One of the dangers of starting a debate, is that you never know for sure where logic might go. It is about the same as Bilbo, in the Lord of the Rings, warning Frodo about walking out his door.
It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.
I often feel that way when writing my blogs. There is a connection, both within the blogs, and from blog to blog, that is led in some sense by logic. It may not be apparent to the reader, but quite often one mental thought in one blog spawned the logical child of another — though I may be the only one who knows the parentage. I feel that is what has been happening about some columns recently.
Then again, rather than logic, it could just be a study of my current mental state.
“People join companies, but leave managers.”
I remember hearing that quote years ago, and it stuck with me. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I thought it might have a connection to my blog on reasonableness. The idea of the column on reasonableness, is whether both sides are being reasonable, allowing and listening to the other side, or whether they are giving the appearance of reasonableness, but painting any option from the other side as unreasonable.
It came to my mind to wonder whether people choose to leave because the manager develops reasonable-itis where their ideas are the only reasonable ones, and they are unable to truly listen to the rest of the team.
I don’t think this is necessarily a work environment mentality. It can occur in any group. When a person or persons in a church or community organization claims the platform of reasonableness for themselves, instead of leaving reasonableness as the commons upon which the cows of everyone’s ideas are allowed to graze (what a horrid attempt at a metaphor!) you can be certain that certain people will be choosing the exit strategy, no matter how prestigious or beneficial the organization is in other ways.
What happens, and I’ve seen it in churches, musical ensembles and civic groups I have been a part of, is that you suddenly realize you have been somewhere 5, 10, even 20 years, and you are still an outsider.
What makes the work environment different from these, is the sense people get that their life, their livelihood is on the line, which makes people willing to put up with a lot. On the other hand, people’s social lives, or their “religious” identities, can have the same compulsion.
The thing to always remember, in any of these, is that one side is always counting on the other being reasonable its way, of not having a way out. But there is always a way out — just most of us are too “comfortable” with the discomfort we know, and fear the unknown even more. But we can choose the course of Manticore (see previous blog reference) and choose the brave, the adventurous option, the dangerous option.
At The Rainbow 