Life, Interrupted

seaweed_shark posted this comment on Saturday about attempts to get things done at his university (he's down to one class left on an advanced degree before taking a position in the Middle East):

...we got to talking about the current project I am working on. I told her, "I went by [institition] to see about [project], but when I actually got to talk to the people, it would not be putting things to boldly to say they DUMPED on me--all the frustrations and concerns about a situation that is totally out of control and about which no one seems to be doing anything useful."

"I'm not surprised," my adviser answered, "considering the situation over there. Everything I know about management I learned from studying eighteenth-century Choktaw chiefs. They had no power. All they could do was figure out who the significant parties really were in any controversy, then listen to them--really listen, until every single party in the controversy had talked and talked so much that they were just talked out, and lastly, articulate consensus. And when they did that, they found that everyone was eager to reach common ground, enthusiastically eager, because everyone felt they'd been heard, and it really WAS consensus. That process worked so well that it was why the Indians in the Southeast had to be removed from their lands by force when the United States conquered them: they were so well organized socially that no other strategy would work. That's still the essential principle of management today -- only it has one down side: it takes time, and no one wants to give it time so they come up with one crackpot management scheme after another that promises to offer the same benefits without requiring time, consideration, effort and sincerity. Of course it doesn't work! So everyone is angry. State of the world." She shook her head.

Since I'm part Choctaw, I'm pleased to know that my ancestors managed their lives so well -- at least until the European refugees pushed them out....