What in the world is going on? The course of the torture debate has taken us from ignorance, to a glimpse of something, to the truth (we did). In the cry for ‘why’ what was the answer from those who did? They (and by ‘they’ I mean ‘he’) said it was effective . . . WHAT? What the hell sort of answer is that? It is immoral, illegal and threatens everyone we know and love around the world but it is okay because it works? What happened to doing what’s right?

Can you imagine trying to get away with that at work?

Boss: “Why did you hold Miller’s head in the toilet for ten minutes 185 times this morning? You almost killed him!”
You: “He wouldn’t give me the quarterly numbers.”

I am sure that I could have had better short term success in getting my son to clean his room by punching him the face. But how sick to you have to be to believe that as good methodology? I know I know that scenario DOES play out way to often for too many kids (and women) but it is not the result of practical policy. It is the result of really sick people who cannot distinguish right from wrong. So that obviously is not what we’re talk . . . Mmmmm.

But here is the rub. It doesn’t work anyway.

So what did work? According to Matthew Alexander, (an interrogator in Iraq who conducted more than 300 interrogations and supervised more than 1,000), it was relationship building. Yep. Relationship building was central in the success of gaining information. Lest you think he is some leftist leaning communist, Up With People cast reject or some overweight teambuilding wannabe, you should know that he led the interrogations team that located Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, and one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation. Success is centered in relationship building. You can read his testimony here (and should). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-alexander/my-written-testimony-to-tb_203269.html.

Imagine that. It was relationship building. Earning the trust of those you need to achieve success. Isn’t that what we’re all about in business coaching? What happens organizationally in abusive employer/employee relationships; or in supervisor to subordinate relationships? And we need not go to the extreme of breaking the law to know the answer. It does not work.

In fact we do not have to go to any extreme at all organizationally; or in any relationship for that matter. The mere absence of trust creates a dysfunctional state. The consequences are deep and go far beyond simply getting the work done. Trust in relationships; consciously sought. That’s what’s right.

Jim
http://www.thepeopleacademyinc.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece