The Sky is Red.
What's up happy people, Deji here.
The sky is red is chapter 7 of my book, "Perception is a Bitch." Enjoy!
“The sky is red,” is a metaphor you can apply to moments when your leader doesn’t care about your opinion and just needs you to do what he is asking you to do.
?The time is two AM on a mid-February morning in the town of Buni Yadi in North-Eastern Nigeria. The early morning air is crisp as the boys and girls of the local government-college are snuggled in their metal bunk beds, fast asleep in the dormitories. They blissfully cling to the last few hours of sleep before the morning wake up bell at five AM. However, unknown to them, their lives are about to be cut short; showing us that a person’s perspective becomes tyranny when it is forced on others.
As the rebels of the Islamic militant group Boko Haram approach the dormitory under the cover of night, the trees give a gentle whisper in protest. They seemingly attempt to warn the students of the tragic fate awaiting them. The trees loathe what is about to become the scene of an inhumane crime. The militia group is passionately against all western ideas. And so, they finally arrive armed with Kalashnikov’s. They are authorized by their contextual thinking to rain down gunfire on innocent children while they sleep. They aimed only at the boy’s dormitories, condemning these young souls for their gender (Male) and desire for western education.
The sound of echoing shots and the screams of death shatter the silence of night, sending many to an eternal sleep. Those not yet robbed of life wake up to these sounds in terror. Instinctively, they rise and attempt to flee toward the protective darkness of the jungle. Yet they fled in vain. A second string of armed men wait with machetes to butcher those who attempt to flee.
?This prescription of hate and violence by a point of view with power may be obvious to you. But to the Boko Haram and those who generally reject western ideas, these violent actions are about as rational as any reasonable thought can get.
It was hell on earth for the children as their screams filled the silent night. I have smelt many bodies burning. There is a distinct and crisp smell to it.
?The militia reportedly spared the female students, gathering the traumatized girls as hostages. They ordered them to abandon their desire for western education and return home to be married and bear children. They ordered them to put their thinking away and conform to the ideas and values of the society they live in.
As a human being, I am livid at this report of young children being robbed of their right to exist and freely be. However, this performance of evil is a symptom of a much bigger problem; a production gone horribly wrong and a point that thus far, I have labored to bring to your attention.
I get angry with people who will inflict such pain on others just because they believe differently. I am disappointed at the manner in which a man will irresponsibly allow his point of view to create a painful memory or lived experience for another. If you believe in a god, surely there has to be punishment for being this irresponsible with your power to create someone’s lived experience. Is there justice in this world or the next for those whose lives have been ruined by the perception of others?
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Every person has beliefs and values that they would scale to the masses if they were given power. It is just human nature to truly believe that your ideas and values are thought-out, logical, and rational. “The other person has not thought theirs out as well as you have.” If you are a leader with direct reports, you too have had moments where you give your perspectives and expect that your team follow or execute without resistance.
In the business world, leaders often create blind spots for themselves by substituting the word perspective with insights. The Metaphor “The sky is red,” will help you define and quantify the moments you observe your leader in this blind spot.
?Leaders often value collaboration with their direct reports and there can be some value when direct reports challenge leaders appropriately. However, there are also some scenarios when the leader doesn’t care about your opinion. He just needs you to do what he is asking you to do. This is the moment the leader is telling you “The sky is red,” and you know better than to tell him its blue.
?If someone tried to put your physical body in chains, you would resist and protest. Yet you have no such self-awareness to know when your mind is being put in chains by your own perspectives.
The bigger problem in this story is in how perception delegates human action and behavior like a master does to his servants. Our perceptions put us in the position to do evil unto others. My frustration is that we don’t see the moment it is happening. Your perception is your blind spot. And, if you knew what was in your blind spot, it would not be a blind spot.
I may very well end the newsletter here with this example. However, I cannot. The tragedy at Buni Yadi is only a single observation of Perception at work. There are many more. This unfortunate heartbreak exposes perception, not the love of money to be the root of all evil. It is important to realize that when preconceptions and perceptions are fertilized and cultivated, they grow into monstrosities.
Perception is evil also because people are too stupid to recognize the shades of gray and nuances to ideas and points of view. Two ideas can be true at the same time. I can be pro-choice and yet not be for abortion. However, simple minds will rather define this issue as Democrat or Republican; right or wrong, pro-life, or pro-choice.
Perception also finds ways to be a bitch in organizational leadership and in business. A dynamic team is still limited to the interpretations, insights and perspectives being made by its leader.?
No one thinking “inside the box,” is?aware that they are thinking inside the box. Perception is a tyrant whose limits are prescribed and endured by those it has made sick. Your point of view makes you a possible oppressor to those who don’t see the world the way you see it.?