Laws of Power - Laws of Productivity

As happens all too often I recently found myself in the middle of a petty power struggle.  The childishness of the actions and comments that were part of the debate made me wonder why anyone bothers to try to do anything for the good of the university, college, department, or the students.

In talking to someone outside the university about the events and results I was advised to read the "48 Laws of Power" so that I could avoid having my civic spirit crushed in the future, by crushing those that don't agree with me.  My advisor suggested that I was being too open, honest, and welcoming of the thoughts of others and that through the Laws of Power I could learn how to bend everyone before me to my will.

My first thought was that controlling people and crushing those who will not bend is not who I am.  On reading the Laws of Power I am sure of this.  I am not interested in power, I am interested in productivity.  I want my energy to go into making the department as a whole stronger rather than being wasted on positioning myself to keep others down.

I wonder if the pursuit of power for the sake of having power isn't a large part of the problem in many of the dysfunctional departments I have been associated with.  Would be chairs focused on accumulating power and crushing people with other ideas and the faculty members spent too much time counting heads and currying support over minor issues rather than joining together to raise everyone up and improve the entire department.  People interested in a department focus rather than the intestine wars within the department can never get traction in leadership votes because they avoid taking sides in the power plays and get crushed by the power players.

My department, the Statehouse, Washington, etc.  It does not matter where we look, power rules over productivity.  At least so long as we chose to allow it to.  If enough people opt out of the power plays but stay in the decision making process we could all avoid having to take sides in a destructive cold war with our departments.  The power players only have the power we give them.

T.S. Hall