Provision #708: Justice Matters
by Bob Tschannen-Moran
Laser Provision
When it comes to leadership, what's more important than power? Principles! Just
ask the people of Tunisia and now Egypt. Just remember the other great movements
of history. As Mahatma Gandhi once famously quipped: "First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." In the contest
between those with the power to dole out rewards and punishments and those with
the principles to stand fast, principles have the upper hand. As Martin Luther
King, Jr. once said, "Our capacity to endure suffering will outlast your
capacity to inflict it." Principles are like that; they cannot be ignored
forever. Leaders in every walk of life would do well to take that into account.
This Provision can help.
LifeTrek Provision
The events in Tunisia and Egypt represent the continued triumph of principles
over power. Although no one knows where this will go, as two more autocracies
are toppled by popular uprisings and democratic movements, it is not hard to pinpoint the
trigger that started it all: the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi of Tunisia
on December 17, 2010.
In case you missed the story, here is what happened. On that fateful day,
Bouazizi, a street vendor, was selling vegetables from his cart, as was his
custom. A female police officer confiscated his cart and took his vegetables,
allegedly because he did not have a permit (even though no permit is officially
required to sell from a cart).
This was not the first time that this had happened, leaving Bouazizi unable to
repay his creditors or feed his family. This time, however, the officer slapped
him in the face, spat at him, confiscated his electronic weighing scales, and
tossed aside his cart. Together with two other officers, she then proceeded to
beat him and to utter slurs against his deceased father in the presence of
witnesses.
Angered and shamed by the confrontation, Bouazizi went straightaway to the governor's office to
complain. When the governor refused to see him, Bouazizi threatened to set
himself on fire unless he received an audience. When the governor still refused
to talk with him, Bouazizi acquired a can of gasoline, poured it on himself in
front of a local government building, and set himself alight.
Bouazizi died 18 days later, on January 4, 2011, having sparked a protest
movement that brought down the Tunisian dictatorship of President Ben Ali before
engulfing Egypt's autocracy and spreading to other Arab nations as well. His
dramatic and self-sacrificing stand on principle set in motion a series of
unimaginable events that rocked and continue to rock the powers that be.
Principles are like that. When truth speaks to power, to borrow a Quaker phrase,
power will sooner or later bow to truth. That was the conviction of the
Unitarian minister,
Theodore Parker,
who wrote, in 1853, "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is
a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete
the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see
I am sure it bends towards justice."
If that sounds familiar, then perhaps that's because you remember the more
lyrical cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his 1967 address to the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference titled "Where Do We Go From Here?":
"I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not
always be smooth. There will still be rocky places of frustration and meandering
points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. And there
will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of
despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes
blasted. We may again, with tear-drenched eyes, have to stand before the bier
of some courageous civil rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the
dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs."
"But difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an
audacious faith in the future. ... When our days become dreary with
low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a
thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this
universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that
is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into
bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but
it bends toward justice."
That is the message of this moment and of this Provision: justice matters.
Leaders ignore justice at great peril because justice, in the end, prevails.
Principles are stronger than power because principles are intrinsic to life
itself. They cannot be denied because they are not a matter of whim or opinion.
They are expressions of the core needs that all people share and those needs can
only be repressed for so long before they break loose their chains.
The drama in Tunisia and Egypt that is sure to sweep other autocracies sooner or
later may seem far removed from the task of leadership in ordinary situations,
but I have seen these dynamics play out over and over again. Someone with
positional authority, whose box is higher on the org chart than someone else's,
decides to throw his or her weight around in order to get something done.
This can take the form of positive incentives, negative threats, or both. Money
is a classic motivator to keep people on task. The more the money, the more
people are expected to sacrifice their needs. I have coached and consulted with
many leaders in organizational settings, especially around high-pressure
projects, and I have seen this happen repeatedly. Money is supposed to make up
for misery.
Just ask the king of Bahrain, a small Arab nation in the Persian Gulf. With
activists calling for protests, the king ordered each family in the tiny
monarchy to be given $2,700. They do that with their oil wealth in Alaska as
well. For 2010, each legal resident, including children, receives a dividend of
$1,281.
Although such money meets needs for financial security and social advancement,
it also creates a rapprochement between people and power. Until it doesn't.
On many occasions I have worked with people who are so miserable that the money
just doesn't matter any more. They quit the job anyway or, worse yet, they stay
on the job and cause problems.
That's when leaders shift from the carrot to the stick. Once money fails to
motivate the behavior they want and the results they require, many leaders begin
to make life even more miserable for people. Negative performance reviews and
periods of probation are accompanied by caustic or dismissive remarks that
attempt to shame people into submission.
I have never seen that work. Once trust is undermined in such formal and
informal ways, it is very difficult if not impossible to repair. Termination
usually follows, and it is often messy at that. It exacts a high price from
everyone, including those who leave and the leaders who stay behind. In many
such cases, the leaders are soon to be shown the door as well.
That's because justice matters. There are principles in life that cannot be
violated without painful consequences. Life has a curious way of settling the
score when those principles are compromised for too long or too severely.
What are those principles? They have a lot to do with universal human needs. I
have called attention before to our four-page handout on the Nonviolent
Communication process titled "Understanding
Needs & Feelings." Ten primary needs are identified, each of which represent
principles that must be honored and met if leaders hope to be effective. We can
see how all ten have been playing themselves out in Egypt:
- Subsistence: Poverty is rampant, while leaders have squirreled away
not just millions but billions.
- Work: Unemployment is at all-time highs, while leaders dole out jobs to
cronies.
- Safety: The violence against Bouazizi was not an exception, with no
redress from authorities.
- Honesty: Official pronouncements were no match for unvarnished Facebook
and SMS messages.
- Community: Groups were pitted against each other, at times violently,
yet national pride prevailed.
- Autonomy: Freedom was the number one priority and the chant could not be
silenced.
- Empathy: When leaders violate principles, they underestimate compassion
as a galvanizing force.
- Challenge: Defying people quickens their resolve; courage is found in
the moment.
- Rest: Leaders beware: weird things happen when people have no rest.
- Transcendence: People need wonder, amazement, hope, and possibility
even stunned silence. They have it now.
In the grand scheme of things, justice is a principle that meets many needs,
including safety, honesty, community, and autonomy.
Although Bouazizi should have never been violated in the first place, he would
have not have set himself on fire if the authorities had met his demands for
justice. Justice too long delayed is justice denied, and justice denied is
intolerable.
Before Bouazizi died in the hospital, a series of increasingly desperate
officials came to his bedside to offer apologies and assistance. In the end, the
now-deposed President of Tunisia himself made a pilgrimage to that bedside as he
struggled to regain control of the situation and the country. It didn't work.
Principles are like that. All the power in the world is not sufficient to deny
human needs. That's why they are called needs: they are part of the fabric of
life itself. Effective leaders do not put ourselves and our power over and
against human needs; effective leaders honors those needs and find wise ways to
keep them in balance.
Coaching Inquiries: What sensitivity do you bring to human needs? How does that
sensitivity effect your leadership? What helps you to lead on the basis of
principle rather than of power? How can you keep your emotions in check, even
when your power is threatened? How can you balance the competing needs of your
people and projects? What kind of coaching would enable you to make this happen?
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LifeTrek Readers' Forum (selected feedback
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Editor's Note: The LifeTrek Readers' Forum contains selections from the comments
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Email Bob.
Thanks for your life, Bob, and for Dewitts neat story in your Provision,
Juice Matters. Keep sharing the juice!
I so often feel like you are reading my mind and providing just the perfect
guidance or encouragement at just the right times! It's a wonderful thing and
this provision resonates deeply with me. Your writing has this great ability to
engage me and stir my juice.
It's fitting that you speak of Dewitt Jones as I just set my latest National
Geographic magazine down to come over and read your weekly provision (a Sunday
ritual for me). Additionally, photography is one of my most favorite past times
- I seek images that capture the essence of my soul and in the process find my
focus gaining evermore clarity. Thanks for the reminder of how important that
is.
While reading your Provision,
Juice Matters, I was reminded that happiness is not measured by what you possess
but rather by how much you enjoy. So the success of your garden is very much
about your ability to enjoy it as you watch it evolve.
Here is my favorite story from our vacation in Mexico over Christmas: We had
been in a market in Cancun for a while and Diego, my seven year old, had been
listening to me negotiating for various things; which is what I was still doing
when I heard him say, "No, no, no, Ill give you two pesos, two pesos. The
vendor said "Three pesos". And Diego said "Let me tell you how it is."
As if this assertiveness from a seven year old was not funny enough, since there
are 12 pesos in a dollar he was not exactly dealing with high finances, and to
top it off he did not have ANY pesos! Attitude is almost everything.
Thanks for the Provision which started my day off well. Top
May you be filled with goodness, peace, and joy.
Bob Tschannen-Moran
President, LifeTrek Coaching International,
www.LifeTrekCoaching.com
CEO & Co-Founder, Center for School Transformation,
www.SchoolTransformation.com
Immediate Past President, International Association of Coaching,
www.CertifiedCoach.org
Author, Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time,
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