There is an Afrikaans expression “you learn through your feet,” analogously hands-on experience is best. We learn through mistakes and failures and, economically, it’s always better to learn from those of other people rather than paying for your own. However, real learning is ingrained through the direct and bitter experience of failure and the pain that it can bring.
Physical pain, idiomatically, is weakness leaving the body and is not necessarily fatal. Failure too is not fatal and while leading to emotional pain it can provide the moral courage to continue. After any failure, defeat or loss there’s the inevitable inquiry. Unfortunately, the investigations, while purporting to find the root cause and adding to a body of corporate knowledge end up as witch-hunts and finding the scapegoat(s).
Failure is feared by many, but is it the failure that people fear or the repercussions in the aftermath? Nobody likes to fail yet, in the drama of the witch-hunt, we find that insult is often added to the injury of failure and feelings of guilt or shame. If people have been through a witch-hunt, they can act with anticipatory self-preservation by choosing to avoid accountability and responsibility thereby obviating the fear of failing. “Once bitten, twice shy” as we say but is this just reaction or real learning?
Witch-hunts
Witch-hunts were once real and instilled fear and trepidation amongst many. In Early Modern Europe and Colonial America from the mid-15th to mid-18th century between an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 executions took place. Witch-hunts in one form or another have occurred ever since and in the 21st we still strive to seek out and punish subversive activity as well as disloyalty, non-conformists, or those who are a threat; even if the former isn’t or the latter aren’t.
The hunts aren’t necessarily about finding the people responsible for failure but focusing on those who are believed to be wrong and pushing the blame onto them. In former times the guilt or innocence of our witches was determined by throwing them into the nearest body of water. If they sank, they were obviously innocent but if they floated, they were obviously guilty and then, obviously, they were burnt. A matter of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t!”
Witches were feared by the masses and fear was fueled by religious zealots with the threat of swift draconian justice for anybody accused, guilty or otherwise. This promoted hysteria as anybody, and everybody could be caught up in the hunt with the real fear being the outcome. Today we can easily be caught up in the drama of investigations into alleged wrongdoings as we are bombarded with opposing opinions, interminable fake news, and statements as to the guilt or innocence of whomsoever is being investigated. Even expressing a personal view can result in implication. Any ‘fair trial’ will more than likely become, to use a Bob Dylanism, a ‘pig circus.’
Fear
In the hysteria of a witch-hunt everybody can be a suspect, anybody can be accused, and although somebody will be blamed, nobody can escape the inquisition. Fear prevails and those who seem most afraid or protest too loudly will be seen to be different and like our witches of yesteryear, stand out.
Others may try to face the situation with courage in the rational knowledge of being innocent. Despite ‘innocence’ anxiety can easily ensue because, just as in our olde time witch-hunts, the outcome for the innocent can be less than fair and definitely unreasonable. In our latter-day toxic environments where witch-hunts can still be the order of the day, toxicity levels will increase as accusations become rife and are hurled around with impunity. For those in self-preservation mode a different approach can be adopted through inclusion.
Inclusion ensures that as many attendees as possible are in meetings, documents require multiple signatures, reports have multiple authors, and for day-to-day conversations there is a dependence on multiple WhatsApp groups. Emails have a ‘cast of thousands’ in the ‘to’ and ‘cc’ boxes and innumerous ‘bcc’ as well as ‘looping’ others. Such practice is not related to quality control or even effective communication. It does however reduce the risk of being held personally responsible, increases the opportunities for plausible deniability and allows everybody else to be blamed. Inclusion is a lesson on how to cover one’s backside and avoid being drowned in the event of a witch-hunt … but is it learning?
Learning
When something has gone wrong it’s only us humans who want to know who did it. Rather than the ‘why’ and working out how to avoid the same mistake we spend an inordinate length of time and effort seeking out the scapegoat. Once the witch-hunt is over and the bloodlust satiated, how much time is spent creating the lesson, teaching it, and ensuring it’s learned?
Rather than learning from those who are deemed ‘responsible’ some organizations summarily dismiss them based on incompetence or even negligence. Others will push them sideways or put them in a position where ostracization leads to resignation. More mature organizations will look at things differently.
They will consider the direct cost of dealing with the failure and that they have invested in somebody who now has direct experience of failure and is unlikely to repeat it. So, rather than letting an experienced asset leave for the probable benefit of another company, they retain their ‘failures’ for corporate learning and improvement.
Conclusions
Failure is not a good reason to hunt down people who may be responsible or are seen as blameworthy. The focus of investigations should be on the value of a mistake rather than the creation of hysteria and seeking out some evil foe.
The benefit of any investigation into failure is based upon what, why, when, how, and where rather than merely the ‘who.’ Finding ‘whodunnit’ may satiate the desire to seek revenge and retribution and show that justice in some form or other has been done. Will the lesson learned be about the outcome of the witch-hunt or the reason for it. Mankind is far from a forgiving species but without learning to forgive and accept the failure, then true lessons will not only be forgotten but not taught.
The mass hysteria of bygone witch-hunts driven by ignorance, fanaticism and fear are still played out today and the prevailing hysteria is similarly driven. Such similarities demonstrate Mark Twain’s observation that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
Learning to deal with witch-hunts enables people to stand their ground rather than running for cover and allows what would have been wasted effort to be spent learning. It also allows people to show courage, overcome their fear of the repercussions of failure, and rather than defending themselves in the hindsight of witch-hunts, use their experience in the moment.
Bio:
Malcolm Peart is an UK Chartered Engineer & Chartered Geologist with over thirty-five years’ international experience in multicultural environments on large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects including rail, metro, hydro, airports, tunnels, roads and bridges. Skills include project management, contract administration & procurement, and design & construction management skills as Client, Consultant, and Contractor.