The lumber tax is a cost you incur whenever you do business with men. Men achieve more-and with less friction-when there is a clear hierarchy among them, when their accomplishments are celebrated, and when the perquisites of rank, perceived power, and compliments flow in their direction.

The costs of establishing and maintaining this hierarchy and the related flows are what I call[1] the lumber tax. (NOTE: The lumber tax must also be paid in any environment that is, by tradition or legacy, primarily masculine. Unless otherwise noted, references to "men," "male" or "masculine" should be understood as referring to or deriving from a) actual human males or b) as appropriate, females who happen to be working in a male-saturated environment or culture.)

Payment of the lumber tax is involuntary and inevitable. The lumber tax is a complex system of inescapable costs, which only grow higher when ignored. The size, timing, and general regulation of your lumber tax is governed by a vast, quixotic, and nearly indecipherable code. To make matters worse, the lumber tax code is unwritten. Generally, you discover the existence of a particular article of the lumber tax code only after you have violated it and after the penalties for doing so have already been assessed and exacted. When men are behaving bizarrely, then a lumber tax is usually past due.

Men require recognition of position within a group and validation of their relative importance to the ongoing survival of that entity. This validation is reinforced through the payment of lumber taxes. When there is no functional ordering or hierarchy in a group, inevitably there is a struggle (either overt or covert) for that position and the associated alpha energy.

Alpha (or Alpha Energy)

Common parlance gives us a term, alpha, which we can borrow, tweak a bit, and put to good use. Rather than use the word as an adjective denoting primacy (as in "alpha male," the top male in a hierarchy of males), we can choose to use it as a noun (as in "Please, pass the alpha."), denoting an invisible, consumable, and highly desirable (primarily to men) energy. Free alpha, alpha that is up for grabs, is generated by novelty in the context of male-male proximity. Alpha, in our usage, provides but does not denote rank. That is, the amount of alpha one acquires, whether for personal use or for strategic and/or tactical redistribution, establishes relative rank. The presence of free alpha is typically directly detectable only by males, though both sexes can deduce the presence of free alpha by the more or less typical alpha-catalyzed behaviors, i.e. those behaviors associated with normal male competition for rank in a dominance hierarchy and for the concomitant possession of alpha. (Common business parlance gives us numerous phrases used to describe some of these behaviors, some of them a bit crude or scatological: for example, "ass-sniffing," "lining up the belly buttons," "top dog," "pissing contest"). These rituals are notable because they are not otherwise fully explainable.

Typically, there is an established order of alpha distribution in any functional male-dominated group. Usually it is desirable not to upset the existing alpha distribution.  However, whenever anything new is introduced to such an established group, such as new people, or new proposed practices, or new project ideas, the addition of the new element will have the effect of freeing alpha. This excites the men involved by threatening the established order, or alpha ranking, and they will invariably behave competitively, looking to (re)assert their right to or even enlarge their portion of the newly freed alpha.  The top alphas have to assert their control, police their alliances and patrol their territory. The way to keep the lumber taxes low in this situation is to be aware that novelty frees alpha and use that awareness to stage-manage efficient displays.  In general, you should work toward low turbulence reestablishment of the existing alpha order.  Obviously, a revolution of alpha order is a much more complex undertaking and should not be commenced without thinking through how to affect the change desired.

More on Alpha

Alpha becomes free to one extent or another whenever men meet. It is an ethereal substance that becomes available as a function of males' proximity to one another. There is a marked difference between initial male-male encounters and in the more habitual encounters that follow after an initial alpha distribution scheme is adopted. While the question of alpha distribution is never finally settled, tentative and sometimes even durable distribution schemes emerge. Once functional equilibrium is established among a given group, there is little free alpha generated in subsequent encounters.  And of this you can be sure: every last molecule of alpha is always tenaciously possessed as and when it appears. That is, there can never be a surplus of alpha. However little free alpha there may be, it is greedily competed for and summarily dealt with by the shrewdest male/s present.  

Logic exists behind the basic structure of the lumber tax, said logic having to do with dominance hierarchies and territoriality. Given such a logic, you can devise tax-avoidance strategies that radically reduce your lumber taxes-in effect, lumber tax shelters. It is clear from observation and experimentation that the following are the principal elements that determine your lumber tax:

• The amount of free alpha
• The effectiveness of the rituals involved
• The prudent use of diplomacy

Certain questions perennially arise among males, alas, usually without the involvement of the conscious intellect. Who is on top? How does the present transaction alter, challenge, or validate preexisting alpha relations among the male participants? Is there any free alpha to be had? Whose turf is it? What boundaries, in whose domain, are altered, challenged, or validated among the participants?

Answers are found either by direct participation in or by secondary analysis of the alpha flow.

As a general rule, the way one minimizes lumber tax is by intentionally using diplomacy and ritual to resolve alpha conflicts. Tax minimization is thereby achieved by exploiting one's awareness of the dynamics involved. Many events are foreseeably alphagenic. For example, if a new male or, worse, a group of males, is being introduced into an environment where there are established alpha patterns, one can anticipate and short-circuit the usual alpha follies likely to follow. One can resort to diplomacy earlier rather than later in the cycle and thereby expeditiously and ritually endorse existing alpha flow patterns.

An Example

One person I coach had established an understanding with a ranking boss in his organization that he was to be promoted to a new lieutenant or sub-boss position over many of the people who had previously been his peers.  The boss agreed in principle to this new assignment but was foot-dragging and proceeding at an unacceptably slow rate in implementing the changes.  The situation made the would-be lieutenant feel helpless and extremely restless.  I had the thought that perhaps his sense of helplessness was exacerbating the situation. After all, the boss had to completely upset the existing alpha order to create the new position.  That the would-be lieutenant was helpless and weak did not bode well for his pending lieutenancy.  Why should the boss redistribute the alpha energy in favor of this weak subordinate?  If a lieutenant can not seize power from an alpha, perhaps he does not deserve it. I recommended a more aggressive posture and advised a move that I called a "charge" followed by a "bow."  This required some diplomacy as well as a show of faux aggression.  The "charge" was to approach the boss aggressively with something short of an ultimatum, but well beyond the groveling supplication that the boss had seen so far.

The lieutenant-to-be used the Check In Protocol (see The Core Protocols (In Biography, below)  "I'm checking in mad," he said, "that putting me in my new job is taking so long. I am glad that we are doing it but sad and mad that you must see it as more of a problem than a solution in your life.  If we don't do it soon, I'm not sure that I want to do it at all."

This was the charge. Then he made the "bow."  "I do want you to know that I will be a loyal team member.  I will solve infinitely more problems for you than the problems caused by announcing my promotion."

After they had discussed it and the boss himself had used the Check In protocol in a conciliatory way, the final part of the bow took place.  The lieutenant extended his hand and made clear eye contact while reiterating his pledge of loyalty and effectiveness.  Clearly, the entire episode was a charge without teeth bared and with no real malicious intent.  However, it was important to make the boss aware that he was incurring costs by his inaction, that this potentially powerful ally, a good man with whom to share alpha power, was contemplating undesirable alternatives.  The promotion was made and announced without much further ado.  I did hold in reserve additional ideas for "charges" with gradually escalating threat components, but they were unneeded.

The Alpha Bet

While possession of alpha is primarily a male pre-occupation, either sex can acquire alpha, and distribute or barter it, or otherwise manage alpha flows. From a woman's point of view, it must seem like there are many extra costs and extra energy spent on caretaking of the male egos involved; however the goal of management is not to reform human nature but to work with it.  The wisdom behind placing your alpha bets and paying your lumber taxes is that there does exist in men this natural overriding force which can be harnessed for the most noble and good ends. And it is the job of leaders of whatever sex to maintain awareness of the ins and outs, the costs and opportunities of alpha flow.

Jim and Michele McCarthy Jim and Michele left successful leadership positions at Microsoft to form an innovative teamwork laboratory. For the last 10 years they have rigorously studied and codified the *best practices* for teams to get into and maintain a state of shared vision. These best practices are called The Core Protocols. Jim is well-known for his humorous, inspirational and educational public speaking and the couple are co-authors of the books Dynamics of Software Development and Software for your Head. They also co-host a podcast focused on business issues called The McCarthy Show which some claim is addictive. They can also be heard on Microsoft's MSDN web site.

[1] The fact that I say "I call" rather than "we call" is noteworthy in this case. This is because Michele actually came up with the phrase "Lumber Tax." My implicit claiming of the phrase is a good case in point, i.e., Michele is paying a Lumber Tax on the phrase "Lumber Tax."  She also pays extraordinary Lumber Taxes generally. In fact, the phrase "confiscatory tax rates" comes to mind.

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