WATCH THE PENDULUM SWING.....TOO FAR

You know it’s going to happen – because it always does.  When something occurs in an organization that is illegal, abusive, or just offensive, the reaction tends to be extreme.  I suspect that is precisely what will happen in the Captain O.P. Honors case.  He was the second in command of the U.S.S. Enterprise (an aircraft carrier with about 6,000 service men and women on board) who, several years ago, made an over-the-top inappropriate video for broadcast to the entire crew.

It’s important to note – I am not talking about his punishment.  I haven’t seen the entire, unedited video, and fortunately, netting out his punishment isn’t my decision to make (having said that – were it my decision to make, I would pay very close attention to all of the mitigating circumstances).  What I am talking about is the over-arching reaction of the armed forces leadership to this type of activity.  I suspect, if this practice is not “banned” altogether, there will be significant restrictions put in place.

Now, I have always posited that humor is important in the workplace.  When present, it makes work much more enjoyable, it facilitates the building of strong and lasting relationships, and makes teams more effective.  When humor is demonstrated by a leader, it makes the leader more human, more approachable, and more part of the team.  Fundamentally, humor can serve to build trust all around.  But there is a caveat:  You can’t step over the line.  And while it may be tricky to figure out where that line is today – the best course of action is to not get close to it.

So how unfortunate it is that humor, this wonderful trust building team building tool, will be the biggest casualty of this unfortunate circumstance.  As I used to say in all of the companies I worked in when somebody stepped over the line – “let’s not re-draw the line for everybody; let’s just deal with the person who stepped over it.”  In my view – this is something worth remembering when we react to all sorts of unexpected things in our work and in our lives.

(see “A Million and One Ways to be One-in-a-Million”; Chapter 6 – Give My Regards to Broadway)