What do Mr Bates, Craig Mokhiber and Glenda Chew have in common? Who are they, for a start? Mr Bates is the intrepid UK subpostmaster who brought to light the outrageous behaviour of the British Post Office, over more than a decade, damaging, and in some cases completely ruining, the lives of 900 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses. If you have not seen the movie Mr Bates Vs the Post Office I recommend that you do. Insolent corporate wickedness doesn’t come more clearly expressed. It’s a well-made film, too.
Craig Mokhiber is the (now resigned) Director of the NY Office of UN High Commissioner of Human Rights. His resignation letter is worth pondering over. He speaks, I think, for many people through it. Glenda Chew is a colleague in Terrific Mentors International whose Daily Paradox of 25Sep24 – The Perfect Imperfect – has been widely acclaimed as a splendid dose of practical common sense. So what do these three very different people have in common?
First they are all dealing with complex matters. Most matters of human relationships are complex.They do not present themselves as having easy answers. There are many sides to the questions they raise. Over-simple answers seldom provide doable solutions. How may we express the needs and the remedies to difficult questions in a few readable words? Nobody wants superficial answers. Complex solutions merely befuddle.
The answer is to get the strategy right. It is the answer to every controversial situation. It requires an objective that is both understandable and capable of execution. Solving problems is only possible when they are well defined. Take the three people I mentioned at the start of this Daily Paradox. None of them is a powerful politician or wealthy benefactor able to dictate orders to people with less clout. Each of them has defined a problem in such a way that a strategy to solve it can be visible.
Mr Bates invited fellow subpostmasters involved in the Post Office scandal to a meeting. It could have been a collective moan or a rabble of injustices leading to dysfunctional collective anger. But Mr Bates saw the Heart of the Matter. Each one of the people present had been told by the Post Office officials that they were the only person with the problem. The lie was the point that justified joint action because it united the damaged group.
Craig Mokhiber decided that his only voice was resignation after lengthy service. Why? Because the issue he has is one of ethnic apartheid. Manifest by the behaviour of Israel today it is a matter that is contaminating the world and he sees that the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) is losing the opportunity to change it. He has identified the Heart of the Matter and he is bringing it to the world’s attention in the best way he can.
Glenda Chew spots the Heart of the Matter in loving, personal relationships. We cannot find the Perfect Other, s/he doesn’t exist. So we must make the Imperfect perfect for the life we are here to lead. Her observation provides a strategy. It’s not new but it is clearly, lucidly and compellingly said. It is epitome of the Heart of the Matter.
Strategies don’t solve problems. They set the scene for tactics to do so. Without a strategy, tactics are random, all over the place, higgledy-piggledy. That’s why so many of them are failing. We need a new approach from the kindergarten to the United Nations to see clearly what is the Heart of the Matter.
Those who discover how to find it will be the winners in the age of AI. They could have been even before it.
They can be today if they will just look for the Heart of the Matter.
Good morning
John Bittleston
Can you see the Heart of the Matter? Would you like to tell us about it at [email protected]? We’d love to learn.
27 September 2024
