johnmaconline

Does it make a difference if you blow the red light when nobody is around?
Would it have made a difference if the US boycotted the 1936 Berlin Olympics?
Will it make a difference if I have another beer?
Does it make a difference if we contract out this piece?
Would it have made a difference if I had made the bed?
Will it make a difference if we elect (whomever)?

Sometimes, leaders get caught up trying to answer the question of whether it makes a difference. Here’s the Cliffs Notes: the answer is always “yes.”

The question you should be trying to solve is, “To whom does this make a difference?”

I just signed up as a claimant in (yet another) class action lawsuit. This one is against Visa and MasterCard.

“The deadline for the Visa/Mastercard $5.54 billion settlement claim is approaching quickly…This settlement provides all eligible businesses the opportunity to reclaim a portion of the interchange fees paid between 2004 and 2019.”

Class action lawsuits, like many other boondoggles, are good-intentioned at their core.

The primary purpose of a class action lawsuit is to allow a group of individuals to band together and sue collectively against larger entities. If Big Evil Company has misrepresented, mischarged, or otherwise duped us little people out of what we deserve, then we can get together and stick it to the man.  

Power to the people, and whatnot.

Y’all know how it works in practice. The law firm gets a pile, and we, the claimants, get a tiny drop. 

“Hey! That’s not fair!” 

Sure it is. It’s actually the very definition of fair.

I don’t fault the law firm, nor am I bothered by the distribution. If I was duped out of $3.64, then I should be repaid $3.64. The law firm does the work on behalf of all of us. They should get paid. 

The problem is the incentive. 

It’s the Cobra Effect, the social media algorithms, and KPIs. 

We usually get what the system incentivizes.  

The pilot who successfully lands the crippled airliner gets the headlines. So does the emergency room doctor who restarts the heart of a 53-year old man.

As they should. These are extraordinary efforts that lead directly to saved lives.

Plus, it’s easy to point at “who did it.” Headlines love who did it.

What about the engineer who designed a redundant switching mechanism in the aileron control system? That system has never once failed over the lifetime of the aircraft fleet on which it has been installed for over 30 years.

What about the 53-year-old man who changed his lifestyle ten years ago and is now healthier than he was at 40?

If nothing bad or dramatic happens, it’s harder to point at who did it.

But that doesn’t mean somebody didn’t do it. As a leader, your job is to look under the covers, past the mundane, and point at who did it.

The benevolent monopoly can make life easier and better for customers. That’s why they’re benevolent.

Bell Telephone, Standard Oil, and Microsoft all were benevolent monopolies. The efficiencies of their monopolies were passed on to customers in the form of lower prices, standardized practices, and consistency in quality.

Walmart and Costco are not technically monopolies, but they kinda are, and they’re benevolent. If you’re a widget or foodstuff (and I use foodstuff in the very loosest way possible) producer, you want to be on their shelves. They are also benevolent. Consumers love both of them, mostly because of price.

But is it really better?

What innovations never see the market because they decide? What supplier doesn’t get a chance to make a difference because they can’t get in the door? What ideas never see the light of day because they don’t fit their vision?

The problem with benevolet monopolies is the same as with plain-ole monopolies.

Boeing has pedigree. SpaceX is the young upstart.

Boeing is slow and steady — do it right the first time. SpaceX fails fast and fixes it later.

Boeing conjures feelings of pride, trust, and safety. SpaceX’s CEO pisses off the public regularly.

Boeing is inclusive. SpaceX is divisive.

Currently, Boeing has stranded astronauts at the space station. SpaceX may be the one to rescue them.

Who do you want to be?

James Hetfield said that when he found Lars, he had finally found the other person who was just as committed as he was to making it work. Everybody else was just f’n around.

That’s who he was looking for. Someone else who was committed. He knew this was who he was going to hitch his wagon to, regardless of their differences.

You know the difference. You see it in others. If you’re honest with yourself, you see it in you. You know when you’re committed or just f’n around.

Commitment overrides differences. It engages complementary skill sets. It makes 1 + 1 > 2. It breeds trust. It pulls through.

Just f’n around is fine. We can’t be committed to everything in our lives all the time. Nothing wrong with that, but don’t kid yourself.

Success, whatever that looks like, requires committment — marriage, startups, bands, hockey teams, congregations, communities.

Are you committed or just f’n around?