Tuesday, 16 August 2022
The blight of intransigent mediocrities
In his absence, a former work colleague was once described as intransigent by another colleague and nobody disagreed. I liked him and we always got on well but he was intransigent, I knew that. He was seen as intransigent because he refused to support second best when something better was clearly attainable.
Odd situations arose around this chap because what he was opposing was another and more damaging kind of intransigence, the intransigence of mediocrity. There is such a thing and it is too common in the public sector.
Clearly, mediocrity is easier than excellence and from the perspective of mediocrities, mediocre outcomes are easier to achieve. With majority support they become the preferred option. Add a dash of PR and they may even become the only option and an example of how things should be done.
To my mind it’s an important problem, especially in the public sector. It is not particularly uncommon for forceful mediocrities to be intransigently mediocre. Frequently their intransigence carries the majority towards yet more mediocre outcomes.
Mediocre is usually the default state of affairs where there is little competitive incentive to do better. Most of us have to work hard to be a little better than mediocre in any event, so any forceful and intransigent mediocrity is almost certain to offset that hard work.
Hence the uphill struggle which is remarkably common in the public sector. Much of it is down to intransigent mediocrities.
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5 comments:
Yes, for around 10 years my job involved being told by an intransigent perfectionist to get some intransigent mediocrities to work to his standards. He was impatient and driven, because he would be judged by results; they were very patient and idle, because they wouldn't, or didn't care if they were.
Retirement is great, isn't it! Today I took two big bags of garden waste to the tip. Funny how something so ordinary can give so much pleasure.
Alongside the Intransigent there are also the Contrary who will adopt any alternative view to the general opinion, no matter how daft.
I suspect that the intransigent and contrary make their 'beliefs' such an important part of the personality that to be flexible or agreeable would be damaging to their self image. And of course just (very) occasionally they are right over a particular issue... enough to stiffen their resolve generally.
In a school where worked there was an impermeable layer of middle management who weren't going to move on because they knew where they were well off.
And the conformity principle. Prof Ed Dutton did a vid some months ago about academic 'midwits' and how they gang up together to maintain a status quo.
@DiscoveredJoys: C Northcote Parkinson noted the value of having a man on the board who was *consistently* wrong!
Sam - yes retirement is great yet people I know varied widely in their attitude to it. One or two took a long time to adapt because they missed the way working life gave them an identity. Others never looked back from day one and I was one of those.
DJ - yes, I encountered people who just had to adopt an alternative view to the general opinion. As if they would feel like a passenger if they didn't do that, even if their ideas were daft or obviously obstructive.
Sackers - Thanks - I'll look up Prof Ed Dutton. It seems to be a general problem with middle management. They can be moved aside to "special projects" but there are only so many of those.
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