The Utility of Bad Examples

Today I am reflecting on lessons I have learned in my long career and how I learned them. The obvious approach is to remember the exceptional individuals who were great at their jobs while being pleasant and consistent and generally a pleasure to know. But who needs to be reminded that we can learn from paragons of excellence? Instead, I am contemplating what I learned from the deeply incompetent, the arrogant and the people I've met who cannot seem to learn from their negative experiences.

Many of us really love a good story about some fathead and his or her hideous blunders but that is what I present here. Like the poor, fatheads will always be with us. Avoiding them is the best course of action, if you have that luxury. Failing that, there are strategies for mitigating the ill effects of fatheadedness, but that is entirely different story. Besides, we often have no choice but let fatheadedness run its course. In those all-too-frequent cases, what is the benefit?

The benefit is experience, precious useful experience and the attendant opportunity to learn from someone else's mistakes. In post, I contemplate the utility of bad examples: what do the actions of fatheads teach us, to make us better at what we do?

In my experience, the truly spectacular fathead (SFH) is arrogant: so arrogant that he or she (usually a he, so I will use that pronoun for convenience) is above mere conventional wisdom. Sometimes "thinking outside the box" is valuable, but most of the time thinking outside the box is a waste of time or worse: for conventional situations, conventional wisdom usually suffices. In order to be worth it, thinking outside the box must present some clear additional benefit to compensate for the greater effort. I try to keep in mind that in today's IT environment, human attention is the most precious resource. Use it wisely.

(So why the endless praise of out-of-the-box thinking? Because it is the employment situation that gives kudos for doing the obvious, even if the obvious is the right choice. And, every once in a great while, thinking outside of the box saves the day. The trick is to pay attention so that you notice when your situation is abnormal, but that is another post.)

Since the SFH is arrogant, he is often an object lesson in understanding conventional wisdom: why do we never do that? Oh, THAT's why. Rather than recount amusing examples of stupid people doing stupid things, I offer this suggestion: keep track of instances of bold, innovative thinking. Follow up months or years later: did the bold innovation do better or worse that conventional wisdom expects? Why? I have learned much about why certain rules of thumb exist this way--mostly as I sat amid the smoking wreckage of some IT disaster, but at least I had something useful to do while I was sitting there.

Often the SFH makes the same kinds of mistake over and over again; after all, it is almost a requirement that the SFH be unable to learn from his mistakes if he is to remain the SFH. Once you see that patterns, the SFH is useful as the embodiment of a certain kind of habitual error: when faces with certain kinds of decision, ask yourself what the SFH would do and then DO SOMETHING ELSE. Ideally, do something that makes sense in light of what your SFH has inadvertently taught you.

Now we come to the most painful methodology: seeking useful feedback. I find that a simple description of an SFH strategy, preferably to someone outside the SFH's organization to avoid accidental embarrassment, often nets useful results. A very good outcome of bouncing your observations off of someone you respect is that they may explain levels to the problem you had not seen. The most useful, but least pleasant outcome of this exercise is the casual observation from your respected sounding board that YOU are guilty of the same bad judgment. If true, this feedback is invaluable in improving yourself.

I say "if true" because some people feel that it is either appropriate or polite to accuse the speaker of any fault the speaker finds in others. But this is not a get-out-of-jail card: not all unpleasant feedback is some kind of tit-for-tat reflex. This means that really have to think about that you said, what they responded and how their insight improves your understanding of your situation. If your understanding is not improved, then discard the feedback--but discard it discreetly and politely. You might need feedback in the future and remember: most people won't be willing to give it at all, so sometimes reflexly negative feedback is better than no feedback at all.

Ignorance is bliss--until it isn't. Think about why bad decisions turned out to be bad and you are on the path to making better decisions in the future.