The Power of Choice

On January 16th, 1920, in an effort to reduce crime, corruption, social problems, tax burdens, and generally begin to repair the moral decay of the country, the government of the United States enacted what came to be known as the "noble experiment": Prohibition. The Eighteenth Amendment was put into effect, and from that point on it was illegal to import, export, transport, sell and manufacture all "intoxicating liquour".

It failed miserably.

Instead, it created a whole new type of crime - bootleggers from Canada started smuggling liquour south, the "speakeasy" (underground bars, essentially) sprung up left, right, and center, and the mob had a whole new revenue stream. It was unenforceable and, more importantly, it was hugely unpopular - thus, in 1931 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress passed the 21st Amendment, undoing the nightmare that had started 11 years earlier.

On a more personal note, one of my friends ran a summer camp for a couple of years, and the YMCA of British Columbia decided that, in an effort to promote a positive and healthy lifestyle, it would outlaw all smoking by their staff. Not smoking while working - smoking for the duration of their contract.

It also failed miserably.

Firstly, there was the blatant hypocrisy of their philosophy - while promoting a "healthy lifestyle", they were still feeding the kids and staff greasy, mass-produced, fat-laden crap for their meals. Secondly, while there were a few former staff who actually understood that they did, in fact, have a choice (which was to not work at the camp in the first place) - this instead lead the camp losing a few good people. Finally, and most importantly, it didn't actually cut down on the smoking - it instead created a sub-culture of people who banded together, and hid their smoking, which in turn created not only a mess (as people snuck off into the woods to sneak their smoke), but actually created a massive fire hazard.

What can we learn from these examples?

Dictating to people, whether you're right or not, is more likely going to create bigger problems than you had before. You can direct them, guide them, and even limit their choice, but at some point you have to step back and trust that people will do the right thing... all the while knowing that not everyone will. The exceptional, however, will always rise above the others - and these are your future leaders.

Remember, you can't always be asking for trust - there will come a time where you have to give some back.

~Guy