Martin Goodyer is a psychologist and corporate coach specialising in the leading and delivery of behavioural change. In addition to regularly appearing, contributing to, or acting as a consultant psychologist on television and radio, Martin is one of the UK's top Corporate and Business Coaches.

Party leaders fight over MP expenses moral high ground

It's all hotting up in the pre-election squabble for the moral high ground!

The MP's facing charges of false accounting face a possible 7 years in jail if found guilty...and if they can't use their 'get out of jail free' parliamentary privilege card. I'm sure I can't be alone in suspecting that the wheels of justice might move very slowly in their cases and that, if all else fails, they'll end up complaining that a fair trial isn't possible because of all the publicity.

The truth is that the moral high ground was lost to all politicians the moment their 'expenses' claims came under scrutiny. They lost it when complaining that they were 'just following the rules' or 'accepted protocol'. Accepted by whom? Rules established by whom and for whose benefit?

We all work within accepted 'norms'. The 'rules' by which we play the game. These rules are however never inviolate. If they were no laws would ever change, no progress be achieved or no new distinctions made. Rules are as alive as the people who abide by them. They must be questioned and tested, pushed and probed to ensure that they are still appropriate. In this case the acceptance of 'rules' is no more morally acceptable than agreeing to participate in ethnic cleansing, extra-marital affairs or gang violence. Just because someone else said it is OK does not make it so. Business owners can often become so cocooned that they make up their own rules. They end up in court for not paying their bills, mistreating their staff or cheating their customers.

There is no moral high ground to fight over. If you are a politician in today's parliament it's already been forfeit.

The real story of Rudolph

I don't know about you but all too often I just accept things at face value without thinking about where they might have come from or what they really mean. When I was a kid I used to love the story of Rudolph with his red shiny nose, and his rise from outcast to hero! Until today I hadn't thought any more about it other than it's a lovely story and a fun song. But it turns out that it's so much more than that. It transpires that the story of how this story came about is as inspiring as the tale itself.

Picture December 1938 in the poorest part of Chicago. The great depression had left its mark on just about everyone and the world was unstable with war clouds on the horizon in Europe. In a modest 2 bed apartment a young man was mourning the imminent loss of his young wife Evelyn from cancer. Bob May was depressed and broken hearted but focused his attention on comforting his 4 year old daughter Barbara, who sat sobbing in his arms; she couldn't understand why mummy couldn't come home for Christmas or ever again. "Why isn’t my mommy like everyone else's mommy?" was a question he couldn't answer. All he could do was hold her tight and hold back even tighter the tears that threatened

While little Barbara's question was painful, it also stimulated Bob to find ways to make sense of their tragic circumstances. He was angry; angry not only over the senseless loss of his wife but with the hand that life had thus far dealt him. His life had always been difficult. From being bullied as a child for being smaller than the other boys and less good at sports, to just generally feeling 'different' and unable to fit in. But he'd got by and thought things were getting better when he'd met Evelyn and they'd married and had Barbara; he'd completed his education and landed a job as a copywriter at retailers Montgomery Ward, only to have that glimpse of what happiness could be, snatched away. Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.

A heartbroken Bob found it difficult to give hope to Barbara for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas present (having spent every last dime on caring for Evelyn). So instead he decided to make one. His job was working with words so he crafted some of his own into a storybook for Barbara! In his mind Bob created a Christmas character that embodied all his own hopes and fears, his own struggles and hope for eventual triumph; and he called his creation Rudolph; one of Santa's reindeer, bullied and cast out by his peers for being different - by having a shiny nose.

Bob May finished his story book for Barbara just in time for her to have it on Christmas day. But the story doesn't end there - not by a long way! You see, the general manager of Montgomery Ward heard about Bob's little storybook and offered him a small amount of cash to buy the rights to print Rudolph's story. Bob agreed and they printed up the story as a free gift for children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. In the following eight years they distributed more than six million copies! And in 1946 they were approached by a publisher who wanted to update and print a newer version of the story.

In an unprecedented act of kindness, the CEO of Montgomery Wards gave Bob his rights back. The book became an instant best seller and as well as book royalties, numerous toy and marketing deals were to follow. Bob May, who was now remarried with a growing family, became a wealthy man. The story crafted to give comfort to his little girl had come back to reward him in ways that he could never have imagined. But the story doesn't end there.

Bob's brother in law, Johnny Marx turned the story into a song; and though it was initially turned down by well known singers like Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was eventually recorded by the 'singing cowboy' Gene Autry. 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' was released in 1949 and with the exception of 'White Christmas' became the biggest selling Christmas record of its time.

Bob had taken his pain and turned it into something positive; not by railing against an unfair world but by trying to make sense of it with love.

Happy Christmas x

Can psychology save the planet?

Next year I’ll be 50. I’ll be one of the 6.8 billion alive today. When I was born I was one of only 3 billion. By the time I reach 70 I’ll be one of 8 billion people inhabiting this planet. There are all kinds of models that tinker with possible population growth, but if my lifetime pattern is repeated then anyone born today will live in a world populated by more than 18 billion people by the time he or she gets to be 70. That has to make for a very different world. It’s already a very different world from that of my childhood. Our awareness in respect of limited resources has increased dramatically: We KNOW that the oil will run out; that sustainable energy is a must-do not a nice-to-do; and that existing food production levels won’t feed a growing world population (after all, it doesn’t feed everyone now). Change is therefore a must. But what will make the change happen?