‘Finding scapegoats is one of the best ways to absolve ourselves of blame when the need of the hour is some harsh introspection’
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar has a wonderful story called ‘Kicking the Cat’.
In other words, we look for scapegoats, people to blame and take out our anger on.
Finding scapegoats is one of the best ways to absolve ourselves of blame when the need of the hour is some harsh introspection.
In sport, when a team isn’t performing, the coach and manger are first in the firing line. In the ongoing IPL, the Royal Challengers Bangalore made changes to their support staff before the season by bringing in a new coach. Nothing changed. In fact, their performance worsened. It’s now obvious that the coaching staff wasn’t really the problem. It is debatable as to what needs to be fixed but it looks like the support staff were made scapegoats in the entire scenario.
If an organisation or team deems someone as not being a team player with a bad attitude and feels that the person is causing a great deal of harm to the culture, then things must improve on the ground after the person moves on. If things don’t change very much, there is something else amiss that isn’t being looked into.
On the other hand, if things change for the better after a person moves on or a redundant policy is outlawed, it’s safe to say that the actual problem has been tackled to a great extent.
Looking for and punishing scapegoats is easy.
Actually going in-depth to identify the real problem, bring it to light and solve it is the hard part.
