A couple of days ago was the beginning of the new year. Every January 1st, people all over the world set goals to do all sorts of things; stop drinking, start working out, eat healthier. We make these lofty goals, only to crash in a few weeks..”its too cold to go for a run”….”we already opened the bottle, we should finish it”…we bought the candy, its just going to go to waste”. We do the same thing professionally…
Organizations try to “shake up” things by implementing new operating procedures…generating a new check list, hiring new managers, etc…The main issue with these top down commitments is that the people who have implement the ideas and do the work are not committed. This almost always results in employees who are not committed to the organization…who are disillusioned with management or feel disrespected. These employees shut down…they go silent…they leave.
What does Ben Franklin have to do with this?
When we fail we create our own justifications…and when a managers goals aren’t met the manager will also make excuses…err…justify the poor behavior. This behavior isn’t unique…as you will see below;
So Convenient To Be A Reasonable Creature!
Ben Franklin
At the age of 16, Ben Franklin decided to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet and according to his biography things were going well..until a year later…Our intrepid Ben Franklin was stuck…”becalmed” on a ship just off the coast of Rhode Island. During that time, the fellow passengers and sailors started fishing to pass the time and to eat.
…the taking of every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of [the fish] had, or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter.
Ben Franklin
Ben seemed pretty set on the idea that eating meat was murder….BUUUUUUUUT….
I had formally been a great lover of fish, and when this came hot out of the frying-pan it smelt admirably well.
Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin took some time to “balance between principle and inclination” until he remembered that Cod eat other, smaller fish. So…maybe eating a fish that eats other fish is not so bad?
If you [the cod] eat other one another, I don’t see why we mayn’t eat you”
Ben Franklin
The point here is this…we can make excuses, justify, reason anything we want. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up over doing what is right for us…but don’t get confused…if you make a decision that has a negative or harmful impact on another person, you don’t own their decision process…but you must own your role as the proximate cause in them making that decision. If people decide to leave a company or group because you made changes…the people left because you made changes.