Quick Lessons in Leadership

Two decades ago, working as a drill instructor in 1989, I learned two valuable lessons in leadership that have stuck with me to this day.  They both centre around the fact that people, as a broad generalization, are lazy.  On hearing that, you may think "but I'm not lazy!", but the sad reality is that most people are, very much so, and the few that aren't are constantly victimized by the majority others if they allow themselves to be.

Lesson number one: if you shout at a group of people, nothing changes.  The problem with non-specific criticism is it allows each individual present to convince themselves you're talking about someone else.  Yes, the rare not-lazy, more self-aware ones may worry you're talking about them and take action, but in all likeliness, they're not the ones who were the problem in the first place.  If you have thirty cadets marching along, and three-quarters of them are not swinging their arms properly, shouting at the group to swing their arms will not make them do so.  Rather, the quarter who were doing it adequately will do it slightly more.

If you want results with a group, be prepared to name names.

Lesson number two: given two options of how to do things, people will pick the easier of the two.  If you want them to do something properly, doing it properly has to be the easier of the two.  They will happily and consistently pick the incorrect way, even if it means occassionally being berated for it, if that way is easier.  Cadets would walk half way from the mess to the parade square, get yelled at by the crossing guard for not marching properly, march until out of earshot, and then resume walking.  They would do this daily.  They did this until crossing guards started insisting they turn around, march back to the starting point, and do the whole thing over again.  This changed the parameters of their decision.  Instead of the options a) march, or b) walk and get yelled at, where b) is obviously the easier answer, they now had a) march, or b) walk, get yelled at, march back, and then do a) anyway.  Suddenly marching from the beginning was the easier, lazier option.

If you want people to be good, make being bad require more energy.

Those Who Pretend to Know

Those who know they do not know gain wisdom;
Those who pretend to know remain ignorant.
-- Tao Te Ching

I came across graffitti on the bathroom wall of Sobey's the other day, slamming the store over pesticides and suggesting that everyone should be buying organic.  I guess they're not familiar with Newfoundland soil and climate, or certainly not with how agriculture works here. 

The CBC website lately has been littered with people insisting crime in St John's is on the rise, despite statistics being released to the contrary.  Yes, those statistics are questionable, but for reasons much better than "geez b'y, I've been readin' the news, and everyone knows crime is up sher since I was a youngster".  I guess it never occurs to them that they weren't reading the online news daily 30 years ago.

It all reminds me of years ago when someone adamantly suggested that killing more seals would help save the cod, since seals eat cod.  Then an expert came forward saying that seals primarily eat another fish which in turn eats cod and it would have quite the opposite effect.  (Not that seals were the problem to begin with, but let's leave the overfishing and government mismanagement rants for another day.)  But then, maybe I'm remembering that wrong.  I might be.  But then, I'm not espousing a course of action regarding seals.  Just so we're clear.

You see, I'm not suggesting for a minute that I know all about potato blight, or whether crime is or isn't rising or falling in St John's these days, or what the fuck we should do about a dead fishery.  I'll leave destroying elephant populations in order to save them from cruel treatment to the likes of PETA.  I don't know these things, and I know I don't know these things.  I just wish the general population asked more questions and provided fewer answers.

Wouldn't it be nice, every now and then, to find activism and ignorance not following hand in hand?

Welcome to the Misinformation Age.