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What Are They Afraid Of?
By TWilson | November 30, 2007
I got in late from a client site and after having dinner and reviewing my email, I sat down to watch a little television, I admit I’ve become addicted to some of the political commentary. Not sure why, it might be the repressed desire to be a lawyer. In any case, I was watching the Bill O’Reilly and he was commenting on the Republican debate that took place Wednesday.
It seems that Republicans are up in arms that CNN didn’t do a good job of vetting some of the people they selected to ask questions. They had individuals that supported Hillary Clinton, Barrack Oboma, and John Edwards asking questions at the Republican debate. Bill O’Reilly thought it was funny that this happened and pointed out in the overall scheme of things they were just questions. He pointed out that CNN should have done a better job of checking their sources since a number of people were able to Google, the people who were asking the questions and find out that they were Democrats and supported Democratic Candidates.
O’Reilly’s comments, I thought were on the mark. However, on Hannity & Colmes it was a different take all together. You got the impression that CNN committed the crime of the century. Before I go any further, let me state for the record that I don’t like Sean Hannity. I think he’s an arrogant, pompous, myopic, unmannered troglodyte. Alan Colmes is a mealy mouth democratic apologist and is on just to be Sean’s punching bag. Other than that, I have no strong feelings for the show.
In his usual tenor, Hannity was doing his typical Hillary bashing (just so you know I’m not a Hillary fan) and calling CNN the Clinton News Network. What I found interesting was an exchange Hannity had with a female Democrat Strategist and his week comeback when she asked him “why are you conservatives so afraid of the Hillary campaign?” Hannity said he wasn’t afraid of Hillary, but just as he was saying it, they cut to commercial. I thought the question was right on, why are they so afraid of her campaign.
Hannity is not unlike a number of managers who work for companies. They – the managers – are arrogant, pompous, myopic, unmannered troglodytes. Who have incipit yes men and women (I have to satisfy the PC Police) who work for them. When change is about to be introduced they fight it by telling you all the reasons why it won’t work. You get, “we tried that before,” “we’re different,” “we need to proceed slowly,” you name it; they have an excuse for it.
The thing we have to recognize about change is it will produce some level of anxiety and uncertainty. But, if what the management team is currently doing is stunting growth, choking off innovation that could help move the company forward, all because of some unfounded fear of change, then it is time to replace the management team.
Any type of change engenders a certain amount of risk. The prudent manager doesn’t minimize the risk factor; they place in the appropriate context and deal with it. For those of us who are consultants it’s our job to help our client understand the risk with any change action they are about to undertake. It is also our responsibility to ask them the question, “What are you afraid of?”
Topics: Accountability, Communication |
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