Merging Leadership
Yep. I’m one of those people. You know, the people who will drive in the lane closed ahead in a construction zone until the last possible moment to move over safely. Before you mutter something unkind and hit the unsubscribe button, you may be interested to know that I’ve been a hero in American culture for years and didn’t even know it.
I’ve long known that many, perhaps even most, American drivers despise people like me. One occasion a few years ago in southern Illinois confirmed it. Three truck drivers spread their rigs across multiple lanes of I-57 as several lanes were funneled down to just one. Together, these truck drivers made a concerted effort to keep drivers like me from getting ahead of them in the long back-up. I realize their intent was noble. They were using their equipment to impose order on what they saw as chaos. However, experts now say they were only making the long back-up worse.
Earlier this week, I discovered a term coined recently to describe my habit that annoys so many: zipper merge. Yeah, we’ve been labeled by others for years, but with much less charitable terms.
In a story on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, host Ayesha Rascoe talked with Marshall Zelinger, a Colorado TV news reporter who has invested substantial time learning about and reporting on zipper merging. Transportation officials in Colorado, Ohio, and Minnesota have found that zipper merging eases congestion substantially. It shortens backups by up to 40%. It delays the formation of those traffic back-us and, on average, reduces the backups by ? of a mile.
As the annual thaw in the Midwest welcomed road construction season, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) began an information campaign a few weeks ago to bring awareness of the benefits of zipper merging. Danielle Langenfeld of WJW in Cleveland reports one ODOT official saying they hope to reduce the anger they see on the roads during the warm months of road repairs and construction.
I also learned this week that several states, including North Carolina, publish information about zipper merging in their driver’s license handbooks. Since 2020, Illinois law has included a hefty fine for drivers who refuse to allow others to zipper merge.
Of course, I write about zipper merging for reasons other than self-justification or mere amusement. There are some leadership principles here.
Leaders are often misunderstood. While some folks have long taken it in stride that some drivers will go as far as they can before they move over, others still make their displeasure known. Just months ago, there was a Subaru Outback in Raleigh straddling lanes on 440 in a desperate attempt to stop others from getting ahead of them in the line. According to the experts who study these matters, they only worsened the problem for everyone, including themselves.
What I have long known, even without information from those with the academic background to study traffic patterns, is that variations in individual response times to movement in the traffic create openings that, if not filled, result in inefficiency. Those gaps have only increased in frequency and size as more drivers entertain themselves or multitask with their phones when traffic slows to a crawl or stops. Their inattention to the circumstances and slower response contribute to the inefficiency. Those who fill those gaps may be labeled rude, impatient, selfish, or with various profane adjectives.
A long-tenured pastor friend made a difficult and unpopular decision to insist on the resignation of a popular staff member some 20 years ago. The clamor that resulted from those who had little or no information about the decision was one contributing factor to my friend’s decision to retire several months later. That staff member who resigned, also a friend, apologized to me a few years later, confessing to an adulterous affair in which he was involved at the time. It was information that the pastor knew but did not disclose to protect the families of those involved.
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Leaders need the support of others. Transportation officials in Colorado and Ohio are on a mission this year to educate drivers in their states about the benefits those who zipper merge bring to everyone on the road. Again, the expressed desire of ODOT is to reduce drivers' anger in these situations. I’d be curious to see the statistics of road rage incidents in Ohio this year and how they compare to previous years.
Going back to the pastor who insisted on the resignation of the adulterous staff member, I wonder how different things might have been if a personnel committee had been involved in the process. If there were five or six other people who, without disclosing confidential information, could have stood with the pastor to support the decision and reassure the church of the benefit of it, how might the outcome have been different for everyone involved? Years after the fact, news trickled out as a result of the staff member’s confession and honesty. How much healthier would the experience have been for the whole church had the pastor enjoyed the support of others at the moment?
What about you? What decisions do you need to make or actions do you need to take that might be misunderstood? What information can you share to help those you lead understand? If there is little that you can share, whose support in the moment might reduce the potential for misunderstanding and conflict that could result?
If you want to know more about zipper merging, click on the links below or go to YouTube and search for “zipper merge.” And if you see a gray Honda CR-V with a Chicago White Sox sticker on the back window rolling past you in that lane that’s closing ahead, let me in, will you?
Enjoy your weekend!
The views and opinions expressed in my Thursday Thoughts on Leadership are my own. They do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina or any affiliated churches.