Community Hokey Pokey
A Message from Milenko
Every time I pick up my luggage at the airport I need to fight the hoards of people crowding around the baggage carousel in the belief that it will expedite their departure. In fact, it slows everyone down.
The appropriate hokey pokey would be to “put your right foot back and then your left foot back,â€? creating open space and visibility. This would allow us all to pick up our luggage in a peaceful manner. The problem is that this kind of “community-minded” hokey pokey is counterintuitive for most people.
I see similar behavior at community meetings. We promote our agendas and, when pushed back by others with their own agendas, we simply make our point louder, prompting a corresponding volume increase in others. Trained by the squeaky wheel theory, we’re convinced that turning up the volume increases our chances of triumph. More »