has been proposed since 1637. Adopting it can mean improvements for your
bottom line, productivity, quality and morale - particularly if you deal with
knowledge workers and would like to lead them in the most effective and
mutually satisfying way possible.

Costly people problems exist at all levels in American industry. Dr. W.
Edwards Deming, pioneer in Quality Management, writes in "Out of the Crisis,"
page 85:

   "In my experience, people can face almost any problem except the
    problems of people. They can work long hours, face declining
    business, face loss of jobs, but not the problems of people.
    Faced with problems of people (management included), management,
    in my experience, go into a state of paralysis, taking refuge in
    formation of QC-Circles and groups for EI, EP, and QWL (Employee
    Involvement, Employee Participation, and Quality of Work Life)....
    There are of course pleasing exceptions, where the management
    understands... participates..."

At the core of the design of any social or business organization lies some
assumptions about people. If you question these assumptions, the implications
for the design and function of your business organization may be large.

The basic perspective from 1637 that still dominates our science and culture
is the cause-effect idea that events impinging on organisms cause them to
behave as they do. The new one (which has been developed since 1957) is
called Perceptual Control Theory, or PCT. The developer, William T. Powers,
writes in "Living Control Systems, Vol II":

    "Perceptual Control Theory explains how organisms control what
     happens to them. This means all organisms from the amoeba to
     humankind. It explains why one organism can't control another
     without physical violence. It explains why people deprived of any
     major part of their ability to control soon become dysfunctional,
     lose interest in life, pine away and die. It explains why it is so
     hard for groups of people to work together even on something they
     all agree is important. It explains what a goal is, how goals relate
     to behavior, how behavior affects perceptions and how perceptions
     define the reality in which we live and move and have our being.

     Perceptual Control Theory is the first scientific theory that can
     handle all these phenomena within a single _testable_ concept of
     how living systems work."

Over, please...

William T. Powers July 2, 1992 Page 2

Understanding people no longer has to be complex and confusing. PCT can be
taught in simple form with a comprehensive management application in one day
and in more detail with leadership applications in three.

An executive gains insight that allows him or her to inform, influence, align
and lead people with mutual respect. S/he can teach people to be more
effective and cooperative. Employees can be more satisfied, while the company
as a whole responds better to the leader's direction and becomes more
productive.

This control perspective will also make it much easier to understand and
teach Total Quality Management programs. For instance, when you review the
14 points of the Deming Management Philosophy with this insight, you will see
that each point touches on one or more aspects of a system of control. Lack
of fear, pride in workmanship, dignity.... - all can be seen as
manifestations of effective individual control.

I am personally convinced that PCT, once it is widely understood, will have
the same kind of impact in the life sciences as Newton's theories did in the
physical sciences. Besides a consuming interest in this new development, I
have 25 years management experience in engineering, manufacturing, marketing
and finance. My formal education includes an MBA from the University of
Southern California and a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from
Sweden.

I have developed the Purposeful LeadershipTM programs to explain PCT and
apply it to skillful use of diagnostic tools that give the executive the
capability to work on productivity. That includes effective communication,
teaching effectiveness, resolving conflict, supporting self-motivation in
employees, team building, Total Quality Management, leadership insights,
effective performance appraisals, effective selling concepts, and development
of corporate and individual mission statements. The executive learns how to
build confidence, build trust and develop caring relationships.

The basic principles can be taught in a day to any attentive person, who can
also verify them. People trained in the "hard" sciences will appreciate the
scientific approach and elegant simplicity of the theory, and everyone will
be able to begin applying the principles as soon as they understand the
underlying model and have had some instruction and practice.

I would like to describe this perspective so you get the point immediately,
but this is an impossible Catch-22 challenge, because it is a different
concept altogether from what predominates in our world today. Until you
understand the principles, you cannot understand at all. I need a few hours
in class to explain and illustrate the principles.

When you request it, I will send you a do-it-yourself concept demonstration
/test. Until then, perhaps I can indicate how I believe this new perspective
fits into the scientific evolution of the life sciences with the following
illustrative analogy:

In an era when "everyone knew" that the earth was flat, scientific
explanations were developed for navigation and astronomy. Many problems with
those explanations persisted, but people worked around them.

I cannot say what "everyone knows" about human behavior, but experts on the
subject employ the 17th century perspective of cause and effect to guide
their research. Any book on experimental psychology tells you that the
scientific method to learn about behavior is to condition the research
animals, set up an experiment, then vary the stimulus (independent variable)
and watch the response (dependent variable).

Continued....

William T. Powers July 2, 1992 Page 3

(This would be a valid scientific method if in fact animals and people were
cause-effect organisms. But our demonstration will show you in a few minutes
that they are not).

With this scientific method our experts have done many experiments and
reported explanations which are now part of our language, culture and
management practices.

With or without an awkward science, there have always been natural leaders,
successful salesmen, wise parents and good communicators. But it is rare that
they can explain what they do and why. Their insight and skill seems
intuitive. Human behavior practitioners and many executives make an effort
to master this important subject, which demands attention. They depend on a
variety of experiences and interpretations, not hard science, to develop
effective personal approaches for dealing with people.

(Imagine how good they will be when they get good understanding that applies
every time. With PCT, the executive learns to function as well as those
intuitively wise people. With practice even better, since s/he will have
greater insight).

Many problems with the expert's scientific explanations persist despite all
the research, but people work around them. Lack of success indicates that we
lack a good model or "paradigm" to help us understand why people do what they
do. In our ignorance, we often spend our energies in debilitating conflict
instead of in productive cooperation.

_When Copernicus and then Galileo introduced the fundamentally new insight
that the earth is round_ (it has always been round), _the problems of
navigation and astronomy were placed in a new light_. The new insight did not
invalidate the common sense observation that the earth appears flat locally,
but science was able to progress.

Most experts on the old science could not comprehend the new paradigm,
because they had already internalized the flat paradigm in all its details
as their personal reality. With time the experts died off, and new ones grew
up, embracing the new paradigm on its merits because it solved many of those
persistent problems.

Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathematica," published fifty years after Galileo,
was resisted in the same way, just like all dramatically new approaches have
been. It took fifty years for it to be fully accepted. The evolution of
science is much more than a steady accumulation of knowledge!1 The process
requires creativity. The opportunity for a revolution arises when a current
paradigm fails to solve problems and competing paradigms are offered to
provide better explanations. A struggle of many decades typically takes
place, with the trained scientists continuing the development of the existing
paradigm while outsiders and early converts champion a new one.

_The 20th century understanding of Perceptual Control Theory_ (people always
control) _provides a fundamental new insight that puts the problems that
result from human interactions in a new light_.

Perceptual control is as incomprehensible at first glance to a person trained
in cause-effect thinking (which we all are in our culture) as the idea that
the earth is round was to a person trained in the details of a flat earth.
The demonstration shows this clearly. Still, an understanding of PCT contains
an explanation of the illusion of cause and effect in people, just like the
understanding that the earth is round contains a explanation of the illusion
of a flat earth.

Over, please....

1 The phenomenon and process is described in Thomas Kuhn's seminal book:
"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," which introduced the term
"paradigm."

William T. Powers July 2, 1992 Page 4

Another illustrative analogy is to say that we live in a maze where only the
walls and passages are visible to us. The perspective of Perceptual Control
allows us to rise above the maze and see the structure. We can then set and
reach our goal much easier.

The new perspective does not invalidate any wise common sense observation or
practice. It does provide an enhanced understanding of seemingly intractable
problems. It provides new diagnostic tools and shows why cookbook rules for
behavior (programs which tell you what to do under certain circumstances) do
not always work.

Perceptual Control Theory is already well developed. But no doubt it will
take time - well into the 21st century - before this breakthrough is known,
understood and embraced by a majority of experts. You can take advantage of
what "everyone will know" in the 21st century right now to improve your
company's competitive position. But because it breaks new ground, you must
be willing to think for yourself to do it. You will participate in a
scientific revolution when you understand and adopt it.

Some people will think that the term "control theory" promises a new way to
control other people. It is precisely the other way around. We show how
people control themselves at all times. When you understand PCT, you can work
_with_ people rather than get into conflict despite the best of intentions.

Please request the free introductory 39 minute audio tape with script and
illustrations. It demonstrates the basic concept and explains the benefits,
applications, background and content of our programs. The demonstration /test
allows you to find out if your associates can recognize control in action.
(I bet they can't).

When you receive the introduction, I think you will find the demonstration
enlightening and entertaining. Please feel free to share it with your
technical, operations and sales managers at any level for their evaluation.
This is a win/win program to increase the understanding and effectiveness of
anyone who deals with people.

Sincerely,

Dag Forssell
                          23903 Via Flamenco
                        Valencia, Ca 91355-2808
                          Phone (805) 254-1195
                           Fax (805) 254-7956
                   Internet: 0004742580@MCIMAIL.COM