Many young people are
unaware of old adages

When traveling, for example, people do not have time to consider all the hotels where they might stay. Instead, they use shortcuts to decision making, such as asking a friend for a recommendation or staying at a hotel with a familiar name. Or, when people consider what movie to attend, they may not have time to read reviews. They may use a shortcut such as, "Johnny Depp is in one of the movies that is showing, and he is always interesting."

Sometimes, shortcuts to decision-making take the form of heuristics, or informal rules of thumb that can be summarized in short phrases. Some of these are passed on from parents to children and become part of people's cultural heritage.

I was discussing heuristics with my business students recently and was surprised that some of the heuristics that I learned many years ago are no longer well known. When I discussed the advantages of working with the same company for many years, students did not know the adage, "A rolling stone gathers no moss."

When talking about identifying problems before they become threats to the organization, they were unfamiliar with, "A stitch in time saves nine."

When discussing the advantages and disadvantages of risk-taking when starting new business ventures, they did not know the old saying, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." The students certainly know the concepts captured by these heuristics, but they were not familiar with the phrases I learned during childhood.

So what adages do business students in Hawaii know? One heuristic with which they are very familiar is, "What goes around comes around." I believe this is a well-known adage because Hawaii is a relatively small community and people who live here want to stay.

They realize if they engage in behaviors that have a negative impact on others, then those behaviors will be remembered and will come back to haunt the perpetrators. Further, since relationships are so important in Hawaii, negative behaviors are not limited to one targeted person. The behaviors will affect and will be remembered by the victim's entire ohana and by close friends. And people have very long memories. Negative behaviors from 20 years ago can be treated as if they occurred yesterday.

This adage becomes part of advice concerning ways of dealing with difficult people.

I remember being in a conversation with businesspeople and lawyers. One person complained about the abusive behavior of an executive in Hawaii and wondered what might be done about it. A lawyer replied that one approach would be to wait for the executive to become the recipient of the ill will he has generated.

"I've also heard of this executive," the lawyer continued. "His negative behaviors will come back and take their toll."

Often, the same advice can be captured by different adages that become shared among people who speak the same language and live in the same part of the world. One equivalent to "What goes around comes around" is "You reap what you sow." If people cause too many difficulties and contribute to a stressful workplace, their behaviors resemble seeds that gardeners put into their soil. Later, difficult people will find themselves the recipients of the ill will that grows from the seeds they planted.