Kevin Luscombe:
Childhood memories remind me of a time before television had
made its entrance and board games ruled the kitchen table.
My favourite was a game embraced by all in our family.
It was called " Consequences".
Long printed pads with tear-off sections, note pads and pencils,
and a score sheet.
It worked like this. You drew out one piece of paper with a brief
situation statement. For example, 'Tom got a bike for his birthday
and could not ride it. But when no one was watching he took it out
on to the busy road and got on ... '. The next player drew a piece
of paper from a different pile marked '... and the consequences
were...' then read out what was printed on it.
Sometimes the answers made no sense, sometimes they were very
funny and sometimes were amazingly logical. But often they were
scary.
I had no idea at the time that I was getting one of life's most
important lessons; perhaps the most pertinent of all given the
daily observations around us.
The lesson was that every action has a consequence, perhaps many,
and they are not always readily evident. Thinking through those
consequences is a demanding responsibility.
If I had to nominate the most troubling, damaging, and the most
recurring issue encountered in several decades of corporate
involvement it would be the lack of thought around the impact of
decisions and actions on other parts of a business, or individuals.
It resides in the silo mindset that pays little attention to the
spread of consequences from decisions large and small. It is one of
the ill- considered side effects of self-consuming goal focus - the
ends and means justification game. It hides under the forgiving
title of 'unintended consequences', perhaps better described as
'thoughtlessly inflicted outcomes'.
This is not the sole property of corporations and management
behaviour. It is even more evident in governments, not just
today's, but in all those driven by polls, short-term focus (inside
long term speeches), and advisers with the sole responsibility to
win the 'boss' another term in office.
It is in educational directorates, among scientists, in the arts,
in religion, in professional services, in sport, and in the armed
and emergency services.
Clearly and frighteningly, it is omnipresent in our every day
lives.
Consider the layers of people involved in the gradual lengthening
of opening hours of licensed premises in this town, and others
across the country.
Couple that with the marketing of teen targeted alcoholic
beverages and unedited 'reality' television that seduces a
community to see borderless behaviour as
'funny' entertainment - all of which serve to normalize the idea
that having 'a good time' means regularly wiping yourself out and
not giving a damn for the outcome for others.
And the consequence is.... the daily news stories of brawls,
bashings, sexual assaults and other nightmares of life on our city,
suburban and country streets.
Each one of the isolated decisions noted, and others in the mix,
may well have been persuasively argued on the day around the issues
of the immediate circumstances. But in the longer running result,
they have created a collective disaster.
What are the future consequences of giving our youngest minds the
'educational /entertainment' of video games that put into their
brains and hands the ability to destroy others, to ' blow them
away' and learn that winning is everything, whatever it
takes?
How about the same developing minds being told that it is
necessary to be aware of our actions in sustaining the world we
live in, while their television screens show them how the 'grown
ups ' who run the country see it more as a grandstanding debate
rather than a matter of unbiased judgment and appropriate
actions.
Will a nation of cynical minds about the value of politicians be a
surprising consequence?
Is it realistic to think that a society of declining respect and
slippage of standards is unrelated to a dumbing down of so -called
entertainment, with the spotlight on 'celebrity' lifestyle as the
regular diet of mainstream media?
Move your mind to another phenomenon, the extraordinary measures
of rising costs in seemingly unrelated fields ... senior executive
salaries, the earnings of sports professionals ... and real estate
prices.
What's the common denominator? Commission based agents and
advisers. The higher the price, the bigger the prize for the
'managing' negotiator. A classic of unforeseen consequences.
In sharper focus are the reactions to the Global meltdown.
Australia was told to be ready for the worst crash of our
lifetimes.
Businesses reacted predictably. Costs were cut, and in so many
places, that meant a decision to cut people. The ' numbers', for
the current reporting period suggest that was the right medicine.
Maybe.
No doubt, it has not been a period we would want again, but
compared to other parts of the world, it has not been a total
disaster either.
Move forward to today and tomorrow and the same companies are
trying to find their way into new growth. It will not be
easy.
Workforces are stretched, know-how has left a lot of the
buildings, and there will be a scramble to put back the
organisational capacity and capability to plan and execute a
competitively smarter growth strategy.
As I write, the world has invaded Copenhagen with the questionable
expectation that this grand scale forum will take the right
decisions on managing a sustainable planet. If ever there was an
occasion to carefully consider the consequences into the future for
actions taken today, or not taken, this must be it. But will the
more immediate influence of sending the winning report cards back
to the various 'electorates' win over the much more profound task
of getting the right answers for the longer term impact?
We hope not, but experience says otherwise.
In a way, this points to the sort of consequential problems that
are never addressed because they are embedded in 'the way things
are' and accepted as the outcome of 'how things have to be'.
The reference here is to the outmoded but unchallenged acceptance
of a system of government (not just in Australia) that has two
major 'Parties' taking turns at 'being in power', most often by
relatively small voting margins with the loser (supported by about
the same numbers of people) being "the Opposition", not the
alternative choice, for three or four years, often less.
And then we wonder why we have a nation divided and unable to make
critically important decisions because major proposals are
routinely 'opposed' as a matter of the way things are.
The list of acts and implications goes on and on. Pause for a
moment and you will likely recall a decision of your own
responsibility that had, dare I say, unintended consequences.
That may well be the point of all of this. What might have
happened, or not happened if a greater depth of deliberation on the
wider implications of that decision had been pursued?
In a hectic world where daily onslaughts of emails, phone and text
messages are all expected to bring instant responses, the capacity
to think clearly and deeply
is severely handicapped. The rush from meeting to meeting leads to
either the postponement of adequate thinking or under informed
decisions on the run.
'Too busy to think' might be the appropriate door sign for
2010.
Recognising the severity of the problem and making time to address
the answer is the first step.
Once more, it is about the critical requirement to ...THINK. The
need to pause and think, wider, deeper and as informed as can be on
the ripples that flow from every action and decision.
There is no doubt a widespread need, and an immense benefit, from
lifting up our heads from the urgent focus of the pressing call on
our decisions, to ask the powerfully important question...."and the
consequence of this will be???"
It's a pity the pad and pencil game of 'consequences' is still not
around. It would be a timely find under the Christmas tree, a gift
worth spreading around.