Systems thinking + 'Stoics' + Jumping + Lake!

I’ve had it with $#@*%*! systems thinking bovine excrement peddlers, and Roman quoting self-help guru pseudo-Stoics. Had it. Over it, and them!

I will become somewhat more erudite on this, but first, without reference to any (actual) great philosopher, Greek or otherwise, nor any latter-day plastic meme-spouting self-publicists who can barely contain their smugness… here is how work, works.

If those who wield power over others do so in the most benevolent, kind, honest, and helpful way they are able, then it will be as good as it can be for those in their purview. The same thing happens the other way around! This will vary, it cannot be systematized, or manualized, and no one is going to revert back to a bloody presentation deck, or a series of multi-dimensional graphics and bleedin’ Boston grids. They are going to behave toward each other according to the relationships they have, the nature of which will be constantly shifting for countless reasons, bounded by culturally acknowledged norms, and mostly, lawfully.

We have hierarchies in organisations, at work. These are the same structures which have pervaded ancient tribes, Greek states, Empires, Fiefdoms, Feudalist Monarchies, villages, towns, mills, farms and families. We are no longer rooted to a blinkin’ Parish, find good people, who are as honest as they can be, and be grown up about that.

There will be times when there are sweets and prizes, and all is rosy. There will be times when this is not possible and sometimes there will be cuts. There will be some ‘bosses’, and ‘leaders’ who will go on witch hunts, and they will try to find a legal way to do this. This is all going on in the world, all the time. Laws are there to protect people, but laws are also there to protect people from idiot drivers, thieves, and all manner of nefarious activities, yet it all goes on in the world, all the time. Remember, in work situations, at a certain level, there are budgets for paying people off, use them; both individuals and organisations. If you are tempted to sit around demanding someone employ you ‘because’ you live somewhere, and it’s only right they do, look up “tethered goat”.

Boss-type people… Be nice, skillfully! Be honest, skillfully. Skillfully is the operative word. People are not work units, relate to them on a personal level as far and as much as possible, and encourage everyone to do likewise. Set rules about civility by all means, but don’t get too far up your own $#&% in doing so. However many laws you put around it, everyone must understand that employment is an open-ended contract. There will be good times and bad. Even in Government and council work. At all levels.

THIS is where the work is. This, here, right here. Helping bosses/ leaders to cultivate empathetic and sympathetic helpful, respectful, integrity. It is NOT in teaching everyone else to be able to tolerate them if they can’t do this. The work, the ONLY work is helping individual people to be able to relate on a human level, and get them to delete the manuals, decks, phone numbers, and email addresses (etc.) of anyone peddling blinkin’ systems baloney while they’re at it! ORGANISATIONS ARE NOT SYSTEMS, PEOPLE ARE NOT WORK UNITS! No amount of this nonsense is going to get anyone to relate to anyone else; quite the opposite, in fact, it dehumanizes people and prevents meaningful relationships.

The only reason anyone buys the consultancy systems stuff is that no one gets fired for buying it, and the next iteration, and the next, and the next. Well, not the only reason, also because they get to be at the top and they know the consultants know that it’s those at the top who approve the contracts and the bills… is your inflated ego wasting an awful lot of money? If this is causing you to be offended… probably, yes.

“work’ is a legal construction whereby people come together to participate in some common endeavour for myriad reasons. “The workplace” is not a thing. The people involved create cultures which involve various people, in various ways. An organisation is the relationships it has in all respects. Each has their part to play, and the financial fortunes of the organisation will depend on how effectively this is done, and on external market conditions. There are some people whose job it is to make decisions of tactical and/ or strategic importance. They don’t do this effectively by a popular vote, or in reference to vast committees. It is wise to do all we can to work with the best of these people.

Stoicism

There has been an intense individualist theme to the debt-drenched consumerism of the last four decades and counting. It is a corruption of Stoicism. Kindness is a core tenet of Stoicism. It does not demand that everyone beneath you should wear your slack ass’d &%^#. The idea is not that each individual is responsible for the situation in which they find themselves. They did not do it to themselves. It is not what people actually, secretly want and have chosen. It is up to individuals to understand that life is not fair and do something about it if they are able, but with as much help, support, kindness, and encouragement as we can muster.

There are times in everyone’s lives when they have just had the stuffing kicked out of them, and there are some people more sensitive than others. Most people will experience some form of mental illness (for want of a better description) and you would be surprised, or you will have forgotten, how many people struggle all the time. If you choose to do nothing to help, where are your Stoic principles now? That is not Stoicism, that is selfish beastliness.

We are of course back to relating to people on a personal level and regarding people with as much care and honesty as we are able. This is best when it happens in all directions, and people do their best, with generous allowances, in an overriding culture of mutual support. This happens as a consequence of relationships, and these relationships are best when the people involved in them are as well disposed to one another as they can be, again, with generous allowances. It does not happen because of the training, and the manual says it should. It does not happen when one person dehumanizes another. It does not happen when people one person behaves like something out of Lord of the Flies.

I heard of a recruitment/ HR guy crying into his latte recently because he’d been ‘asked into a meeting, and there was someone from HR there’ and now he knew what it felt like to be on that side of the experience. Good ‘kin grief! Never mind though, he got another job back on the right side of the table in about two weeks… so that’s good isn’t it…