When do you Accommodate?

We both needed food, so we decided that we would go shopping together...

Being creatures of habit...we both frequented the same local market...in fact, often enough that we knew it well...but each, in our own way...

Both of us had our lists...his facilitated a counter-clockwise path of efficiency, my list was written in a clockwise path...

I thought it more efficient to go with the flow...and he felt it better to go against it...

Rather than compromising the order of our personal lists and plans...we found carts and parted our ways at the entrance...he traveling right, then left...and me to the left, then right...

"This is going to be an interesting test...we'll see who is right," I thought

Although I had significantly more items on my list, we actually finished at the same time and met at the check-out area...

"An interesting grocery store lesson...Direction is simply a matter of preference...and has no bearing on efficiency...or success" he laughed as we again passed each other...

I guess he was thinking the same thing as I was!  The test proved that it was simply a matter of preference...

He had his favorite cashier and I had mine...between us and freedom from the perils of shopping, a hoard of other buyers...were queued and waiting their turn in the line...

He took his place in his line and I in mine...we moved at the same pace, and we just patiently waited...

...and listened (eavesdropped) to the many different and interesting conversations going on around us...

Some were entertaining and others discomforting...

As something of interest was noted...he would wink and tip his head in the direction that I was supposed to shift my attention...I did the same when I caught the words before him...

One conversation immediately and simultaneously drew both of our attentions...

Two nicely dressed ladies were talking about work...

"I know...but he is the boss...he is just plain weird and has his idiosyncrasies...we just have to accommodate him...and put up with it..."

I knew that this single comment would cause him interject his opinion and guidance to these town people...

"Excuse me...I couldn't help but over hear what you just said..."

"Can I ask you why?"

"Why...what?" One of the two responded in perturbed voice

"Why you would put up with...or accommodate a boss' idiosyncrasies...if it bothers you enough to talk about it...you should do something about it..."

"Being a boss doesn't give a person a right to have idiosyncrasies...in fact it demands just the opposite..."

"Mister...the guy is weird...and he controls the money and we have to put up with him...that is just they way the world is...if we want a job and get paid and buy food..."

"From my perspective...the only people who have a right to have idiosyncrasies...that is to be fringe-dwellers and are people who can not help it...the handicapped or amputees...the mentally retarded people...or psychologically impaired...  These are the only people whose idiosyncrasies should be put up with...and then, as I think deeper about it...only within certain limits..."

"People...especially those who are in leadership positions...should be adaptive and sensitive to the needs of others...they should be constantly scrutinizing their own actions...looking for things they can change...to make it better and easier for the people that they work with and for...not harder..."

"I think that we often think that being weird is just their problem...It is not...many people allow them to get away with it...they do not call them on it...and as a result...they think that it is permission to be weird!"

"No one has permission (or a right) to be weird...or different...or idiosyncratic...when it bothers or hurts or upsets someone...that is just plain wrong...it is selfish and immoral..."

"A person only has a right to have an idiosyncrasy, if that idiosyncrasy is one of uncompromising pursuit of making every day significantly better...for themselves and more importantly...others..."

"I wish you were my boss...our workplace would be so much better..."

"I am the way I am because of people who were not afraid to tell me that I was acting weird...and I was willing to learn and change...but I can tell you that most of it was because they wouldn't quit on me..."

"This important lesson I had to be taught by people who cared...about me and themselves..."

"Perhaps you can teach your boss a thing or two...when you do...just be sure to give him a way out with dignity...don't just go to him with criticism...also give a suggestion for improvement...with it will come success..."

"He'll appreciate that...and you will have done your part to make your, and his, life a bit better..."

Then he went quiet and began unloading his cart...

The two ladies finished their transaction and left...planning on how to talk with the boss.

"THAT WAS SO COOL!" I commented...

"It was nothing more than my advice to a person with a need...all you have to do is open your eyes...everyone in our lines have needs...needs are as numerous as there are people...some you can help...others are beyond your ability...just look for them...and at the first open door...grab that opportunity...and remember sometimes YOU have to open the door..."

As we "checked out" he continued to ramble...

"You know...they've paved paradise and put up a parking lot..." he said in a rather lyrical way... 

"HUH?" I was confused...

"It's an old song that I used to listen to a lot...it was really popular in my country..."

"I think it was popular here too...it just sounded too cliche for me to pay much attention..." I responded

"The message of that song was that most people don't realize what they lost until it is gone..."  I was thinking that most organizations do not ever realize what they have lost either...the problem being being they never realize what they lost..."

"Many GREAT people leave because of politics and idiosyncrasies..."

"As a result...Leadership is a huge burden..."

"Let's look at one of the most important roles of a great leader..."

"1 - Attract Great talent..."
"2 - Engage Great talent..."
"3- Retain Great talent..."

"A leader that can not do that is not meeting one of the most basic and important roles...and their leadership should be questioned...heck they are getting paid to do that...whether or not it is specified in their bonus plan...if they are not attracting, engaging and retaining great people...then they are remiss and failing on one of their basic leadership performance requirements..."

"Let's think a bit deeper..."

"If a leader has idiosyncrasies...they may be able to attract and engage...but retaining a great person nears impossibility..."

"Now...Let's change the thought just a bit...

Leaders are simply representations of the organizations that they lead...

Organizations, too have idiosyncrasies...except those idiosyncrasies are generalized and called...POLITICS..."

"It doesn't take long for people to realize an organization that has unbearable politics...and they leave them or avoid them like the plague...at least the good people...and those organizations end up with a population full of political fools!"

"That is when a vicious circle is created...and the death spiral is inevitable..."

"Great people are lost to organizational idiosyncrasies...Organizational Politics..."

"The bottom line is that you can not pay a person enough...or give them enough perks to make that political garbage worth their while...unless they are incompetent or desperate!"

"An organization only has a right to be political, that is to say to have organizational idiosyncrasies...when those politics ensure an uncompromised pursuit of continuous improvement..."

"Gee...I think that I heard that before," I laughed...
Then his attention was shifted by the cashier...

"That is a unique way of looking at things," I noted, thinking it would spur on more thoughts...but it didn't...

He pushed beyond the end of the check-out line and parked while I finished up...

As we pushed our bounty out to our cars, I stabbed at getting the conversation back on track...

"If I combine what you told those ladies...with what you told me...there is an interesting conclusion..." I prodded...

"What is that?...I think that I was absolutely consistent..."

"You said that the only justified idiosyncrasies are those of physical or mental handicaps...am I correct?"

"Although not a quote...you are pretty close to what I said..."

"I would say that you allow for a plea of insanity...the inability to cope or adapt...otherwise an individual or organization should adapt...right?"

"That is right...the only right the we have is to get better...so making the majority adapt is not a right of leadership..."

"In both the individual and the organizational examples...you used the word idiosyncrasy to describe the situation...right?"

"Yes I did..."

"...And the words politics and organizational idiosyncrasies can be used interchangeably...right?"

"Exactly..."

"So I can conclude that you think that organizational politics could be called an organizational handicap or even organizational insanity..."

"You followed those two conversations perfectly!"

"Organizational Politics are pure insanity! They are self-serving...and immature...it is the behavior of preschoolers, allowed to control an adult world!"

"It may even be worse than individual insanity...because you can not isolate an organization from humanity by secluding them in an asylum."  

"Organizational politics will run rampant for the next decade or two...(this conversation took place in 1981) and then, organizations will slowly realize how destructive it is...those destined to failure will not...and those who survive will take the necessary actions to clean up their environment...but it will be a slow and painful change..."

 "Many organizations attempt to justify the existence of politics by calling it the way they get things done..."

"The essence of it is...that they are saying that it is a process..."

"I agree with the fact that it is a process...but in their context...it is a euphemism..."

"From my perspective...it is actually...a process of compromising great ideas and suggestions through the coddling of tender egos and the incompetence of immature people who are afraid to face facts..."

"As your career grows and you build an organization...stick to data and insight...do not fall into the regressive trap of politics...that is a game for grade schoolers...not adults...you are better than that!"

"Speak the truth clearly, slowly and repetitively...and always based on facts..."

"If they refuse to listen...leave them to their own demise...most will fail...some will grow up"

"Your ice cream is melting" I noted...

"You haven't unloaded your groceries yet...let me help you..." he replied...

As we walked to my car, I quietly pondered what he had just said...

He intuitively knew that he had said more than enough to get me thinking...

We loaded my car and I walked him back to his...

"I have one final question to ask you..."

"Ask away my friend..."

"How do we make organizations see the destructiveness of a political environment?"

"That answer is really easy...perhaps the easiest one of the many questions that you have asked in a long time..."

"There is no efficient route...I'll take the counter-clockwise path...and you take the clockwise path...I'll meet you at the cashier..."

"What matters is choosing a path and sticking to it..."

"If we do not get a move on...our food will spoil and we'll not eat!"

With that he rolled up his window and drove off...leaving me with my list...

He was right!