26 June 2007
Successful Intentions Newsletter
Hi ,
It's time to wise up!
Now, more than ever, our collective fate rests with leaders who decide and act either wisely or foolishly. But how do you tell what's wisdom and what's folly?
Making wise decisions is kind of like getting all the colours lined up on a Rubic's cube. It's difficult and frustrating. But that shouldn't stop us from trying!
"Wisdom", wrote the famed American Historian, Barbara Tuchman, is "the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information" (1984). The opposite of wisdom is "folly".
| "Know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed". Count Axel Oxenstierna, Chancellor of Sweden, 1632 - 1644 |
The prototype of folly is the legend of the Trojan Horse, reputed by Homer to have occurred around 850-800 B.C. Archeologists have unearthed what are believed to be the ruins of Troy located opposite Gallipoli and dated to around 1200 B.C.
The story goes that in the ninth year of inconclusive battle on the plains of Troy, where the Greeks are besieging the city of King Priam, Odysseus - the Greek commander -builds a wooden horse, large enough to hold twenty or fifty warriors, carrying an inscription dedicating it to the god Athena as an offering in the hope of a safe return home.
At dawn, Trojan scouts discover that the siege is lifted and the enemy gone, leaving only this strange and awesome figure at their gates.
The elders argue about whether to bring the Horse into the city as an offering or to burn it at once. King Priam decides against contrary advice, fearful of desecrating Athena's property, and orders that the Horse be brought in, despite the fact that the city walls must be breached in order to do so.
Then Laocoon, the priest, offers the only voice of reason, uttering the immortal words:
"Do not believe this horse. Whatever it may be, I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts".
At that point in the story, the guards drag in an ostensibly terrified Greek who pretends he has been left behind. He swears the Horse is a genuine offering, deliberately made huge so the Trojans would not take it into their city.
Just as the Trojans are wavering between Laocoon's warning and the false persuasion, two huge serpents rise up out of the water and make straight for Laocoon, crushing him to death!
With the voice of reason silenced the Trojans press on, breaching the walls of the city believing that its protection is no longer needed.
The rest, as they say, is history. The Greeks are ferocious. The tragedy is total.
As the legend goes, Laocoon was fatally punished for perceiving the truth, yet his warning rings through the centuries of human history even to the present time.
Folly in leadership is:
- The pursuit of counter-productive policy . Mankind in the form of Troy's citizens is addicted to pursuing policy contrary to self-interest.
- Denial of a feasible, alternative course of action. The feasible alternative - to burn the Horse - is always open.
- Relying on group policy-making. The reasoned decisions of an individual leader are often no match for the "groupthink" of a collectively-determined policy.
- "Wooden-headedness". Refusing to benefit from experience, and assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs.
| "Any policy that seeks to conquer Muslim Societies in order, deliberately, to transform their culture is folly" Robert Pape, "Dying to win: The strategic logic of suicide terrorism", 2005 |
For more about wisdom and folly, register here for the Third Australian Evidence-Based Coaching Conference at the University of Sydney, July 5-6, 2007 and see my presentation "Coaching for Wisdom"!
Keep your intentions clear,
Peter Webb
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