Lack of sense or lack of sensitivityThe fuss about Air Force One (or I think more accurately its back-up) doing the photo op in Manhattan last week with escort fighter jets got me thinking about the lack of sensitivity that people can show towards others. When you look at some of the videos on You Tube you can understand people rushing out of high buildings. In hindsight it seems obvious that people in NYC would panic when they saw a jet flying low over the city accompanied by military aircraft. So why didn’t the people in the Whitehouse and the Federal Aviation Authority see the potential for problems? I suggest there are two reasons. Firstly the idea was perceived as coming from high up in the Whitehouse (though it now seems not from the President who was reported to be furious but he was furious with the benefit of hindsight). How often in organisations do we see an idea from the boss as being good just because it comes from the boss? Do we question their ideas as much as we should? Do we bend our notions of what is right to make them fit the boss’s view? If we are the senior people do we really encourage others around us to question the soundness of our proposals? Secondly I suspect the people involved were simply caught up in the vision of how great the photos would look, so caught up they forgot to be sensitive to the specific experiences of many caught on the sidelines. As managers aren’t we guilty of getting caught up in our vision and forgetting to relate to the experiences of those around us? A company I know of is currently on its fourth set of senior managers in as many years due to corporate buy-outs and mergers. Each new senior management team comes bounding in bright eyed and bushy tailed full of their plans. The people working in the organisation are exhausted and increasingly cynical about each new plan. I can understand the senior managers. They need to have a vision and they need to communicate it. But maybe if they thought about the experiences of the staff members over the last few years they’d recognise how that affects their viewpoint now and be more careful about how they communicate their ideas. Add a CommentYour comment will appear once it has been approved. |