University of the Fraser Valley: Trust

(First things first: Thank you to all those who sent their kind words; it has been a rough week, and it means a lot to me.)

Trust. It is an interesting construct. Think about it. Trust is the foundation of civil society.

You trust that your doctor is not prescribing you rat poison, that the engineer knows something about building bridges, that your pilot is not drunk. You trust that your waiter did not spit into your soup, that public servants are not petty thieves (1), that the other driver abides by the STOP sign. You trust that the lawyer is not padding the bill, that your friend is not betraying you, that the zookeeper locked the tiger cage. Even the heroin addict must trust that there is heroin in the syringe, not fentanyl.

As an employee, you trust that if your work is good, you will keep your job (2). My employment was terminated "without cause" on 22 Jan 2019. But I lost trust in my employer much earlier. But when?

It's hard to say. But looking back I would say it was in early October 2018.

On 10 Oct 2018, a trusted U.B.C. colleague and I were discussing U.F.V.'s recent purchase of the Finnegan's Pub property for $9.85 million, and the donation by the sellers to U.F.V. of $1.125 million, and that in 2017 B.C. Assessment had assessed the Finnegan's Pub property at only $3.1 million (3).

My U.B.C. colleague was adamant that the public should know about this. I told him that all the information was in the public domain (4), and that the hallways at U.F.V. were full of talk about it (5). I also told him that while as a public servant my duty is to the public, I would not want to take on this project for two reasons: First, I would be one of the first suspects. And second, I don't lie, and I wanted honest deniability on my side when I walk into my sacking meeting.

In short, by 10 Oct 2018, I already thought that a sacking was in the offing.

Other people have suggested that my head came on the chopping block the day I dared to defend my former supervisor Ms. G.. And that it is that day that I should have lost trust in U.F.V.'s administration. The day was 23 May 2018.

To be sure, Ms. G. was a tough boss, sometimes a difficult boss. But I come from a country where failure to speak up for fellow citizens has led to unspeakable tragedy. Consequently, a long time ago I decided to always speak up for the weaker party. 

On 1 May 2018, Dr. Joanne MacLean became the new president of the University of the Fraser Valley. On 22 May, she terminated the employment of Ms. G.. On 23 May, she called me into her office for a short meeting regarding bureaucratic formalities. Before I left, I handed President MacLean my letter titled "In defence of [Ms. G.]".

This was the last direct interaction I would ever have with President MacLean, except for a previously booked twenty-minute meet-and-greet two days later where the air was thick and my letter was unmentioned.

Maybe this letter did seal my fate. (Would I write it again? Of course.)

So yes, it was either around 10 October when I lost my trust in U.F.V.'s administration, or 23 May when I should have lost it.

Or was it earlier? …

NOTES AND REFERENCES

(1) https://www.leg.bc.ca/content/CommitteeDocuments/41st-parliament/LAMC/2019-01-21/2019-01-21_SpeakersReport.pdf (Accessed: 31 Jan 2019)

(2) I will not bore you with details, but I have assembled a formidable group of individuals at the Career Centre. Over the past ten years, we worked, we laughed, and we cried together. You will find not a single department at U.F.V. that is working together as well as the people of the Career Centre. No exaggeration.

(3) Imagine you are the Vice President, Cars and Donations at ABC University and your job is to buy cars and bring in donations. Imagine that one day you see this old Hyundai Pony, and you really like this Hyundai Pony, and you find its owner and you ask: "How much for that Hyundai Pony?" And the owner says: "$1,000." And you say: "What if I give you $100,000, and you donate $98,000 back to ABC University, and so we both win?" And the owner says: "Okay."

(4) https://blogs.ufv.ca/blog/2018/09/ufv-purchases-former-finnegans-property/, https://blogs.ufv.ca/blog/2018/10/esposito-family-donates-1-125-million-to-ufv-to-support-scholarships-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fjVT1ehLWg3ChfPLk20aTIFTgn0DLtcX/view (All accessed: 31 Jan 2019). Direct online look-up for the Finnegan's Pub property through the B.C. Assessment website ceased some time after the transfer of the property to the University of the Fraser Valley.

(5) The mystery was not the bystander effect -- "Everybody knows; nobody acts." --, a psychological effect administrations can usually rely on. The mystery was that U.F.V.'s administration did not seem to care about the bad optics.

University of the Fraser Valley, good bye and good luck.

[UPDATE: 28 Jan 2019, 14:00: I just received a call from one of U.F.V.'s lawyers urging me to take down this LinkedIn article. I declined. However, in order to avoid "misunderstandings", I have changed footnote (4).]

(This is odd. In my forty or so LinkedIn articles I never mentioned my workplace even once. I deal in universals, not particulars; that's why. But the stronger party usually controls the message, which, as we have learned from the Trump White House, is not necessarily equal to telling the truth. In any case ...) 

The University of the Fraser Valley could be a good little university.

I wrote a draft of this article on 15 December last year. My annual raise didn't come through with the 14 Dec 2018 pay, and the posturing around this issue sounded very much like an overture to one of the underhanded sackings that have become the hallmark of U.F.V. (1).

Everything at U.F.V. is fine, until the day it is not. No warning, no heart, no soul (2).

And I was right. Today, my unsuspecting colleagues will receive an email stating: "Please be advised that Michael Baumann is no longer with UFV."

I was terminated "without cause", which is a euphemism for "We couldn't find anything wrong with your performance, and believe us, we tried." I was told that the termination had to do with "fit", which is a euphemism for "We don't like the way you think about things."

There is some irony here. You see, in its visioning process the U.F.V. administration proclaims (3): "Inclusivity: We welcome everyone, showing consideration and respect for all experiences and ideas." (4)

Besides, who cares what a mid-level bureaucrat thinks. I am being paid not to hold opinions but to execute orders (5).

(I do admit that my confidence in my former supervisor was never great and for good reason. In her previous position she used to be the chief stonewaller of collaborations between the Career Centre and the College of Arts. This makes trust difficult. Still, it is the job of a leader to earn trust, not the job of a subordinate to develop trust out of thin air. To be fair, she did a good job working through a major budget consolidation.)

That said, it's hard to get sacked.

It is harder still when the corporate machine forbids proper good byes between people who worked together, laughed together, and cried together for the past ten years. I am not sure that this adds a lot of credibility to a vision of "building community"(3). Enough said.

With this posting I want to thank all the competent faculty, staff, and students I had the joy to work with. You know who you are.

The University of the Fraser Valley could be a good little university.

Keep up the good fight!

NOTES AND REFERENCES

(1) Mr. N., Mr. B., Mr. O., Ms. S., Mr. L., another Mr. L., Mr. A., Ms. G., Dr. D., I, ..., You? Some may take comfort in the knowledge that some of the people on this list were instrumental in somebody else's sacking. It would be a false comfort.

(2) As James Comey put it in his 2018 book: "[Ethical leadership] is about building workplaces where standards are high and fear is low." From my observations I conclude that U.F.V. seems to be about the exact opposite.

(3) https://blogs.ufv.ca/visioning/2019/01/11/town-hall-values-and-mission/ (Accessed: 24 Jan 2019)

(4) To be honest, I don't know what to do with this statement -- think [other ideas and opinions that may not be aligned with acceptable social norms].

(5) Thinking back, in November 2018 I did express a strong opinion on the treatment of Indigenous peoples, stating that it is high time to do something about the injustice, not sit around in yet another workshop full of people who are NOT INDIGENOUS. This is the third betrayal of the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

Leadership: Nature red in tooth and claw

I am a zoologist by training, and as such my expertise lies in animal behaviour and system dynamics. I know little about the psychology of leadership, except for a couple of decades of informal observation. That's why two weeks ago I asked this question on LinkedIn:

Given that LinkedIn is so rich in leadership wisdoms -- some good, many trite -- tell me, why is the world so poor in good leaders?

The results are disappointing. In spite of 175 or so views, few tried to answer my question. But then many employees are LinkedIn with their bosses and may therefore be reluctant to attract attention to themselves (1).

In any case, I myself must give the question a shot.

PROPOSITION #1: I AM WRONG.

This is the null hypothesis, if you will, and it is always a possibility: There is nothing interesting going on, the world is in fact not poor but rich in good leaders. And it is just I who wouldn't recognize good leadership if it hit me in the face.

But why then would the world be so rich in leadership advice (2)? If good leadership is a ubiquitous phenomenon, why are people spending time writing books, developing courses, or designing websites about it. We usually don't spend intellectual effort on things that are trivial (3).

That said, one human's dream is another human's nightmare.

PROPOSITION #2: BAD LEADERS DON'T LEARN.

I have yet to meet the bad leader who doesn't think she/he is a good leader. And if you think you are a good at something, you wouldn't pick up a book or take a course to teach you the basics. There are two forces at play, both revealed in a study by Kruger and Dunning in 1999 (4).

First: "[T]hose with limited knowledge in a domain suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it."

Second: "[O]ne would have thought negative feedback would have been inevitable at some point in their academic career. So why had they not learned? One reason is that people seldom receive negative feedback about their skills and abilities from others in everyday life[.]"

Promotion may lead to the delusion of infallibility. True information rarely makes it up the chain of command. How many people do you know who told their bosses that they are morons, or monsters, or marionettes?

PROPOSITION #3: GOOD LEADERSHIP IS HARD.

What is good leadership, anyway? My incomplete list is this, but make your own: 

A good leader is competent and diligent in work and judgement.

A good leader is confident, self-reflective, and humble.

A good leader is honest and transparent.

A good leader is open to criticism and ideas.

A good leader is aware what is going on in the organization.

A good leader gives credit and takes blame.

A good leader is kind, and tough, and fair, and can laugh about herself/himself.

A good leader builds workplaces "where standards are high and fear is low" (5).

A good leader knows her/his subordinates and protects them when necessary.

...

Nobody is perfect, and that is all right. It takes talent, and education, and experience to get better at leadership. None of this matters, however, if your behaviour is not genuine.

And one thing is certain: If your natural inclination is to be selfish or lazy, to lie and to hide things, to be nasty or disinterested, leadership is not for you.

PROPOSITION #4: LEADERSHIP -- NATURE RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW

The question is this: How do so many bad leaders reach and maintain their positions?

This is a problem of natural selection, or rather unnatural selection: The character traits that cause people to move up the hierarchy may be very different from the character traits that make people good leaders (6).

I will leave it to you to explore which character traits and professional skills lead to promotion at your organization -- competence/sycophancy, humility/arrogance, honesty/pretence/scheming, realism/unbridled optimism, et cetera.

It may be argued that it is half a miracle that a few good people make it to the top. Not necessarily. Good leaders will hire good people and sack bad ones. Bad leaders will hire bad people and lose good ones (7). Consequently, we should expect to see in nature two extremes, meritocracies and kakistocracies.

Does that mean that we may be condemned to suffer bad leaders (8). I am not sure. Whether they like it or not, leaders usually feel obliged to agree that leaders should be held to the highest standards.

Let's start holding our leaders to the highest standards. Accountability should scare at least the worst people.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

(1) I believe it is fair to say that in the history of humankind people were usually shot for the questions they asked, not for the answers they gave. Still, silence is golden.

(2) As of 17 Jan 2019, amazon.com lists over 60,000 books for "leadership", there are an unbelievable 23,853 groups on LinkedIn that contain the word "leadership", and a Google search on "good leadership" returned "About 4,560,000 results".

(3) One should never underestimate the capacity of universities to develop programs in about anything. As Robert A. Heinlein has his protagonist say in his 1961 novel: "But when they began handing out doctorates in comparative folk dancing and advanced flyfishing, I became too stinkin' proud to use the title. I won't touch watered whiskey and take no pride in watered down degrees." 1961, Ladies and Gentlemen, 1961.

(4) J. Kruger and D. Dunning (1999), Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77(6): 1121 - 1134.

(5) "Ethical leadership … is about building workplaces where standards are high and fear is low." J. Comey (2018), A Higher Loyalty: xi.

(6) "But what we need is that the only men to get power should be men who do not love it[.]" Plato (ca. 375 B.C.E.), The Republic: The Simile of the Cave: 521b.

(7) It is the privilege of leaders to hire their subordinates. But we can also imagine a world where the workforce elects their leader. In fact, that is what we are doing in representative democracies.

(8) Is it better to have a bad leader or none at all? With the emergence of new hierarchies where everybody is a leader and few do the actual work, something to think about.