Golden Oldies: The Idiocy Of Ideologues
by Miki SaxonIt’s amazing to me, but looking back over more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies are a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.
Echo Chambers. They’ve been with us since humans first stood erect. We hear what we want to hear; listen only to those who agree with us. Seek out the likeminded with whom to spend our time. And, when all else fails, people have been known to go beyond the acceptable to prove they are right. But when this happens at work, what’s a manager to do?
Read other Golden Oldies here.
Last week I had a call from a “Rick,” marketing manager, with what he thought was a unique problem—sadly it’s not as uncommon as you might think.
Short version. “Chris” is one of his top producing marketing people and extremely valuable to the team and the company. Recently, the team had a vehement disagreement on a marketing plan, but finally decided to go with an approach different from the one that Chris had championed.
Since then, Chris has made a number of comments and suggestions that undermine the current effort and has privately said that she hopes it fails because the other approach was better.
The team was starting to notice and some were losing confidence—a sure way to guarantee failure.
Rick said he had talked a bit with Chris; she denied that she was sabotaging the campaign and if it failed it would be because the wrong choice was made.
When I asked if Chris was always such an ideologue Rick was startled. He hadn’t thought of her actions in those terms, but after thinking it over he decided that she was a bit, although normally not to this extent.
Rick went on to say that it was ironic, because during the election Chris had been adamant that the “hide-bound ideology on both sides was creating problems for the country” and that she thought Obama was less locked into a specific, narrow ideology than most politicians.
More recently, she had been furious with Rush Limbaugh’s comment “I hope Obama fails,” seeing it as destructive and unpatriotic.
And therein, as I told Rick, lay his solution. Here is what I suggested.
- Arrange a conversation without interruptions, such as an off-site lunch.
- Make a production of turning off your cell phone (if Rick isn’t answering his, Chris is unlikely to interrupt to answer hers).
- Keep the tone conversational; avoid anything that sounds like an accusation or makes the lunch feel like a confrontation.
- Remind Chris’ about her previous thoughts regarding ideologues.
- Once she confirms her thoughts gently draw the parallel between her attitudes and an ideologue.
- Use her own words and feelings to refute whatever defense she raises (again, without attacking her).
- Keep it conversational and take your time leading her to the recognition that her actions are the same as those she dislikes, just in a different arena.
Rick called today to say they’d had lunch that day and the conversation went exactly as predicted. It wasn’t perfectly smooth and there were some dicey moments, but when that happened he backed away and tried another route. He said that it would have been impossible to do in the office with interruptions and turning off their cells created a whole different mood.
He said that when Chris realized that she was doing a highly watered down version of Limbaugh she was openly shocked and very apologetic.
Instead of leaving it there, Rick took extra time to walk through the competing plans and why the team had chosen the one and not the other. He explained that it wasn’t that Chris was wrong, she just held a different opinion and that was OK, but it wasn’t OK do anything to undermine the program—even unconsciously.
With a more open mind Chris grudgingly agreed to the reasoning. She said that in spite of still feeling the other plan was better she would do everything in her power to make the project work. She said that the success of the project was more important than being “right.”
Rick was lucky because a critical member of his team was also a rational thinking person who could see a parallel when it was pointed out and not enough of a hypocrite to claim “that’s different…”
Chris was lucky because she worked for a manager who valued her and was willing to take the time to help her change and grow.
How do you control your inner ideologue?
Or do you?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last week I wrote Time To Get Off Your Ass And Lead (Yourself) and Ravi Tangri added some very intelligent thoughts in his comment. I hope you’ll take a moment to click over, read it and add your own thoughts to the conversation. It’s an important one for all of us.
Image credit: Gurdonark on flickr
This golden Oldie dates back to 2009 and includes a comment worth a click.
