Why won’t you do anything can come across as a simple question or a condemnation depending on the tone of voice. In either case, the person in question might not know the answer. To make this a little more concrete, let’s use a fairly well known social science experiment. A person shows up in a waiting room to be part of an experiment and is asked to fill out a questionnaire before starting. In reality the experiment started when the person enters the room.
The person in the first example, is alone and smoke starts coming under the door. In almost all versions of the experiment, the person reacts rather quickly and tries to figure out what is happening, and tries to alert someone about what is happening. In the second version of the experiment, there are other people in the room all filling out questionnaires, but all of them are in on the experiment. When the smoke starts coming under the door, no one reacts, so the test subject doesn’t react either. Such is the power of groups.
Captain Obvious
It’s sort of hard to believe that we live in a society where you need a marketing campaign like “if you see something, say something”. Group think is a powerful thing. I’m sure the psychology involves thoughts like – I’m sure someone else is doing something about it, or no one else thinks it’s a problem, or nothing is going to change anyway. Sound familiar? How many times has someone come forward in a sexual harassment case and suddenly 4 or 5 others come forward. In cases of child sexual abuse, the same often happens. It takes one to break the resistance and then others feel comfortable to come forward.
There are lots of less news worthy examples especially around the workplace. Maybe it’s the policy that hasn’t been updated in 10 years? Maybe it’s the phone listing that is out of date. Or maybe it’s the management practice that everyone is afraid to say anything about? Or maybe it’s the worker who smells of alcohol when they show up in the morning? Insert your example here_______________________. How often do you notice these things, and how often is something done about it? Generally not very often.
Breaking Free
It can be very difficult for any person to break free from the norms that hold their organization (or family) together. We look in amazement at women who stay with abusive husbands, but we take for granted employees to stay with outdated practices. The same inertia keeps both in place. It usually takes some external stimulus to break the cycle. And then comes the eternal question – Is it worth it? Especially since we all know that the nail that stands out gets hammered. It’s this fear that often keeps the system in check. Will everyone line up behind the person suggesting the change, or will they be greeted with torches and pitchforks.
We quickly forget the basic promise that all life and organizations are either growing or dying. There is no steady state. Doing nothing when a situation exists is just hastening the demise of the organization(or person) . We’ve all heard the phrase “rearranging the deck chairs”. It’s become a metaphor over the years, but 100 years ago those words contributed to the deaths of over 1500 people in the space of about 3 hours.
In organizations it’s almost an exercise in holding your breath. We hope we can hold our breath longer than the one person who is going to upset things. Again the assumption that a steady state exists. But if we go back to the original example of one person in a room with smoke coming in, the reaction is immediate. Is whatever issue is impacting your organization something you would tolerate if you were the only one in the organization? It’s a pretty good litmus test, but it still may not get you past the fear factor.
The Tipping Point
At some point, one of two things will happen. Either someone will reach the point where they feel compelled to act, or an outside event will take place that will allow the discussion to take place. This may be an external event such as a financial collapse, a change of leadership or it could be the introduction of a third party who facilitates the discussion. Consultants end up being lightening rods to surface issues that no one in the organization is ready to bring forward. In the normal course of things, the slow death of the organization would be the eventual end result if no action takes place. It might take years, or happen more quickly. At that point, the organization can grow again.
So given the opportunity, will you act, or will you continue to ask others – why won’t you do anything? The truth is that people get stuck where they are. Taking action may be intuitively obvious to the outside observer, but when you in the middle of a situation, it is often to change your path. This applies equally to people and organizations. Even if you aren’t in a position to act, the first step is to recognize the situation you are in. Then find someone that can help you take the first step. Getting the issue out in the open will start you on the path to the change that you, and perhaps others, have been hoping for.
