No Denying Emotion
I’ve sat in meetings before where well-intentioned people are working through a situation and they say things like “we need to be as objective as possible.” This quotation, from an essay in The Abilene Paradox (info), called “Organizations as Phrog Farms,” challenges that kind of thinking.
“When you treat another objectively, you should know that the price of being objective – eliminating your feelings from the situation — is that you become an object yourself, since you have denied the very essence of your own humanness.”
What if business types, nonprofit types and pastor types alike stopped trying to be so objective and started asking more often, “what is the human/emotional impact of this decision, both on ourselves and our organization?”
November 10th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
This is a question I have often thought for myself and it usually leads me to the next question of ‘who is the person making said decision; do I trust their emotional side or is that scarier than having an objective standpoint.’ Then again I’m thinking of the political and business types.
November 10th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
It seems to me like being a follower of Jesus requires that we be anything but objective. We are called to be like Jesus who was incredibly prejudiced. He always looked at people with the prejudice of love. This isn’t “emotional” it’s a reasonable choice given the Jesus we follow.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:36 am
for the sake of His sorrowful PASSIONS
have mercy on us and on the whole world.
@michaeldanner -
November 12th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
So, one of my favorite movie quotes is from “You’ve Got Mail” (don’t hate!). Meg Ryan’s character, reacting to Tom Hanks’ telling her it wasn’t personal when he put her out of business, says “What does that even mean ‘it wasn’t personal’? Whatever anything ever is, it should begin by being personal.” There’s a weird power in that statement, and it has always struck me that it is a true statement. Anything we do should begin by being personal.