Fowl (Vol. 2)
Okey dokey. I’m back to the chicken coop!
Writing the word “chicken” makes me think of the Chicken Dance. You know it and you likely hate it. Here are the lyrics:
[repeat thrice]
Da na na na na na na (move your hands like a bird mouth)
Da na na na na na na (flap your arms like chicken wings)
Da da da da (continue flapping your chicken arms, waddle down and then up)
Clap, clap, clap (self explanatory)
[interlude]
Da na na naaa na na na na (link arms with closest person to you and walk in a circle in one direction)
Da na naa na na naa na (now link the other arms and turn in the other direction)
[continue to speed up the pace until someone gets a cramp, the majority of the children are crying, or people lose interest]
I have a soft spot for the Chicken Dance. My Grandma loved the Chicken Dance. I can remember doing it with her at weddings and the annual Croatian Fraternal Union Christmas party. It is a core memory of my childhood. Once at an Octoberfest there was a band playing it and I told Leo it was “the dance of his people.”*
But this post isn’t about my second favorite dance from when I was a kid (the first obviously being the Hammer Dance**). It’s about chicken-based children’s stories that I see playing out in the real world. Today it’s Henny Penny (aka Chicken Little or Chicken Licken). I grew up with it being called Henny Penny and this fable was all about the impacts of overreacting and turning the smallest issue into a major catastrophe (making a mountain from a molehill). As the story goes, Henny Penny is just living her chicken life, picking up a little corn snack from the ground when WHACK an acorn hits her on the head. Henny Penny isn’t one to investigate. She’s more of a jump to conclusions sort of lady so obviously, she decides that the sky is falling. With this information she believes she must tell the king and off she goes. Along the way she meets several animals who believe what she says: Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, and Turkey-lurkey (my personal favorite) and they decide to accompany her on her trek to tell the king. Then, they all meet Foxy-loxy and tell him their plan. He is exceptionally helpful because he points out that they are going in the wrong direction but he knows the way and will help direct them there. So helpful! They all walked and walked until they got to a dark and narrow hole. When they said this didn’t seem like the right place…
Apparently there are two completely different endings to this story! I had no idea!
Version 1: Foxy-loxy assured them it was a shortcut to the palace. It was not. It was his burrow. He told all the (sucker) animals he would go first and they should follow one at a time. So in goes Foxy-loxy and Turkey-lurkey follows. Then, Foxy-loxy snapped off Turkey-lurkey's head and threw his body over his left shoulder. Damn! It went really dark really quickly and the carnage continues because it would appear each animal goes in, one after the other, to be dismembered by Foxy-loxy. Prior to his murder, Cocky-lockey let out a “cock-a-do” (he didn’t finish because he was eaten). Waiting for her turn, Henny Penny heard Cocky-locky crow. She assumed that meant it was dawn and time to lay her egg so she left to head back to her nest.
Version 2: Foxy-loxy admitted it was his burrow but that he wanted to have them over for dinner before they met the king. Chicken-licken took a look around and noticed a lot of questionable decorations (i.e. bones and feathers) because Foxy-loxy was a messy bastard who didn’t clean up after himself. When she saw him put on a big-ass pot of water, and set only one place setting at the table, she realized they were going to be dinner. She came up with a plan. She took out her dust cloth from her apron (so prepared) and told Foxy-loxy he should just relax and that she would tidy up the house while the water heated. He thought that sounded amazing and settled in for a nap. Once he was snoring the animals snuck out of there and back to the farm and ate corn cake at Henny Penny’s. When they were finished they went outside and an acorn fell on Henny-Penny’s head. Once again she made the wrong assumption and freaked out. Her friends showed her that it was an acorn and called her a dumbass. She laughed at her silliness.
THE END
Please don’t think I am just randomly retelling fables here. I see a variety of connections between this story and certain workplace behavior:
Catastrophizing: I talked about this a bit in another blog. It’s when people tend to mentally jump to the worst case scenario. They make a very big deal out of (usually) nothing. Henny Penny turns something that is truly a non-issue into a problem worthy of the king. This is, unfortunately, familiar to many of us. We all work with someone whose default is assuming the worst. Their tendency to go Defcon 1 (Maximum readiness!!! War is imminent!!!!) in the most trivial situations is exhausting and if the catastrophizer *is a manager they end up dragging other people into the situation (Cocky-locky, Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey, and Turkey-lurkey) and putting them through a lot of unnecessary trauma and work.
Crying wolf: Similar to catastrophizing, it makes everything seem like an emergency and this behavior has impacts. First, people start to ignore your distress cries. Things marked “urgent” or the seven emails in a row are now normal and tabled for later. There is a limit on declaring urgent, drop everything kind of situations; especially when you work in a field where actual emergencies are few and far between. Once you reach your limit of catastrophes, you are the little boy in the village. When the wolf shows up (an actual problem!) no one will believe you. Second, working with someone who is constantly crying wolf impacts other people. When people are forced to feel like everything is high priority/emergency status their health is impacted. They have headaches, their cortisol levels are raised, and they have trouble sleeping. Employees who are feeling like this are not going to be able to perform their best. Crying Wolf has impacts beyond the person yelling.
Naysaying: A delightful offshoot of catastrophizing is often naysaying. Naysayers never met an idea (from you especially!) that they like. Rather than trying to come up with a solution they tell you why things will never work. Trying to improve a process or make something more logical? Not if a naysayer can help it! They will point out every place this change could be problematic. They will drone on about the potential backlash. They make it so annoying that you want to bash your head on the conference table. They cling to their belief that whatever you think will work (no matter how much time you've spent planning) will not. They are the Debbie Downers of the business world.
The need to always be right: There is no debating that the sky is falling because the Henny Penny’s you work with believe the sky is falling. They are right because they are always right. If you think it’s an acorn and they don’t? Sorry, not an acorn and here is a slow and patronizing explanation of why you are wrong. Unfortunately, believing something is true does not make it true. I know people say we live in a post-truth world but I think the truth is out there. This approach at work is bad for so many reasons. It’s annoying. Humans are fallible and being right all the time is simply not possible. It’s really annoying. It’s much easier to work with or train someone who wants to learn from their mistakes rather than someone who can’t acknowledge them. Holy moly so annoying! It alienates others. Being consistently corrected or “informed of” things gets old. Quickly.
A desire to overcomplicate things: Why solve a problem quickly when you could overcomplicate it and make the solution ridiculous and exceptionally time consuming?! People prone to complexity bias take any request, task, or question and then get to work on a convoluted “solution.” Working with people who have this tendency when you are much more of an Occam’s Razor (#parsimony) kind of person is maddening. Not only are they wasting their time they are often wasting your time as well.
Lack of research into the problem: Did all of the other animals have to follow her? Of course not! Her panic was convincing and the evidence (to her) was that acorn. But the other animals?! They just assumed it was true and followed her (to their deaths in Version 1!). This is no way to operate. Doing this at work is a great way to get fired. Not everyone has your best interests in mind (sorry). You have to ensure that you have all of the pertinent information before acting. A solid CYA is always recommended. Trust but verify.
Believing women are too emotional: Henny Penny is giving us ladies a bad name! There was no due diligence, just her flying off the handle and embarking on a lengthy journey void of critical thinking. This reflects poorly on us all because people already belive that women are more emotional than men. This idea is so common it is classified as a “master stereotype.” People of different ages, cultural backgrounds, and even women believe that this is fact. IT. IS. NOT. TRUE. Research shows that women’s emotional reactions are seen as who they are while men’s emotional reactions are due to external circumstances. As in, “oh she is just an angry person” or “she is not capable of controlling herself.” Our emotions are seen as inextricable to us but men get to blame pretty much anything else. That means that men’s emotional reactions can be written off as not actually their own. In the words of my Grandma Flo, “it’s a crock of shit.”
What I think is crazy is that in both endings, Henny Penny escapes unscathed. What the hell? She created this mess and doesn't seem to learn a damn thing.
Not me! After thinking about all the parallels between this story and real life I wanted some solutions. What I found was a reminder that we can only control our own responses and not how others behave (therapy 🌈 ). That can really be a challenge at work but the first suggestion I found is to take a beat before responding to the “emergency” of the moment. Ground yourself and then respond. I think part of crying wolf is the response the person gets. If everyone jumps into action then the person crying wolf feels important and powerful. Perhaps less reaction from us will lead to less crying wolf? We can hope! What about the people who are always right and revel in correcting everyone? I think we can all agree they are insufferable but the one thing I came across that really struck me was the idea of not trying to prove your case. I think for many of us when someone is wrong and acting like a jerk we want to show them how and why they are wrong. Turns out that’s pointless and will just lead to (more) conflict. You and your evidence isn’t going to sway them because they are right and you are wrong. So the best thing is to ignore them like the cacti I buy every summer and plant in my atrium. The hope is that the behavior will eventually (maybe?) start to die off; like my cacti. Finally, the naysayer. I love the idea that as soon as they start to rain on your parade you ask them what could be done to make it work. You cut off the negativity before it starts. Also, managers need to set some rules to manage these behaviors. Rather than letting the toxic naysayer shoot down everyone’s ideas, create inclusive and respectful parameters for meetings (in particular) and beyond.
The stories of these two little nuggets (see what I did there?) have a lot to teach us and I think each of the animals in these stories have pros and cons.
The Little Red Hen: Very responsible/prone to burn out. Finds scream therapy an effective way to alleviate stress.
The farm animals: Clear boundary setters/unwilling to help a friend. Would not call 911 if their phone was out of reach.
Henny Penny: Strong convictions/not great at confirming via data. Likely a climate change denier.
Cocky-locky, etc.: Very supportive friends/not the smartest. Will cut off your mimosas before you drunk text your ex.
Foxy-loxy: Talks a great game/murderer. Still quotes the Wolf of Wall Street incessantly.
It may seem like Little Red Hen comes out as the best example to follow. She is responsible. She knows how to do a bunch of cool stuff and she bakes bread. That sounds great. But her story isn’t all good because the animals she surrounds herself with suck. We can blame them for not helping her (even when she asked, which is hard!) but now that she knows how they operate it’s important she not continue to do everything alone. That approach will only sow (farming pun) bitterness and resentment. She needs to find new friends (colleagues) who will support her when she needs it and who understand the importance of contributing. It’s inevitable that we all take on the good and the bad of each of these roles every once in a while. Some days we are a lazy farm animal. Some days we overreact like Henny Penny. Some days we are an evil genius like Foxy-loxy. The important thing to remember is to not let any of these roles define or consume you. Be your own animal. A cool one if possible, maybe a liger.
*About ⅓ of his people. He is also ½ Mexican so La Chona is the other dance of his people. The remaining portion is a real mezcla: Polish, German, Irish, Swiss, Dutch. All these pasty countries in his DNA means that he has amazing blonde highlights that look like what some people (me) pay to have put in their hair.
**I dare you to go listen to that song and not want to dance. In 8th grade my best friend and I broke her VCR because we had recorded the video and kept stopping and rewinding it to ensure we had all of the moves down. I also had a pair of Hammer pants. If you are a young person with naturally dewy skin, please do not look at these pants and laugh thinking how ridiculous we were. Hammer pants still exist, you have just renamed them harem pants (don’t like that name one bit) and drop crotch pants. Do I still do the Hammer dance? Yes. Does my husband cover his hands with embarrassment every single time? Correct. Do I care? I do not because I have a mind to rhyme and two hype feet. #schoolsinsuckers
Fowl (Vol. 1)
Chicken has been on my brain lately. This is weird because I don’t eat chicken (or any other meat). I have been thinking about chickens because I am noticing adult behavior around me that very much reminds me of two chicken-based children's stories: The Little Red Hen and Henny Penny.
I stopped eating meat when I lived in Ireland (2000). That year there was an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease. This meant cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, and deer were all catching this (gross) disease and spreading it. This is different from the Hand, Foot, and Mouth the kids are getting these days. It was such a major health concern that St. Patrick’s Day was canceled. St. Patrick’s Day was canceled. In Ireland. Devastating. Anyhow, to try and curb the spread, all entrances to campus buildings and shops had disinfectant filled mats we had to walk over to kill any germs on our shoes and cars drove over bigger versions. What does this have to do with my vegetarianism you ask? Well, one night on the news a doctor was being asked if humans could catch this pesky and blistery disease and he said, “we don’t think so.” WHAT? You don’t think so? That is not scientific at all. I had also just returned from ten days in Spain where all I ate was meat.* It was a perfect storm to put me off eating the animals.
The Little Red Hen (I just googled “chicken vs. hen” because my brain is broken. Hens are adult lady chickens. They lay the eggs.) is a fable about the importance of taking initiative and working hard. One day a hen finds some wheat laying on the ground and decides she wants to make bread. Great idea. The thing is that there are several important steps between wheat and actual bread. The little red hen first plants the wheat. She asks the other animals on the farm to help her but they offer a chorus of nos. Growing up my version read:
Not I, said the cow.
Not I, said the duck.
Not I, said the goose.
Not I, said the pig.
Next she has to water the wheat. She asks for help and again, hard passes from the rest of the animals. Once the wheat has grown, the Little Red Hen has to harvest it. She is hopeful that the other animals will be of some help this time. Nope. They are not interested. Finally, the Little Red Hen bakes the bread and asks if the other animals want to eat it. All of a sudden everyone is very interested in what is happening. They all want some of the bread. But the little Red Hen is not having this. She runs away with the bread and eats it all herself. Yes, queen!
This story has been used in a lot of contexts. In 1976, Ronald Regan decided to rewrite it as an allegory of government regulation. You can listen to it if that’s your thing. According to the internet, it has also been used to satire capitalism, and as a pro-work socialist anthem. Damn everybody! Leave the Little Red Hen alone to bake her bread in peace.
Clearly, the moral of the story is that if you don’t contribute you don’t get to enjoy the results of the hard work others have invested. This is not an unfamiliar scenario to many of us. Responsible individuals are often put in positions where they have to take on most (or all) of the work in order to finish something and then the farm animals that didn’t contribute still want some freshly baked bread. They want to reap the benefits without the effort. They are free riders. They are everywhere. They suck. Free riders are something my students are often faced with. Many faculty assign group projects and without fail there is at least one team a semester trying to deal with the person who does absolutely nothing. My response has always been to tell them that this mirrors the real world and they have to figure it out. However, after reading more and thinking about it I am going to change my approach because it isn’t helpful. Yes, having the ability to manage difficult team members is a useful skill but should that be their job? Why should the people who contribute have to also do the work of trying to engage the free rider? Why do they have to solve a problem they didn’t create?** I looked for guidance on this and found awesome suggestions. I am going to implement some of them in my group projects and others are applicable at work because free riders are everywhere!
Qualitative peer feedback: Allow everyone a way to share what people are doing well and where they need to improve. I was looking around and it seems like there are a lot of online platforms that do this.
Options for students: PeerStudio, Peergrade, FeedbackFruits. I have not tried any yet but if you have and like one in particular let me know!
Options for work: Betterworks, CultureAmp, Officevibe.
I was wondering how anonymity plays into peer feedback and was happy to see some research on it. Generally speaking it sounds like anonymous feedback is the best way to go.
Make individual inputs visible: Have people “claim” what they are doing and make sure everyone else knows. This way, if something is missing/terrible it is clear who was responsible for the work.
Ensure that the groups are not too large: If there are a lot of people (especially without clear direction and unique roles) it is easier for free riders to “hide” and for their lack of contribution to be overlooked.
Show what others are doing: The thought is that when free riders see how much less they are doing they will start to do more. I have to disagree with this one. I think most free riders know that they are free riding. They know what other people are doing, they just don’t want to do it. Maybe in some situations this will work but in my experience free riding is pretty purposeful.
Some of these things will take a real shift in how we operate. Personally, I am not a fan of letting anything fall through the cracks (ever) so the idea of a project I am on not looking fantastic because someone else is slacking would slowly break me down as a person. But, in order to break the cycle of free riding, we have to be willing to let other people screw up knowing that we did our part. A crucial piece of this puzzle is accountability. If it is clear who was supposed to do what and the free rider faces no consequences; that creates a variety of problems:
Motivational problem: Why do all the work if the people who slack face no repercussions? Or worse yet, if the slackers are rewarded the same as the rest of the people who actually performed (i.e. everyone gets the same “merit” raise)? That is exceptionally demotivating to the actual contributors and signals to the free riders that they are doing just fine.
Organizational culture problem: Not calling out bad behavior is a great way to create a toxic work environment. If companies aren’t addressing free riders, what else is being ignored? Turning a blind eye will not go unnoticed by employees. Their frustration will fester and that is hard to turn around.
Communication problem: If someone on your team is free riding you have to say something. It’s a bummer to feel like you are tattling on an adult but if they don’t do the work, someone will have to and it might be you.
Management problem: Leaders should be aware of the employees that aren’t pulling their weight. If they don’t see this it’s because they aren’t paying close enough attention, the free rider is also a bullshitter who convinces them how much they do, it just started happening, or no one has told them.
Efficiency problem: Free riders slow down processes. This impacts the team’s ability to accomplish tasks which then costs the organization money.
I was super interested to read that free riding actually increases the closer groups are to the end of a project. That’s no good! The thought is that everyone is pushing to meet the deadline so people may feel “entitled” to give themselves a little bit of a break. That is exceptionally annoying to the people doing the work and I think that annoyance sometimes leads to just sharing the bread we made. Letting everyone have a piece is easier than listening to the team members/farm animals bitch. We know they didn’t earn a piece. They know they didn’t earn a piece. But the difference is that they don’t care. They feel entitled to the bread for whatever reason (proximity to the bread making process?) and pitch a fit when they don’t get to reap the benefits of other’s work. Maybe quiet quitting is just free riding in a fancy new outfit. Who’s to say?
This is the most time I have ever spent thinking about chicken and I am not done yet. The next blog is all about the story of Henny Penny. While I finish writing it I leave you with this list of the top 15 fancy chickens as well as this:
Just look at that marvelous chicken!!
*While there I went to the Caminito del Rey trail in Malaga. It had not yet been restored and was terrifying because parts of the path were straight up missing. In the nearby town we stopped for lunch and I didn’t remember the translation for one of the words on the menu. When I asked the waiter what it was he bleated at me. It was a goat (chivo). I ate it. Gross.
**This is something that has really been annoying me lately. While I have been doing research about women at work it has become increasingly apparent that, in order for things to change, we have to make them happen. We did not cause these issues. We are impacted by these issues. Yet, we have to take our time and skills to help fix the issues. It’s bullshit. It feels like being the sober person cleaning up the barf from your drunk friend. You didn’t barf so why are you dealing with this? Because your friend is drunk. She is incapable of cleaning up without making an even bigger mess. So you step in, lay her down, take off her shoes, and force her to take Advil and drink some water even though she keeps yelling that she wants to eat PANCAKES and go back to the bar. I guess sometimes business organizations are like our drunk friends.