A Parable

As those with camping experience may be able to tell you, getting a fire started is a bit of an art.

You can't just pile up a bunch of logs, strike a match (or even a spark with old fashioned flint and steel), and expect a fire to start.

First, you generally need some sort of tinder. If you took a lit match to a fresh log odds are the match will burn out before the log really gets going... you need dry, flammable material to get the fire really started. Paper, dried out grass, dried out and dead branches, etc.

Second, fires need a certain amount of oxygen. If you just haphazardly pile the logs in a firepit, whatever fire you start may burn out because there's no oxygen. There's actually quite a few options for how to set up the logs, but the main purpose is to spread them around so that they still have enough space to get the oxygen they need.

There's a lot more that can be said about how to start a campfire, but tinder and an arrangement that allows the right amount of oxygen are enough for my little parable.

 The night is cold, and a large group of people are trying to light multiple fires in order to keep warm. Some of them have experience, and are able to get their fires lit with little fuss. 

Others don't... but they send someone to one of the lit fires to ask for tips. Or maybe one of the more knowledgeable individuals decides to walk around and help out, teaching the others what they need to know.

And then there are the campsites where the person in charge has no experience - and feels threatened by anyone who does.

So they refuse to admit they're doing anything wrong. They yell at anyone who tries to suggest they do anything different. They verbally attack any of the helpers that walk by and offer tips. They refuse to send anyone to another site to ask for tips...

And the night continues to grow colder, the people around that site are shivering... and some start drifting off to join the more successful campsites.

Soon, only a couple of people are left. Or maybe nobody at all... it depends on how stubborn they are, and the loyalty of their fellow campers. Either way, it's a failed campsite and a failed attempt to start a campfire.

 

There's a lot of different things I could focus on in that story, but I'm only going to talk about a couple.

First - the issue isn't that they didn't know how to start a fire. The ones willing to ask questions and accept help were able to learn that, and could use those skills next time. 

The real problem is being so afraid (of looking weak, of losing control, of being judged... whatever their reasoning) that they refuse to learn and grow.

Second - everyone wants to be warm when it's cold, and they will do what they need to in order to get warm. If you can't get the fire started, they'll leave. Mostly. (If it's cold enough, and you're tyrant enough to stop them from leaving for warmer fires, then you may just lead to everyone freezing to death, but that's an edge case that would require a LOT of things to go wrong. Having that mix of incompetence and total control is extremely BAD!)

The third point is a bit more meta. Imagine the campfire represents any sort of human endeavor. There are people who can strike sparks to light the fire. They are scattered throughout the population - not everyone can be the spark, but any reasonably large group of people will have someone who can. 

But the spark doesn't catch unless there's tinder and kindling, and of course the fire needs oxygen or it dies out.

The groups who are able to design their organizations well will have that mix - the tinder, the kindling, the oxygen - so that wherever and whoever strikes a spark is able to get the fire started.

Those that forget the tinder, or stack their logs too close, will never get the fire started no matter how many people they have who are able to strike a spark. Or they may start something, only for it to quickly die. (and some may lack proper safeguards and start a fire that quickly gets out of control, but that's outside the scope of this particular post).

Hmmm. I suppose the analogy is even better when you consider that it's easier to keep a fire going once it's started than it is to start from scratch. Like, a startup needs to be careful about making sure it has the tinder and proper spacing, but a business that's already off the ground can probably sustain itself just by throwing a few more logs on the fire. It's just that once the fire goes out, they've lost a lot of the skills and knowledge required to get it started again. Also, if they throw too many logs on the fire, too fast, without the right sort of spacing etc. they can probably put the fire out. (i.e. mismanagement can destroy the fire, and managing a fire takes a different skillset than starting from scratch.)

To tie this in with my previous post - if you're aware of your biases and prejudices (which includes the common bias of thinking that what's good for you is good for everyone, and I probably ought to include 'fear' here, so if you're also aware of your fears) and if you sincerely want to do what's best for your people, then even if you don't actually know how to start a fire you will ask the questions and find the person with the knowledge to do so. 

You will figure it out, and you will make sure your people are warm, and that's what makes you competent.