What is criticism? What is change? What is challenges? What is good? What is bad?I have just finished reading a controversial blog article written by Mark Cuban who is a major IT geek like me turned into a leader of several companies including the Dallas Mavericks. He is also the IT guy behind HDnet and HDTV which is making headways in the Tech industry.
Although criticism is typically perceived as a negative, it can be one of the most positive and motivating forces any of us can experience. The key to turning criticism into a positive is understanding the nature of the criticism.Daily, I face tremendous amount of criticism in my work as Information Technology is about radicial change and also using technology as a tool for students and teachers. Every time I make a change on the file server, email server or website, there will always been someone who is critical and rather place blame instead of accepting the situation and work around it. As Mark states in his article "People criticized where, when and how I did things. Not a single person criticized or challenged why" which brings to my next topic to the reason why we initate change, why we initate challenges and why we initate criticism.
My school, my culture, my environment is too conservative to obey the changes that come to them. I am living in a culture that very close, people living on the surface, people taking advantage of others, lack of emotional support and leaving little room for peace and patience. I also work in an environment with other foreigners from different wakes of life bringing in different experience of how things should be done. Yes I admit, this is good experience but at the same time with the large range of diversity, it's easily for someone to fall into the negative criticism trap and choose to place irrational blame when something breaks through the status quo or the situational norms.
Here is one of my favorite comments from his web-blog:
I've been thinking about emailing you for a little bit, but I think this is the best chance. I don't wanna harp on you because I think you've been amazing for the Mavericks, but recently you've been under attack for your NBA Finals activity and I think I have a positive solution.I could not agree more. "Positive Reinforcement" is what should make the new breed of criticism because it allows us to feel comfortable with the acceptance of the situation and more or less does not degrade us "human into animals" with no respect for its feelings or existance. That should be how criticism be constructed because its allows us and fellow people like Mark Cuban to initiate healthy change to the masses who follow us.
Dealing with the NBA and its refs should be no different than training a dog or raising your children. If you're always telling your kid they are fat, ugly, stupid, etc., they start to believe it (unless that kid has the strength of mind to ignore it--but those kids are rare). If your dog does something good and you reward that behavior, after time, your dog will continue to do that positive behavior.
So, may I advocate for the "positive reinforcement" concept as applied to the NBA's refs. Be public and appreciative about those refs that do good. Mention the bad, but accentuate the positive. These guys are people, and they have to go home at night and explain why Cuban called daddy a bad name. A little positive treatment will go the distance in getting the benefit of the doubt when the benefit is really necessary.
Take it as a suggestion, but I think a different stance could pay dividends later on down the road. And this is my criticism--keep making us proud Mark!!!
Click here to read his article and comments from others regarding criticism.
