The wisdom of Burns

The wisdom of Burns…

(an article for the Dundee & Tayside Chamber of Commerce magazine, January 06)

 “O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
 To see oursels as others see us
 It wad frae monie a blunder free us
 An' foolish notion
               
 Robert Burns, To a Louse

Burns night is just past, and you may have attended one of the many Burns suppers around Tayside.   Traditionally, one of the poems used is ‘To a Mouse’, however I want to spend a few moments in reflecting on another of his famous poems – ‘To a Louse’.  I’m sure you’ll recognise the lines as they have become part of our history and language.  I wonder how much you might identify with them?

In today’s fast moving business environment, it is critical to be able to make quick decisions. And the trick of leadership is getting most of the 50-50 decisions right!  However, because of the complexity of the environment, no one person has all the knowledge to be able to make the best decisions.

This has lead to various initiatives in organisations over the past 20 years or so, empowerment’, quality management, self directed work teams to name but a few.  Most of these ideas have been designed to get decisions as close as possible to the customer or point of service, and to engage  groups or teams to increase the quality of  decisions.  We have also seen significant reductions of staff through downsizing or de-layering, all of which increase pressure on workers and managers.  There is more work to do, and less of us to do it.

It is all the more important that we are doing the right things (effectiveness), and not just doing things right (efficiency).  So, how can we avoid making too many mistakes?  How can we avoid disastrous blunders?

In my day job, these are the kind of questions we help leaders and organisations wrestle with, and I’d like to suggest that we can apply the wisdom of Burns to this dilemma.

If you can  truly develop openness and trust  in your organisational culture, there are  many benefits to this investment.  Firstly, you will be able to get people to generate ideas and take risks.  Secondly, you will also get people to challenge ideas and improve the quality of decisions and therefore improve products or services.

I must warn  you, there are  two challenges to this tho!  Firstly, it takes time and  significant commitment!  Culture change is the most difficult kind of change, for lots of complicated reasons out with the scope of this short article.  Secondly, if you are a leader – you have to take the lead with openness, and are you up for it?  Will you truly engage with people and listen to them?  Are you willing to try and get into their shoes, so you can see yourself as others see you?

If you can, you might just save yourself from “monie a blunder” and some “foolish notions”

Joe Lafferty
president Dundee and=Tayside Chamber Commerce
and Servant Leader of LifeTree

To download as pdf click here.