When, this past September I visited the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City I was struck
by the details of the origins of our human species. Viewing that exhibit filled in ideas that
CCCC has been developing about humankind – which boils down to people at your office and
my office. Beside the triggers from the Museum of Anthropology, the thoughts below have been
influenced by ideas of Buckingham and Coffman related to people’s satisfaction and Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs with its 5 elements: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and,
self-actualization. The CCCC hierarchy of human needs is an update to Maslow’s and,
I believe, has more modern relevancy.
The Needs
The three human needs, in order of importance, are:
1. Survival
2. Procreation
3. Self-enhancement
That is, first we must do what we can to survive; then we act (sometimes against all
rational judgement – such as falling in love with the wrong person) to make more humans; once
those two needs have been mostly satisfied, we focus on developing ourselves to become more
capable human beings. Although the three needs have this priority, they all continually interact
with each other and cross over time barriers. For example, you might be at the higher stage of
personal self-enhancement by traveling to Mexico to gain new experiences, but it doesn’t prevent
you from satisfying the more basic need of procreation, that is, thinking about intimacies with
your partner – which we call being romantic.
Each of the three is broken into sub-groups (as explained in more lengthy CCCC
documents) which detail its modern relevancy.
Leaders
Major human experiences such as our need to follow leaders (Trump, say) or the silliness, but
constancy, of war, are explained within the three human needs. Our demand for leadership, good
or bad, fits within our need for cooperation (part of Survival), for, in order for a group to
cooperate, someone has to direct that group. Our bellicose nature is nothing less than Survival of
the fittest because if I kill another man, it leaves only me to pass my genes to the nearby woman
and it is better for our species because my stronger genes will benefit the next generation (part of
Procreation).
Fun
Common human experiences such as watching porno movies or visiting sex shows (which by the
way, have an income in America that exceeds the total income of ABC, CBS and NBC combined)
clearly fit into our sexual activity needs, preparing us for the sex act (Procreation).
Religion
The human thirst for knowledge (Self-enhancement) seeks explanations for the unexplainable.
Ancient (and current) peoples use gods to offer reasons why the sun shines, the earth spins around
or why we are here on earth. People with a clearer grasp of things around us (typically, engineers
and scientists) tend to have less need for religion. Religious activity is reinforced by our need for leadership (which is part of Survival, as noted above) and the leader, God, the unseen one, can
never let us down, as human leaders often do.
Cooperation
Our reaction to threat (Survival) is continually explained in CCCC’s teachings as the sole reason
that humans choose not to cooperate, when, in reality, humans (and most other animals) are born to
cooperate (for Survival) just as wolves or whales cooperate with one another to hunt down prey.
You cooperate with a stranger when she asks you the direction to Main Street; rarely would you say
“No, I won’t tell you.” Yet, we are confronted in business (and other human endeavors) with
a breakdown in cooperation, which CCCC labels as “sand in the gears”, that prevents most
businesses from continuously achieving their modest profit goals of 5% of sales. Lack of
cooperation stems from our fear, the reaction to threats, which allows us, within microseconds,
to inject 50 physiological enhancements to our bodies (such as an increase in adrenaline) as we
choose to run from or to fight that threat. Minor threats such as your boss berating you also trigger
those 50 physiological changes, but not as strongly – but the precedence of Survival as #1 in the
human continuum, even in the minor situation with your boss, deprive us of blood in our logic
brain (in favor of sending blood to our more important Survival brain), making us incapable of
verbally defending ourselves till a few hours later, (well after the event) as the blood flow returns
us to ‘normal’. Our love for our family members is a cooperative action (for Survival) while our
dislike of strangers, as explained above, represents our Procreative desire to ensure we pass on only
our genes.
Drugs
The Needs priorities explain the drug trade. First, the user, Tom, say, mostly unhappy with his
current state of life, takes in drugs to enhance the pleasant dopamine hit in the brain. For example,
should that person have been unlucky in love (Procreation), he might use the drug to give the lift he
would otherwise obtain from romantic activities. Or, Tom might take drugs simply because his
friends are doing it (satisfying high need for cooperation as part of Survival). Or, Tom might be
suffering from the third need priority (meaningless work, horrendous boss, etc.). What about the
drug dealers? Why enter this risky game? The simplest answer is that drug dealing is the road to
a fast buck which might be necessary to satisfy the dealer’s own drug habit. Or, the dealer may
have grown up in a community where drug dealing was a ‘natural’ activity, and his joining in
satisfied the high need of cooperation for Survival. The main answer appears, however, to be
locked into need of Procreation. People focused on earning lots of money are satisfying the
demand that money is security and since security is believed to be the woman’s #1 attractor, this
falls into the Procreation sector.
Summary
In business, a major part of most people’s lives depend on how the levels of the Needs chain
interact. People’s personal priorities will tend to follow the Needs order suggested above. Hence,
understanding that order often explains the ‘irrational’ behavior of others, making going forward
with them a little easier for us.
Bill