It's been a long week, and my head is full of debugging and investigating and work-related stuff.
It might be better to do so tomorrow when I'm less focused on other things, but I wanted to go ahead and knock out a few thoughts.
My previous posts focused mostly on rather well-known and widely accepted beliefs. At least, well-known and widely accepted in our Christian-based society. Not necessarily practiced as much as it should for all of that, but hardly anyone truly argues that the Bible is wrong about loving your neighbor, treating others as you want to be treated, and so on. (We're just... not that good at actually doing so.)
The rest of this is more about ideas and thoughts I've come to based on my personal experiences and as related to the world we currently live in. In looking back, quite a bit of it started when I worked in an area that... well, was a bit of a culture shock for me.
You see, there were stories of people who just 'lost' paperwork for people they disliked. Promotion papers? Awards? Somehow they never made it up to the commander's desk. It was as though the entire organization was imbued with infighting, and things were done more for where it got you in this elaborate game (with hidden rules) than any objective need.
I don't want to sound like I'm villainizing everyone there. I don't think any one person was responsible, or that they were all bad people.
It's more that... that I knew it didn't have to be like that. Not because I was a visionary (like the people who envisioned the type of world we could live in if we all followed the Golden Rule or Silver Rule), but because I'd actually had experience with such places.
I'm trying to put this into words for those who don't already get it, but tbh I'm not sure it's possible. Some of the discussions we had at this place were "it's like this everywhere." And they just didn't believe it could be any other way. (In one conversation, they argued that farmer's were one of the most self-interested groups out there.)
I also don't want to imply that the less political places I worked with were utopias. It's true that everywhere you go, wherever you have people working together, there will be some sort of politics. Some sort of internal dynamics.
It's more a matter of degree than anything else.
Like 'losing' paperwork for people you don't like. I don't think I had ever worried about that before. Processing paperwork is just part of the job, and if someone has a problem with it there are better ways to handle it. (Like talking to the person you're upset with directly, or telling a more appropriate person about your reservations regarding promotions or awards. Or, in the most dramatic cases... resigning your position.)
That led to one of my personal rules - professionalism is doing your job regardless of how you personally feel about the people involved. If that's too much, then speak up and say something... or leave. Don't pull this passive-aggressive crap. Don't refuse to speak up to the people who can actually change things, but bitch and moan to everyone around you and make anyone subordinate to you suffer. Either do the work to fix it, admit you're not willing to and keep your head down (but still do a professional job), or leave.
This is, btw, about as simple to say and hard to do as 'love thy neighbor'. There are plenty of times I just want to complain about some BS without actually putting in the work of communicating it up the chain, or fixing it. (That's sort of what's going on with this current project. There are issues, and sometimes it's frustrating. But have I actually told the people who need to know about it? Have I given them the chance to fix it?)
In a similar vein, I will argue (behind closed doors preferably) for my position right up until the decision has been made... but once the decision is made I will support the team and try to make it work, regardless of whether it's what I wanted or not. There are some exceptions and grey areas to this, but for the most part the same rules apply - do what you can to change it without crossing the line into sabotage and undermining the decision-makers, accept the loss and try harder next time, or leave.
I do like to bolster that notion with another idea. Except now that I try to put it into words I can't remember where I heard it, or how it was phrased. Iirc, it was based off Chinese philosophy, and it works a bit like martial arts. Aiding someone as they move so that they extend too far and lose their balance.
The main idea is this: if you want to defeat an idea, sometimes enabling it will actually make it lose power more quickly. The faster it grows, the more it's given the chance to work... the more quickly the flaws appear and more quickly it fades away and dies.
This is not a tactic I'd try for everything. Just a tool in the kit bag, a strategy to consider. One I think applies rather nicely to certain political fights. Because when you sabotage an idea, and put in 'poison pills', and do things to make sure it fails... you also give the people supporting that idea reason to blame you for the failure. Then they don't have to think about any flaws in the idea itself.
Of course if I think something is a bad idea I'll try to argue for something better, but if the decision has been made and it's not what I wanted? I will fully and completely support putting the other idea in practice (barring ethical and legal concerns).
If I'm right, it'll fail anyway. (This is slightly over simplifying it, as we're excellent at obfuscating cause and effect. Helps to have systems that discourage that, too.)
And if I'm wrong... well. I'll have learned something, and we won't all suffer because I blocked a good idea.
We have fifty states, and numerous small cities and towns throughout. We can afford to let them try out their various ideas. (Within reason. For example, Jim Crow laws that keep American citizens from exercising their rights are not something we can afford to let local governments experiment with.)
I could probably expand on the theme, but I'm about done for the day. I'll just reiterate -
Push down to the lower levels (and Congress, btw, can push quite a bit to the Executive Branch as well as the states. I'll talk some other time about oversight and accountability, but it's not always a bad thing to give free rein to the people putting your ideas in practice) whatever is appropriate for them to decide for themselves.
Be professional, and do your job regardless of what you think about the people involved.
If that's not possible, leave.
Don't undermine and sabotage things just because you don't agree. Maybe even do your best to help put those ideas into practice. It'll keep people from thinking you're the reason it failed and make it easier to focus on the flaws in the idea.
I suspect that transforming toxic organizations involves reaching some sort of critical mass of people who think like this (and, alternatively... the more people justify losing paperwork for people they don't like, undermining policy decisions they disagree with, and creating elaborate plots to 'win' against internal opponents the more toxic and destructive your organization will be.)
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