Progressive's Pachinko and the Executive Meeting

In the last few weeks I have seen clients struggling with a lot of internal division. These are people who are pretty self-reflective and for whom examining their actions and their motivations is an important part of their identity. These are good qualities but like all good qualities, they can be carried too far. I get to see from outside how they can end up hamstringing people.

We know about the trap of black and white thinking but there is a self-reflection trap that sometimes causes people a lot of grief. I think of it as Progressive’s Pachinko. In the Japanese pinballish game the ball is continually bouncing off one nail or another, unable to pursue a clear course, like Bob Dole/Dan Savage’s phrase “A liberal is someone who can’t take their own side in an argument.” People with a progressive outlook can often get hit with this pretty hard, rehashing in their own minds the ethical implications of every decision. They are often uncomfortable with hierarchical decision making, even in their own minds.

I definitely identify. I had a dificult decision to make recently. It was a decision that had some important implications for me. Every ten minutes, I would ask myself what I should do. I felt like my clients feel; stressed and angry at myself because it felt self-inflicted.

So I used for myself a process that I had stumbled on with clients. First, I asked, “Have you already made a decision that some part of you is having difficulty catching up with?” It turned out I had. I had decided, but I felt apprehensive about my decision. People can spend a lot of time and energy trying to maintain the idea that they haven’t made a decision when they already have.

Second, I asked myself if there was any new information or perspectives on the issue that merited re-examining the decision that it turned out I had already made. The answer was no. So an emergency meeting of the executive committee of Jeremy Wexler Global Enterprises about this decision would not bring a different result but will bring more worry.

Third, I set a date to convene the executive committee to review the decision. It turned out I had made a decision even though I was having a hard time acknowledging that I had. Making a decision can bring some peace, but living in my head it was like trying to work in an office where people were constantly rehashing questions that were settled at the last meeting. “Maybe we should try it this way.” “I still think we should have gone with plan C.” These different voices have important stuff to say. One part is in charge of being scared of anything new. One part is responsible for protecting my sense of independence. One part manages the division of me that dives into any new thing because the grass is always greener. They all bring something to the table. But they tend to be unruly, and will argue their various points all day long. But my wise mind is the boss, a really good boss, a boss who cares about everyone, who takes everybody’s perspective seriously and then makes tough decisions and implements them.

My wise mind had already listened to all the factors. It had already made a choice based on what I knew and what I felt. Re-opening the decision was only adding extra emotional friction. But, it was clear that some members of the executive committee still had serious reservations.

“Okay,” said the wise mind. “We already committed to this course of action for good reasons. I know some of you don’t like it but I expect everyone to give it an earnest try. We will reconvene the executive committee in three months on, January 10, when we will have some new information and we will check in about how this is going. I assure you that I am fully open to the possibility of changing course at that time.”

And that seems to have been enough to appease the dissidents.