Pages

Monday, May 2, 2011

One Person Does Not a System Make

Last week, at work, we fired someone.  As a business management consultant in a former career, I warned management that firing that person was not going to “fix the corporate issues.”  I reminded them that it was the system established within the workplace that allowed that person to evolve into the employee they were – good or bad.  Firing the employee was not going to be the panacea to all the issues in the office.  Firing that person has not solved anything because the system / office  in which the employee existed has not changed.

This morning, in our local newspaper, the only thing above the fold was Osama Bin Laden is Dead.  It was the only thing above the fold.  I wonder how other countries are viewing our bloodlust today.  Do they think we are heathens, based on the way we are reacting to this?  To some extent I think our coverage of this is extremely disgusting – front page above the fold – because we shot a man in the head.  Enough of that - on to my point...

What I told our management team on Friday applies to this issue also.  Just because Osama Bin Laden is gone does not mean that the problems associated with him are done.  Our society / world allowed Bin Laden to become what he was and do what he did.  The only thing that has changed today is Bin Laden is now gone.  Shooting him in the head is not going to be the panacea to all the issues related to Bin Laden.  Killing that one person has not solved anything because the system / society in which Bin Laden existed has not changed.

It doesn’t matter if it’s at work or in politics – changing one thing will not change the world.  You have to look at how the system contributed to the issue and change the system in which the problem existed.  To think you can fix everything by eliminating one easy problem – is like putting a bandage on a compound fracture and calling it fixed.

Violence unchecked, just creates different problems.
And that’s my two cents today.

No comments:

Post a Comment