Ostrich Leadership

11/10/10

No I haven’t lost it and I’m not thinking of starting an Ostrich Farm.  I’m talking about the “riots” in London today over the planned tripling of tuition rates.  Who is right here?  And is this just a case of not managing expectations well?  On its surface – for sure it is.  I mean after all – who wouldn’t react in the extreme to an unplanned increase of this magnitude. 

But let’s think about it a bit deeper.  This crisis of the British government’s inability to subsidize (aka pay for) a system that provides a great service is not a crisis that was unpredictable.  Indeed, I would suggest to you that political leaders there saw this situation coming years ago – but adopted the “Ostrich Leadership Protocol”: stick your head in the sand and hope the issue goes away.  And so what you have is not so much a crisis created by not managing expectations, rather it is a crisis created by being unwilling to take a tough decision when a tough decision needed to be made.

This is completely analogous to the fiscal crisis that hit the US automotive industry.  Big auto companies agreed to pension and benefit enhancements years ago that were predictably, a ticking time-bomb.  But….no leader was willing to take a tough decision and deal with the issue in a timely manner.  And we all know the result.

In fact, I believe that many “burning platforms”, in business; in politics; in life; and even literally in reality (the infamous Deep Water Horizon), is usually the result of Ostrich Leadership rather than an unplanned catastrophe.  It is the result of a person in a position of responsibility being unwilling to make a tough choice.  Instead, they become paralyzed; they rely on hope and wait for something extraneous to alter the situation.  Not a good plan.

So…..Whether in your role in business, or in life – when you anticipate the approach of a “burning platform” – by all means look for solutions; engage in discussion with others who have a stake; and seek assistance.  But…..if a solution isn’t evident: Don’t go Ostrich!  Remember that hope is not a strategy and be prepared to make a tough choice.

(see “A Million and One Ways to be One-in-a-Million”; Chapter 8 – You Always Have Choices!)