You know those people who you can’t talk to? The people you can’t converse with or transfer information to for whatever reason? We are calling them “fans” on this blog because when you meet someone like this and try to talk to them, your words are blown back to you in little bits. The fan person can just not take anything in so you are in fact completely wasting your time when you talk to them. Continuing to outline the various types as promised:
The system (Saturn) is a fan and by that, I mean any system. This was made painfully clear to me when I worked on that case with the FBI. The 27 year old woman is not going to direct the FBI which is a system.
As the soldier would say, the system is not a person with a heart, a mind and a soul so consequently you cannot appeal to it. In that situation I could appeal to an individual who did have a heart and mind but in the end the system makes the decision as to how to proceed and I will spell out exactly how this works.
The FBI works with profiles as everyone knows. This is their framework, it is their flowchart… it is their system within a system. So what happens when some 27 year pops up to say, hey no. That’s not going to work. I understand it but if you follow that path you will blow the case for sure?
What happens is the guy on the bottom rung who does have a heart and mind, the one who is talking to me, knows me, has worked with me and takes me seriously absorbs and perhaps believes what I say and he takes the information up the chain of command. The chain of command comes back with no… we follow the flow chart and why is that?
Well the flow chart worked once or twice! And if you go against the flow chart and it doesn’t work, you are going to lose your job. And people need their jobs so they make the safe decision, the one they can defend. It sounds something like this:
“We know this is wrong but we are going to do it anyway. We have no choice…” voice trails off
All systems work like this too. I am currently up to my neck in another system with all this court stuff and the same thing is happening, it sounds like this:
“What you are doing here is going to be completely ineffectual. You must realize this,” I say, making my plea.
::shocked faces around the table, as if I farted or something::
“Well yes, it may not work but…”
I quit listening at that point because it’s too painful. 80% of the people in the room knows I am right but no one is going to trash their career over it, you know?
“Yes, we are going to try this thing we all know won’t work… are we all agreed?”
All hands rise and I stare blankly.
The system is a system and the system is a fan.
Catch up here – It’s Like Talking Into A Fan
There are reams of literature devoted to the concept of saying, “You are WRONG WRONG WRONG,” in a way that people might actually listen to. It’s so hard to do.
Health care is one of those kind of systems. Even if all you are doing is disagreeing with a single doctor, it’s still a feeling of you against the entire medical profession. Blargh.
I wouldn’t call The System a fan so much as a black hole. You talk into it and it simply absorbs and negates and continues on its way. Individuals are of no consequence to the Borg.
This post is really relevant in a state-sponsored health care program such as the one I work in. Just this morning I overheard an oncologist on the phone with Central Billing arguing to get a better CT scan for a patient. It was denied. The onc doc started screaming into the phone, “If this patient were covered by insurance we wouldn’t even be having this conversation! For the sake of minimizing billable visits you would have me let her bleed to death on the table, wouldn’t you?” *click*
Even the words of the best oncologist west of the Mississippi are lost to the black hole. The patient will likely die soon. Thanks, System.