No Excuses!

The “no excuses” attitude screams capitalist business man, while at the same time reflects military sentiment.  In life, there are legitimate reasons for every single thing that happens.  A socialist attitude seeks to understand those reasons and search for an appropriate solution while taking those reasons into consideration.  If a man living in a remote cabin in the mountains hasn’t been to the doctor in two years, one does not simply tell the man he has done wrong, but seeks to understand the reasons behind his action (or in this case lack of action).  Perhaps there is no road to get to a doctor, perhaps he cannot walk, perhaps he has no phone service, perhaps he has had a stroke and has no use of one side of his body, perhaps his body is perfectly functional but he spends all his waking hours in search of food and maintaining his cabin.  Telling the man that he should simply go to the doctor and give no excuses is a poor solution to the problem, as failing to target the cause of the problem will lead only to a non-solution.  Understanding the cause of the problem is essential to understanding the problem itself as well as the most effective solution.  It is laziness on the part of the observer/researcher/government to simply blame the man without looking further into his situation and understanding his needs and means.  Similar to the Guatemalan Maya predicament following the earthquake of 1976, NGO’s who came in to build houses without understanding the needs of the local people were unsuccessful in coaxing the natives to reside in said houses.  They did not seek how or why, but rather what: houses.  These houses turned out to be contrary to the religious beliefs of the natives as they faced to the east which the natives connected to death (Earle & Simonelli, Uprising of Hope, pg 59). The houses in this case resulted in a non-solution. 

As Dr. Kimball of UNF would say, they were simply asking “what” questions.  It takes more insight, implies more work, and requires more patience to ask “why” questions, but leads to a more efficient and comprehensive solution.  Corporations that simply ask what, i.e. results, generally have less employee loyalty and greater environmental footprint, whereas those which ask why, i.e. seek to understand the reality behind the numbers, will seek out solutions such as improving employee conditions in order to create the what they are essentially pursuing.  They are likely to take different paths to reach the results, i.e. organic farming versus factory farming, Zappos vs. Amazon, Mac vs. PC, Publix vs. WinnDixie, Google vs. Yahoo.  Some of these companies may not be fortune 200 hundred companies, but they are more likely to see company longevity benefits as well as environmental and societal benefits.  In the end, society and environments support business, so these companies will be the winners in the long run, despite potentially failing in the sprint.