You ever find yourself faced with situation that is so screwed up that no matter what solution you come up with, it’s guaranteed to be better than what’s currently being done? You think to yourself, “There’s no way I can’t make this better than it is today. It’s going to be really easy to look good no matter what I do.”

I was in a meeting the other day where a new marketing plan was presented. The persons who developed the plan put considerable thought into the approach and its merits. They had a great deal of experience with similar situations and had successfully dealt with them. And they were convinced that the plan they were recommending was the best course of action.

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Today marks the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Inaugural, and my guess is that he’s not doing a lot of celebrating. That’s because yesterday, in a special Senate election to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s seat, Massachusetts voters elected a Republican to represent them.

President Obama and Democrats across the country must be asking themselves and each other, “How did this happen?”

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What people do matters a whole lot more than what they say they’ll do. This statement should not surprise anyone. Actions speak louder than words. Then why is it that “smooth talkers” and “big talkers” often bluff and bluster their way though life despite their actions being very different than their rhetoric?

People get caught up in what people say — especially if they say it well. Consider that some of this country’s most successful politicians, including  a number who sat in the Oval Office, were first-class orators. John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were excellent communicators, as is our current President Barack Obama.

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The other day a colleague brought a recent New York Times article to my attention. The headline read, “A Once-Defiant U.A.W. Local Now Focuses on G.M.’s Success.” Excuse my naivete, but why wouldn’t the employees of a company always have been focused on the company’s success? Is there ever an excuse for an employee not to make his or her best effort on the company’s behalf in order to help it succeed? Is there ever a reason for employees to knowingly and willingly sabotage the company that they work for and are paid by?

Let me provide more of the story. The U.A.W. local covered by the story was in Lordstown, Ohio. According to the New York Times, “In the 1970s, the factory’s 7,000 workers were so bitter toward management that thousands of Chevrolet Vegas rolled off the assembly line with slit upholstery and other damage . . . and the term ‘Lordstown syndrome’ become shorthand to describe rebellious American factory workers.”

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