Cat into the River.
‘Thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats: They can do it, but they prefer not to.’ Daniel Kahneman
Asking some bosses to explain themselves is like nudging a cat towards a river.
Demean.
I do swear that I will truly and honestly demean myself in the practice of a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia according to the best of my knowledge and ability,
So help me God.
The oath I swore before the Full Bench of the Supreme Court on 22 December 1989 as part of the Admission Ceremony to become a legal practitioner.
They’ve since removed from the oath ‘demean myself’.
The Responsibility is Mine.
“I embrace it, the responsibility is mine, I was the commander of the army on October 7th, I bear my own responsibility, and I also bear the full responsibility for all of you. And I acknowledge in every subordinate of mine who made a mistake, as part of my own [mistake],” Major General Yaron Finkelman, Commander of Southern Command, Israel Defence Forces.
"The Israel Defence Forces failed in its mission to protect the citizens of Israel. My responsibility for the terrible failure accompanies me every day, every hour, and will be so for the rest of my life.” -Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defence Forces.
If you’re the boss of anything, learn from these men.
If someone is the boss of you, learn from these men.
If you’re the boss, you must have evidence-based confidence that every person you’re the boss of, truly understands what your job is, what their job is, what you’ve given them to do their job, and what finishing their job it looks like.
If someone is the boss of you, you must understand why the boss insists that you know what your job is, that you’re competent to do it, and why the boss gets grumpy if you don’t do it to the boss’s satisfaction.
You must understand why the boss chooses to boss you the way they do.
They’ve chosen for you to not care much for them - rather than them risking being accompanied every day and every hour for the rest of their life for what will be their failure - not yours.
Challenge.
'If you don't agree with a proposition then you need to have a logical argument for an alternative.'
- Dr Tim McDonald, Executive Director of Catholic Education WA
The first rule of the Widget is to challenge the Widget.
In and Out.
'Humans are bright enough to think our way out of the problems we think ourselves into.'
- Cory Doctorow
Good decision making is a process of thinking our way out of a problem.
Into another problem.
And out.
And in.
Out.
A Gift to Your Future Self.
Taking time to Step 1:Step Back before making a decision is a generous gift to your future self.
As are Steps 2 to 5.
The Lives of Others.
Human life occurs only once, and the reason we cannot determine which of our decisions are good and which bad is that in a given situation we can make only one decision; we are not granted a second, third, or fourth life in which to compare various decisions.
- Milan Kundera 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'
We are indeed granted a first, second, third, or fortieth life in which to compare various decisions.
The lives of others.
Read History.
You Break a Rule.
You break a rule.
You get an immediate payoff.
You’re discovered and dealt with.
Done. Move on.
You break a rule.
You get an immediate payoff.
Nobody discovers you.
The payoff fades.
The fear of discovery remains.
It’s Neptune.
In the early 19th century, astronomers observed irregularities in the orbit of Uranus.
These irregularities suggested that another, unseen planet’s gravity was influencing Uranus’s motion.
Neptune.
The enthusiastic response to your proposal isn’t followed up.
The promotion goes to someone else.
The job you were the top candidate for and in which you shone at the interview is offered to someone else.
The person at work you’ve got on well with suddenly goes cold on you.
That lazy fool keeps getting their contract renewed.
You walk in to your regular meeting with the boss to find the HR rep sitting beside her.
Neptune.
Watch the Whole Video.
Police investigating allegations of threats made on a video post have asked for a copy of the unedited video before deciding whether a crime was committed.
Imagine if we could do that with all our allegations of offence.
Watch the unedited video.
Hear the whole story.
Do Not Mistake.
The fact that there are only a few of us at a meeting.
The fact that 99% of people affected by our decisions are not at the meeting.
The fact that none of us will disclose what was said at the meeting.
The fact that 97% of people affected by our meeting aren’t interested in our meeting.
The fact that we spent our career being excluded from these meetings until we were promoted to a position requiring attendance.
Do not mean that we have the right to say and decide things in the meeting that we would not say publicly.
Do not mistake the efficiency and work-in-progress reasons for closed doors as permission to be duplicitous.
The Accumulation of the Choices.
Mikhail Baryshnikov has said that you can see in prima ballerinas 'the accumulation of the choices they have made in their muscles'.
If people could see the accumulation of your choices, what would it look like?