Once, more years ago than I care to think about, I was Training Officer
for my naval field unit. Part of my job
was to manage training programs for very highly qualified personnel in four
distinct specialties. In a major
reorganisation of our on-the-job qualification programs, our Operations Chief
came to me and complained that the different programs did not look enough
alike. “Four specialties, one program!”
he directed. He wanted a more uniform
structure.
I was an expert
in only one of the specialties in question, and had a significant knowledge of
a second. To my eyes, the differences in
the training programs reflected the differences in the target activities, the way
the work was structured, and the personalities of those who had drafted the
programs for me. Needing to satisfy the
Ops Chief, I sat down with the other three and tried to find a common
format. As is often the case with the highly
qualified, none wanted to submit to major changes in the program he had
painstakingly put together. I could have
pulled rank. But for me to do so, and
override the opinions of the three experts, would have been foolish. So I listened to the three, succeeded in
getting them to agree to minor changes in how things were stated in their
standards, and made some minor changes in my own program. I submitted to the Chief four programs that
looked more alike than before.
And I also had the ammunition to explain why they couldn’t look
identical. The Chief approved, he passed
the materials up the chain, and the programs went active.
On this
occasion I learned an important lesson. Don’t
micromanage. Do your job, and let
others do theirs. When you have
experts upon whom you rely for tasks that you’re not able to do yourself, trust
them to know the best way to perform them.
To question them – respectfully and for the purpose of better
understanding their positions – is fine.
But to manage with a heavy hand is counterproductive. It leads to bruised feelings and worse. Afterward the experts will be reluctant to be
forthright and will be less effective, thereby compromising the effectiveness
of the entire organisation. Later
experience has informed me that, while I learned this lesson in the context of
military service, it is just as applicable in the work world generally. As it is in life, period.
Tomorrow
morning, we’ll read the following from Numbers 1:50-53:
You shall put the Levites in charge of the Tabernacle of the Pact,
all its furnishings, and everything that pertains to it. They shall carry the Tabernacle and all its
furnishings, and they shall tend it.
They shall camp around the Tabernacle.
When the Tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and
when the Tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. Any outsider who encroaches shall be put to
death. The Israelites shall encamp troop
by troop, each man with his division and under his standard. The Levites, however, shall camp around the
Tabernacle of the Pact, that wrath may not strike the Israelite community. The Levites shall stand guard around the
Tabernacle of the Pact.
To me, given my
various experiences, the application of this message is clear. When one person, or as in this case an entire
class of people, is selected and highly trained for specific tasks, it is
foolish to step in and try to ‘pull rank’ and make changes. Many of us have worked for someone who
insisted on thus ‘calling the shots’ against all reason. Many of us have thus been frustrated at our –
and the organisation’s – resulting diminished effectiveness.
The fact that
this passage is talking about specific cultic responsibilities, and Divine
wrath for transgressing the boundaries set up, should not distract us from this
message. Each one of us, if we are
pursuing an honourable profession that provides some benefit to others, can
grasp its universal applicability. It
doesn’t have to be in the sphere of religion, of the nexus between God and man.
To give an application from common
experience, what if you were unsure of a diagnosis your doctor had just
delivered? You would be entirely within
the rights of reason to ask, respectfully, for clarification. If the diagnosis was of something
particularly serious, or if you simply weren’t sure how qualified this particular
doctor was, you would further be within your rights to seek a second
opinion. Maybe the doctor’s feelings
would be hurt. But not if he was a true
professional. What if his diagnosis were
confirmed? Then the best result would be
that, in the future, you would be more confident of this doctor’s word. But if his diagnosis were authoritatively
refuted, you would be well-advised to find another doctor.
The principle
holds for other kinds of advice, although needless to say the question is not
quite so critical where many other professions are concerned. Where lives are not on the line. But, life-endangering or not, it is important
that each one of us have the opportunity to live up to his potential in his
chosen calling. It is the job of those
who have been empowered with leadership and managerial roles, to enable
this quest for excellence. But as we
know, all too often, small-minded managers do the opposite. Many of us have at some point, experienced
being managed like this…and most of us have not liked it one bit.
In our Torah
reading, it is the Levites who are specifically chosen by God to administer the
cultic practices of the people Israel. They
are chosen and trained. The
latter fact is not reflected in the passage, but it is self-evident. The Torah herself serves as a training manual
for those chosen for Divine service.
The Torah also
does not warn against practices, except when there is a clear proclivity on
peoples’ part to actually do the acts forbidden. And we do know from the Torah herself – and
we’ll see in four weeks, when we read from Parashat Korach – that our ancient
forebears did have a tendency to rebel and grasp at authorities that
were not theirs, that were assigned to others.
The message to
the People Israel, from this passage of Torah is clear. Don’t micromanage the Levites. Don’t interfere with their duties. They have been elected by God to perform
their specific service for the benefit of all the people. To interfere, to try to usurp their authority
to perform their chosen tasks, will lead to death. Absolutely nothing good will come out of it.
None of us
operates in a context that is exactly like the relationship between God, the
Levites and the People Israel. But we
can still draw a compelling lesson from these verses of Torah. One that has been confirmed by many of us, in
our diverse life experiences, and in our working careers. And that lesson is that micromanagement, the
interference of managers in the jobs of the experts who have been chosen and
embraced in their organisations, is always bad. It never leads to good result. It always compromises the
effectiveness of those whom it seeks to control. It always compromises the effectiveness, and
the integrity, of the entire organisation. Whether that organisation is a business. A military unit. A government agency. Or a sacred community. Let them do their jobs. It is something to think about. Shabbat shalom.
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