It's probably strange to see this topic on a business blog. I would think so. However, the subject of brutality plays a role in my business, strangely. Not a blood lust, but a something more subtle.
Brutality is something that we think we can get away from, and is certainly something we would never inflict, right? I, just like you, and all the other sane souls, take no pleasure in destruction. However, let me throw this terrible hypothetical at you:
Would you take the life of a loved one that is close to you right now, with a knife, if you **knew** it would save the live of two ordinary, perfect strangers, on the other side of the world, 20 years from now?
Take a little time to think about it. Tick tock.
Regardless of your answer to this question, did you wonder anything like: who are these other people; will they die quickly; will a family starve because of this loss. Probably not. I am guessing your reasoning went like this: I don't want to make this decision. I can't kill anyone. I certainly couldn't kill anyone close to me. Would anyone know that I didn't take action?
I just pulled from my own reasoning, so I am not here to insulting you if you had the same thoughts. I picture my wife or kids in this scenario. Forget about it, I can't even picture it. Terrible, and brutal.
Now here's the interesting part. The decision that we made isn't a logical one. Logic didn't play any role whatsoever. If it had, your reasoning might look very different. Let's be academic about this for a second and get logical, and dissect this. Can you refute the soundness of this logic?
- Preserving life is good.
- Preserving more lives is better than preserving less lives.
- It's better to preserve two lives over one.
See, the point is that the logical thing would be to take the life of a loved one. No one would argue, form a logical perspective, the opposite. But from a human perspective? Could you ever ask this of anyone?
Would you sacrifice a loved on for three unknown strangers? What about 50 or 1000?
This is just a hypothetical, and it's a terribly uncomfortable one that I won't trouble you with anymore. Lucky for us, we don't have to make this decision, because we would certainly make the wrong one. It's not because our logic is flawed, it's because we consciously decide to ignore logic when emotion has captured our heart. It's the debate had between many a action scripted rivals. "Kill her, she's bit, she will turn into a Zombie" says one. "We can't kill her, we will be like them" says the other.
While we will never face this situation in real life, we will have many situations that require the same emotions, on a different scale. For example, let's say you have an employee that isn't doing great for the company. She's costed you business that's hard to quantify. That's not all though. She just had her first child, and has been with your company for 10 years. You have tried her in a couple of different roles, but it keeps getting worse.
There is a time when brutality, that is, ignoring some part of your humanity, is absolutely required for progress. Can you fire her? Let's say you don't. Her unproductive nature and attitude start to spread like a cancer in the organization. 'A' players are turned off and start looking for greener pastures. Not only are you paying her salary, but you are trying to make up for lost business, and other numerous unintended consequences a bad employee will generate.
Let's say things keep getting worse for your struggling company, and it fails. By keeping her on, not only has she lost her job anyways, but the entire workforce has. Your human emotions that are essential to personal health, have now destroyed much more than you intended to even protect. It's an extreme case, but the argument is the same regardless.
You will be confronted with situations that, if not dealt with brutally, will undermine your good natured attempt. In other words, by not acting brutal now, you have become exponentially more brutal, under the guise of good will. The difference is the illusion we call time, and we love to fool ourselves into thinking we can handle it later on.
As difficult as this lesson is, logic has to weigh in here. Though I can't ask anyone to be ruled solely by it, it's something to honor. You must know Where you stand on the scale of logic vs. humanity. Are you able to live with tough decisions that are right in a big way, but seemingly so wrong in another, immediate way? Brutal.
