Silence is Not Golden When Building Better Communities
Your street was paved one week before the last election but the builder did a terrible job. The pavement started crumbling within weeks of casting your vote for the local politician who made it happen. That bugs you. It bugs your neighbors, too. It bugs all of you so much that that road has become the centerpiece of almost every conversation lately. You all feel used and bitter. But when someone suggests that you visit the mayor's office to demand that the road be fixed, the consensus of the group falls on the side of not making waves.
Your daughter had a great elementary school teacher who laid the right foundations for learning from which she still benefits many years later. Your son was not as lucky. He got ?that other teacher“ - you know…the one who should have retired a decade ago and frankly shouldn't have been a teacher at all. She arrives to class late, but lectures on punctuality. She teaches by rote but preaches creativity. She loses patience with kids, but rebukes them whenever they lose theirs. Parents and co-workers fear retribution and so no one speaks up. At the end of the month, your son's terrible teacher gets the same pay as your daughter's excellent teacher?
Napoleon is supposed to have said ?The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.“ The problem with silence is that it is de facto approval. Silence sustains all of the bad behavior…bad decisions…bad leadership that we all hate in our communities. Our propensity for silence keeps the wrong people leading the conversation and the country.
It wasn't that long ago in our history that keeping quiet was a matter of survival. Complaining about anything, let alone criticizing a prominent politician, doctor or teacher in public carried the real possibilty of losing your job, your kids not getting into university or going to jail, aka ?The Good Old Days“. We no longer fly the communist flag but that conformist mentality persists to this day. I'm talking about that brand of social pressure that compels us to keep our heads down and our mouths shut, lest we become a lightning rod for ill-will. Failing to communicate the truth becomes a function of self-preservation and the tail continues wagging the dog, unabated.
I'll tell you, speaking up has been one of my life's strongest patterns. I'm not going to say that it's all been rainbows and unicorns but generally it's worked for me, not against me. I've learned a thing or two in the process. I've learned that when those uncomfortable conversations must be broached, when you are most afraid, you find allies that you never knew – allies in strange places.
Occassionally people in charge don't know how bad the situation is. By speaking the truth, you help your boss/school principal/mayor manage their realm. Not only do you alert them to a problem, you identify yourself as an investor – a person who is invested in making their business, school or community a better place.
Croatians get in trouble when they confuse communication with confrontation. We tend to favor extremes here. Silent support of the status quo or anarchy a la Vilibor Sin?i?. Creating great businesses, schools and towns requires small acts of bravery, small acts of caring and small acts of responsibility every day.
This is a translation of an original column that was published in Croatia's largest newspaper, Ve?ernji List, on January 23, 2017. See my pearl trees for a complete gallery of my articles for Ve?ernji List and other publications, including The Wall Street Journal.
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