We Affirm Them.
Every day we continue working for a bad boss we affirm them.
Even if we privately disengage, we only strengthen the bad boss’s conviction that, but for her firm leadership, we’d all run amok.
No Surfing.
The job of the boss is to hold back the entropic waves of oppression, injustice, mistrust, and abuse of power.
Not to surf them.
Recap.
Your Widget is where you want to be.
A good decision is one that advances you towards where you want to be.
Good decision making is a deliberate process of inquiry that advances you towards where you want to be.
Your process of inquiry leaves a path behind you.
If you look around and at least one person is following you …
…you’re leading.
Vigil.
Changing the world demands nothing less than hunting down and rooting out of our subconscious all the limiting beliefs inherited from our families and teachers, naming and debunking them, then maintaining a constant vigil of our behaviour to prevent visiting them, especially those disguised as virtuous, upon our children.
Commentry.
‘This place is terrible!’ they mutter. ‘Someone needs to do something.’ they complain.
‘Did you see what she did?!’ they decry. ‘How does she get away with it?!’
The Boss is a Jerk.
Many go to work to literally disengage.
Work is a break from the pressure and anxiety of being a grown up.
Turn up. Predictable. Few surprises. Follow a routine. Follow (mostly) clear (mostly) directions for (mostly) clear outcomes.
Good social life, too.
Surrender autonomy and agency to the boss in return for having someone to blame for your unhappiness.
Boss getting a little uppity in their demands and causing a little pycho-social hazard?
Don’t worry. The government will rescue you.
Work is respite care from Life.
Daydream on the journey home of all the things you could achieve with family and work.
If only the boss wasn’t such a jerk.
Its Own Change.
The process is a decision.
The process creates its own change.
You see the world differently - and the world sees you differently - after the process.
The Opposition.
One of the functions of an opposition - whether in politics or in a healthy society or community - is to listen to and articulate the reasonable concerns or grievances of the marginalised or voiceless.
Otherwise there is the risk that those people will resort to disruptive and violent means to express their fears.
Redirect.
One of the skills of a leader is to identify and redirect towards the Widget:
Time
Attention
Energy
Resources
Emotion
Starting with themselves, then those under the leader’s authority or influence.
A leader recognises a person’s potential (including their own) and that it may be misdirected.
Instead of suppressing or punishing the misdirected time, attention, energy, resources, or emotion, the leader redirects it.
Teachers do this routinely with their students.
The Audition.
Step 1: Step Back
Pausing before beginning the decision making process gives us many of the benefits from reconnoitring multiple pathways.
We project ourselves along optional pathways, anticipating, considering, and feeling their respective consequences.
We choose one journey after auditioning multiple.