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Work Avoidance
- Peter Kaldor
Growing vision and direction is far from straightforward. There are often many obstacles, some to do with the
changing landscape of our society, others to do with our own fear of the unknown. Still others are about us as
individuals, our own needs, agendas and expectations.

High tide at High moor

With me on an early trip in South West Tasmania was someone I held in very high esteem, because he was a PhD student,
particularly impressive to someone in his first few year at university. The first few days were beautiful weather, breathtaking
views at each turn across the Western Arthurs - alpine lakes and amazing rock formations. In perfect weather we arrived late
one evening at High Moor possible the most remote spot on the journey.

At 2am the weather turned dramatically as a south westerly gale, driving rain and sleet cut across the open moor. Fairly
inadequate tents (old A-frames!) were being blown everywhere. It taught me a great deal about the kind of tents that could
provide safe havens in such conditions. With the rain pouring down those of us in the tent I did what I could to stay dry. My
PhD friend was more concerned to have his sleep simply hoping the problem would go away.

By morning the entire moor was awash with water. In our tent I was a little wet, and my friend awoke from his good night in a
sleeping bag that was saturated. His inattention was to cost. We spent the entire day holed up in as wind and sleet blasted
across. Much of the time we were holding the tent from blowing away. In mid-morning one of the tents had been blown to
pieces and one of its resident came to join us.

By evening the storm was still howling unabated. Another night in what had now become a very sodden situation. My friend
tried to sleep in his wet sleeping bag in a rainjacket hoping (in vain) that it might provide some warmth. Finally the night was
spent with three of us tightly wrapped against each other inside the two remaining dry sleeping bags zipped together.
Needless to say, sleep was in short supply! As an aside, this was my first experience of sleeping with a girl. A not altogether
romantic experience.

We survived our shared misadventure on High Moor but it had further effects on our progress. The following day dawned
better and, throwing all our wet gear into rucksacks left quickly. Our haste caused one of our party to twist her ankle and
getting off the range became a priority. All up we walked for 16 hours, arriving about midnight in the valley to dry ourselves
out. Our attempt to cross the Western Arthurs was cut short…vigilance matters.

It is always tempting to cut corners. Poor leaders cut corners because they are too tired, or it is too difficult to do things
properly, or because they do not recognise the importance of care. Work avoidance can seem the easiest way in the short
term…but have serious long term consequences. In our tent on High Moor we paid the price for one persons inattentively
and desire to cut corners.

Work avoidance
Leadership that grows new vision and directions will always be hard and challenging. In part his is to do with the
society in which we live and lead. But there are other importance aspects we need to understand, more to do with
human nature.

Living systems seek equilibrium, responding to stress by working to regain balance. If the human body is invaded
with bacteria, it responds to fight infection and restore health. On a hot day we sweat to maintain a constant internal
temperature. After a fire natural processes start work to regenerate that which was lost. Knocked out of equilibrium,
living systems summon a set of restorative responses (Heifitz 2000). Forces for equilibrium can pose great
challenges to those seeking new directions or possibilities.

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It is part of human nature to engage in “work avoidance” – a process of not facing up to real and serious issues that
may affect our lives, allowing ourselves to be deflected from truly living out our sense of purpose.

As individuals we engage in our own forms of personal work avoidance. We don’t face up to important questions
of personal growth because they feel too hard or scary, that we may need to own (to ourselves or others) that we
are not the person we aspire to be. We say growth is important, but often retreat to safe places to not deal with it.

Corporate work avoidance

We may also engage in corporate work avoidance. At group level work avoidance can be about not facing up to
hard questions of change and discomfort that may be required if we are to fully live out who we hope to be as a
group. In a church it may be about recognizing that to achieve our hopes as Christian people seeking to share our
faith in words and deeds with those around us we may need to make changes in how we live our lives, or aspects
of our life together that give us security and belonging but which may be confusing for others. In the wider
community it might be about recognizing that as a society we need to make sacrifices or difficult changes for the
long term wellbeing of our children and the generations that follow - we may have to face up to using less water or
other energy resources so that those that follow can live.

How often in decision-making do we engage together in various forms of corporate work avoidance. Think about
conversations that revolve around the idea of “not in my backyard”. Sure, it’s important to have that desalination
plant, that prison, that halfway house and so on … but not in my neighbourhood. We generally don’t hear a lot
about costly solutions. Politicians will offer answers that involve a minimum of pain because it is the easiest path to
re-election. So we elect them and become disgusted when problems don’t go away.

In our groups and churches it is often no different. We happily convene a meeting to set goals to reach people in
the wider community but, when conversations come to changing the look of the place we worship, how we meet or
our priorities, our personal security suddenly ensures we run away from the issues.

So in groups or meetings everywhere we start to hear comments like:

• Let’s not rush to hasty decisions.
• We need to be really sure before we do this.
• Let’s form a subcommittee to talk about this.
• Let’s find a technical solution to helps us feel
we’ve done something.
• We’ve never done it that way before
We’ve failed before, we don’t want to again
• It’s always going to be like that
• If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
• We’re too tired to do that
• Lets get things stable first

In the face of difficult issues we can set up a committee, discuss meeting procedures, deal with technical matters,
carry out research or feasibility studies. In our families we discuss trivial issues rather than dealing with more
serious matters. These are examples of corporate work avoidance. Often our processes end with stagnation and
uncertainty and, not surprisingly, discussion becomes less as the issue gets put on the back burner…because it’s
too hard.

A great deal of what we call discussion is not deeply serious in the sense that there are a11 sorts of things which are
nonnegotiable - the "undiscussables." No one mentions the undiscussables - they're just there, lying beneath the
surface, blocking deep, honest, heart-to-heart communication. …We all bring basic assumptions with us, our own
mental maps, about the meaning of life, how the world operates, our own self-interest, our country's interest, our
religious interest, and so forth. Our basic assumptions are developed from our early days, our teachers, our family,
what we read. We hold these assumptions so deeply that we become identified with them, and when these
assumptions are challenged, we defend them with great emotion. Quite often, we do this unconsciously.
- Joseph Jaworski (1996, 110)
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Strategies to ensure Work Avoidance
So you want to engage in work avoidance? The following may be a few helpful tips:
1. Find a scapegoat or a common enemy, someone we can all hate. Often useful in government when things get
difficult, if we can blame a person or group for everything it shifts the spotlight from us. Groups are particularly easy to
loathe…and fear of them can generate for us short term support, deflecting everybody from deeper questions. Good
targets are indigenous people, new migrants, the unemployed or young people. In our churches we can blame those
who think differently, do not have sufficient respect for our positions or our history, or even the hardheartedness of the
communities we are part of. Really easy and a great tactic for work avoidance.
2. Point quickly to the potential stress that facing these deeper issues might cause: An excellent strategy for work
avoidance - pull away from issues because of the pain that they may create. In politics don’t put issues on the table that
might lose votes. In church meetings jump quickly to take difficult issues off the table because of the dissension it might
cause. At home don’t deal with difficult issues in case others get unhappy.
3. There is too much invested in how we do things to consider changing it: Organisations invest a lot in how they are
and there are costs investing in new possibilities. A good reason for not moving forward…and a good work avoidance
strategy.
4. Look for a strong leader who offers pain-free solutions: We have a problem. Let’s find someone who can solve it
for us without much personal cost. Maybe there is an expert out there somewhere….lets look see if a super hero comic
book character is available …
5. Avoid difficult conversations: Don’t engage in conversations that may bring up difficult questions, pain, anxiety or
conflict. Make your first and over-riding priority harmony rather than authenticity.
6. Put it in the Too Hard basket: When things are difficult form a committee, ask for an external report, set up a lengthy
consultation process designed to never reach a conclusion, create a report saying nothing which looks like it has dealt
with the issue, list the problems without responding to them. Always works to buy time…
7. Find excuses to put it off: There is a never-ending list of potential reasons for not dealing with issues to buy time,
place the problem in the hands of your successor, your children or their children’s children. Try the quick and unthinking
use of sentences like: “It isn’t the right time”, “We don’t have the right resources”, “Things might be better next year”,
“We need more data”, “We need a committee to look into it further”.

Do we ever engage in any of the above? It is vital we think more deeply about what we do. Sometimes it is
important to slow down processes of change, to listen to a wide variety of people, to set up small groups or
committees to deal with issues…if the purpose is truly to take forward a group or community towards facing and
dealing with difficult possibly life-threatening issues. What we need to do at every step, however, is to ask
ourselves what are the real purposes of a committee, report or decision and is it taking us towards or away from
addressing important though difficult questions?

Leadership has to deal with work avoidance - corporate and personal!

Leadership that makes a difference will minimize work avoidance - corporate and personal. In times of rapid
change and permanent white water the challenge of leadership is to help groups of people - families,
organizations, churches, local communities, societies - develop a positive vision for the future and strategies for
getting there. Such a process may be harder initially but longer term it yields far different results. It will invite us
on a journey of discovering who we are called to be and where we wish to go, calling others to be part of that
vision and journeying together towards our destination. It will help groups or individuals face what is really going
on in their situation and discover hope and new possibilities.

A counsellor will help individuals move beyond work avoidance by continuing to ask deep and significant
questions that provoke a person to think about why things are happening the way they are, what their contribution
to it is, what may be involved in going beyond it, and the resources they have to achieve it. In a group or church
leadership will invite people to identify their central purposes and how they are moving towards more effectively
living them out, including facing up to deeper issues about how we may need to grow and change in order for it to

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happen. In our society such leadership may mean holding up important questions or goals and inviting
constructive conversation about ways forward.

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