A PREWAR MANIFESTO (1/3)

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”

― G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain: A Postapocalyptic Novel

"I hope I leave behind a belief that you can be kind, but strong. Empathetic, but decisive. Optimistic, but focused. That you can be your own kind of leader – one that knows when it’s time to go."

― Jacinda Ardern, 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

What you will read in this article are just an individual's perspectives that may have their own inevitable biases, subjectivities and limitations of applicability. But at least be assured, views in this series are from a fairly analytical, well-educated, heavily practiced and diversely-exposed mind, and can mostly be well-worth a thinking on.

24 Years in business world, in 9 vertical industries with stakeholders across 12 countries and 4 continents, last 9 years in the United Kingdom.. National top-scorer in a spectrum of qualitative and quantitative subjects, with academic credentials in 3 major disciplines of Computer Engineering, Business Administration and Sociology, with focus on interdisciplinary subjects practiced for decades in multidisciplinary settings... A social animal with a massive diversity of social circles in professional and personal life, a passionate life-long community worker in lifestyle, a relentless observer, reader, listener and contemplator.. And, at this stage of my professional life, I believe I have some important things to tell anyone who cares about our workplaces, enterprises, customers, investors, industries, streets, neighbourhoods, cities, nations, countries, generations and environment.

CONTEXT IN A PRE-WAR DECADE

Five years ago in a public speech addressing government officials and community representatives, I was the one diverging from the politically correct routine of rephrasing typical, all-positive messages...

"Having our civil dreams about our children’s futures, we may actually be unknowingly growing amateur reserve soldiers of a Third World War, who may also see the days of a terribly divided society at home!"... Starting with a shocking statement but then focusing on a call for more effective, serious, proactive and committed peace-building/strengthening strategies, listing some tangible suggestions... In fact, this had been one of my major themes in many similar occasions for long before.

Obviously we never want it, but to me, if at some stage we fail to prevent an approaching 3rd World War, it will be not only due to wild aggressions of our tyrannic rivals but also to many decades of gross wrongdoings, inactions and ineptitude of the "weak men" so-called on our side. If such horrific days happen to come within a decade or two, they are likely to be much harder than we might be anticipating even in absolute no use of Nuclear, Biologic and Chemical weapons. And, some massive dimensions of such impact will be due to weaknesses of our public and private institutions in our poor performing democracies and societies.

HUMAN: ROOT CAUSE & REMEDY OF ALL PROBLEMS

Five years since that speech, events in local, national, regional and international scale along with my personal experiences and observations have so unfortunately proven how right and timely my points there and before have been.

Unfortunately, ever since then, things overall have got worse and worse in all local, national and international scale in the big picture. And to me, the root cause has always been (1) a continual "decline of overall human and leadership qualities", which is causing as well as exacerbated by (2) "major malfunctioning of our systems" s/electing, appointing and promoting leaders at all levels of our institutions, public and private.

In this first article, focus will mainly be on "declining human and leadership qualities" as the very root cause of our local, national and global issues - a phenomenon observable at all spheres of social and professional lives and at all levels of organisations, repeating the historical pattern of "weak men created in good times bringing back hard times", as G Michael Hopf once rounded up being inspired mainly by the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory.

The "major malfunctioning of systems" is a huge topic of a separate discussion, but for now, let me at least try describing it in one paragraph:

Properly working bureaucracies are supposed to hire, appoint and promote leaders that will serve best to the higher objectives of the organisations. In a major malfunction of systems, your strongest people are led by your weakest men. Properly functioning democracies are supposed to enable nations to be led by leaders with at least above-average qualities amongst many great candidates. In a major malfunction of systems, though, you may see the only available options being just as good as Mr Biden and Mr Trump, to be elected by a nation growing every year thousands of potential Lincoln's and Roosevelt's via the best universities and enterprises in the world. As my business networks are mostly in the United Kingdom, I chose the example from the other side of the pond. No comment about our somewhat better British politics..

DECLINING HUMAN & LEADERSHIP QUALITIES, OR "WEAK MEN" IN SHORT

Please read all the following as with my heartfelt gratitude and respect reserved for so many great examples amongst my social and professional connections, whom I truly appreciated and learned a huge deal from.

Yes, the root cause... "Weak men"; the selfish, lazy, neglectful, greedy, unempathetic, merciless, comfort-zone-imprisoned, consumption-enslaved, and more..

Many are good persons in many ways, but just too mean and too busy with just what matters most immediately to their personal interests contrary to the ethically, contractually and legally observed rights and interests of teams, employers, customers, investors, tax-payers, fellow-citizens, other stakeholders, and environment...

Some are very hard-working, but emotionally more like a dry-stick.. Some are even harder-working but narcissistically exploitative and irresponsible, pathologically fixated to personal gains or goals at any cost to others...

Some terribly lazy but equally inapt-ambitious, essentially relying on their unique talent in hypocrisy, playing micro-, mezzo- or macro- politics, backed by informal coalitions within enterprises collectively operating and taking the advantage of status-quo's...

"Weak men created in good times" of all sorts, in an era where hypocrisy is often described as a harmless, sympathetic cultural phenomenon and as a matter of personal strengths and professional skills... In an era, where hypocrisies at all levels are hollowing out our values, strengths and presumed superiorities..

"Weak men of good times bringing back hard times", by gradually dissolving qualities of social relations, business interactions and organisational tissues in enterprises, reducing efficiencies, increasing risks, normalising serious chronic problems.. "Weak men" engaging in practices either grossly neglectful or seriously corrupt, or both, in both public and private enterprises where "owner of the money" isn't represented around, and therefore money is sometimes wasted like water in a riverside picnic... In enterprises with no proper, unbiased measurement of value productivity, involvement, outcomes, efficiencies, risks and problems...

"Weak men", when speaking of disputable matters, essentially relying on subtle soft wordings jumping high over and far aside serious problems and risks... "Weak men" chanting in "corporate dramas" delusional, ritual languages of positive self-assessment that most effectively ignores, neglects or even deliberately hides inconvenient facts that need thoughtful, purposeful and brave confrontation.

"Weak men" not asking or checking down/in proper accounts, because they cannot report them up/out...

"Weak men" that have got used to sit wide on and hide the sh.t for ages.. "Weak men" that never touch a rotten brick, as they very well know, pull one brick to fix, and the entire wall collapses. It's an entire wall that is rotten. They already know it may collapse soon-ish, but just hoping it survives their time in the post (well, their time on the sh.t, more precisely).

"Weak men", each playing their part in corporate drama of rotting institutions, guilty of either making it, or causing it or not being brave- and responsible- enough to think up, speak up or witness against it.

"Weak men" taking the advantage of some exceptional performers where extra-miles run by passionate committers compensate for their laziness and inaptitude, resulting in a relatively good but definitely unsustainable outlook of overall performance. "Weak men" falsely thinking that as the exceptional performers are just too obedient and never-complaining, it is an order that can go on forever...

"Weak men", if they simply take a full 12-months holiday without an interim replacement, it doesn't cause any issues at all for their teams, employers, investors or customers..

"Weak men" that just keep the influence, power and control in their hands at some level of an organisation, but hardly use such capacities for any impactful initiatives, never setting, leading or inspiring proper vision and strategies for their teams and organisations...

Weak men, because, while so many big issues are there, they simply do not care! Yes, that's the biggest issue of all: They.. simply.. do.. not.. care. Period.

"Weak men" 5 of whom come together to so-called direct, head, manage, coach, mentor or whatever some 3 strong people, 3 even-stronger people, and 5 other "weak men" in a team...

"Weak men" that do not undertake a single item of task of any sort from their team's work load for months and still get charged for their full time to the clients in a time-and-material contract... "Weak men" working under some other "weak men", where the deal is simple: "We are all benefiting from the same 'abundance' and 'amazing work/life balance' - you cover me and I cover you".

"Weak men" often rushing from meetings to meetings", very rarely collecting and studying reports (let alone challenge their accuracy) for making/leading/inspiring/facilitating any data-driven decisions, and even more rarely implementing any decisions they may have happened to make...

"Weak men" that are effectively absent in the workplace and would be less costly to their employers and colleagues if they were to just stay home and live with social benefits financed with taxes of their employers and colleagues.

"Weak men", enjoying the advantages or resources inherited from strong people of hard times, where the loss of inherited advantages along with increasing risks, challenges and problems are often not easily visible either because the decay is gradual or it is camouflaged green inside "watermelon reports" high up to executives, investors, insurers, regulators and the public...

"Weak men" defending fortress of status-quo's, suppressing, gaslighting or otherwise punishing voices speaking up or even 'thinking' up...

"Weak men" coding, exemplifying and reproducing their mentality and ways of actions and inactions into organisations...

"Weak men" leading institutions for long like an unlisted item of inventory, resulting in their individual psychopathologies and weaknesses to become "corporate psychopathologies and disorders"...

"Weak men" sometimes not fully aware of where the issues are, hiring talent to fix or disrupt the status-quo attributable to "others" in their organisations...

"Weak men", using expensive rare talent to disrupt others but abusing them like "mine donkeys", never ever putting their will, power or consistent influence behind the change they want, systemically avoiding even a little risking their relations with anyone if they were to back the correct, desirable change... They may want change, but they don't want to be the one to drive or lead it, they want it to be done by someone else for themselves.

"Weak men" victimising disrupting talent as bad cop, themselves always keeping to be the good cop...

"Weak men", when disruptive talent has to gently and respectfully disrupt themselves as well and inevitably refer to what they should improve in their own practices, cowardly and shamelessly throwing away who they were abusing as "mixing sticks"...

In a "world of opportunities", "weak men" can become anything but shamed.

"Weak men" abusing asymmetric powers and advantages of their positions even grossly breaching undisputable legal and contractual terms, daring to refer to employment tribunals being useless taking up to 24 months..

"Weak men" exemplifying just simply how not to lead talent, effort and resources.

"Weak men" exemplifying just simply how to waste them all.

"Weak men" whose overall accounting and opportunity cost of employment is far more than their total pay packages.

"Weak men", sitting in auditory positions to investigate or scrutinise reported malpractices, but never brave-enough to call a 'sh.t' a 'sh.t' in appropriate business jargon.. "Weak men" reducing even the most apparent gross misconduct into politically correct, simplified, subtle terms, telling the seniors what they would be happier or less sad to hear, letting the wrongdoers effectively get away with it, effectively establishing the fact that it is safe to do the wrong thing for years in this enterprise.

"Weak men" in the corporate immune systems, allowing the toxic behaviours sneakily and gradually spread across the body until a fatal stage... "Weak men" either rotting or not countering the rotting of institutions towards a terminal stage...

NOT ALL ARE ROTTING, AND SOME ARE TRULY GREAT

One may look around and may see no proper sign of a rotting institution in their enterprise. This may be either because their organisation has managed to stay safe from the contagious effects of an overall decline in the human and leadership qualities in broader ecosystem. If that's the case, there are a lot that many organisations could learn from yours in various aspects of resources, functions and processes.

However, it may also be the case that while your organisation isn't experiencing a rotting-level of institutional disorder, there may still be a huge deal of opportunities lost due to reduced capabilities and efficiencies, where your "weak men"'s damage is somehow balanced and kept under control by your strong people and gradually-weakening system. In that case, I would say, don't take it for granted that such balance and control are sustainable, and take it seriously enough to address the problems, risks, inefficiencies and lost-opportunities that your organisation is running with. The nature of "Weak men"'s impact in an organisation may sometimes be like that of a stealthy progressing cancer: you feel fairly well until you come to know, but just when you find out, it's already too late.

RECENT SERIES OF SCANDALS BREAKING OUT AND A WAKE-UP CALL

I know above paragraphs may sound too harsh to many readers, but for many of us it may be because they catch us partly whilst taking a nap in an unquestioned status-quo that is too sweet and much more "convenient" to play gracefully within. On the other hand, after decades of experiences within an exceptional variety of social, cultural, industrial, organisational, technical and professional settings, I have come to conclude that time has come to be much bolder and and more direct in describing the nature and scale of problems, and we should shift away from the rhetoric paradigm based on political correctness and soft, indirect pointers.

Now...

Consider dozens of scandals in public and private institutions that have recently come to surface in British public media, (and far more that haven't yet) as a broader matter of rotting institutions, due to "weak men" created in good times, bringing back hard times.

With these scandals, we should be recognising the scale of rotting of institutions, and we will actually realise the dire scale of matters to their fullest extents only when the strengths and resilience of institutions are truly tested in some future not too far.

Obviously, we never want to enter a war with anyone anywhere, but if we fail to prevent an approaching 3rd WW at some stage, let's pray we don't experience them while we have these rotting institutions in public and private sectors.

"Weak men", if you are also reading!

Wake up for your own good, while you may still have some time to catch up!

Strong men and women!

Apparently, it is too late for yesterday. But it may be just in time for tomorrow. In any case, it must not be any later today. We must work hard, work smart and work from heart altogether to radically challenge the status-quo, approach with shifted paradigms and implement rapid, conventional, sustainable change to heal, strengthen and revolutionise our institutions.

NEXT IN THE SERIES

In the next one of the series, I will propose some tangible suggestions for individuals, teams, public and private enterprises along with those for policy makers and regulatory and law enforcement bodies.

Mutlu (Milton) Sancaktutar

Milton Keynes / 14 June 2024

[email protected]

PS-1: Please don't check my profile to see where I may have collected these observations :)). My conclusions are based on data I collected from some of my own personal and professional experiences as well as from those of a diverse range of legitimate public sources including experiences of colleagues and fellow-citizens. In enterprises where I had my most-negative observations, of course I had many good experiences and observations as well. And, institutions whose names are seen on my profile are either truly great or far better examples.

PS-2: Please excuse what may sound like a sexist language in "weak men" phrase. I used it every time as quoted from "Those Who Remain: A Postapocalyptic Novel" by G. Michael Hopf.