A
lot like the debate over granting war powers prior to the Iraqi
intrusion, and we know how THAT turned out.
Taking this to an area I know something about, on projects there
are four or five critical failure modes when it's discovered that a
project's in trouble. First, whatever the point of discovery, it
was busted a long time before the problem was recognized. The old
status quo was geriatric before it was acknowledged as aging. So
the first shock is great, but not terribly significant. We've
already lived for a long time with it busted.
Second, there's always a hair-on-fire urgency to do something -
literally anything, probably to recover our sense of mastery and
control more than to actually fix anything. Of course, the toup's
flaming creates the worst possible context for deciding
anything mindfully.
Third, the initial strategies for resolving always involve
recovery, rather than transformation, even though recovery will
only produce more of what's already proven to not work. We don't
know how to produce transformation in a systematic way. The paradox
is that by letting go, we're more likely to encourage
transformation. By holding on, we encourage continuing
dysfunction.
Fourth, why seems like the right question, though it almost never
is. What next? or what now? are each better questions, but each
initiates an investigation rather than a solution. The belief that
there is a root cause, and that finding that root cause will
necessarily allow undoing the past, is the real root cause. But
this is just the way it is, a stupid human trick.
Finally, the quality of the response is usually misunderstood to
necessarily mean clear, precise, predictable next steps. In this
way, we recreate old status quo rather than pursue
transformation.
If we can side-step these pitfalls, we might make a real
difference. If not, probably not.
The conversation around 'resolving the credit crisis' is stepping
into every one of these.
Often, in my experience, embracing an "Anything But That!" strategy
better encourages transformation, though it usually feels like the
worst possible approach.
