Das ist eine totale Scheißshow
(4-mInute Read)
My grandpa used “colorful language” at times to make a point. He would speak in German when he didn’t want us grandkids to hear him curse in English. He would have used the title phrase in referring to the leadership situation I’m writing about today that holds some powerful lessons for nonprofits.
Remember the 2001 movie Conspiracy based on a true story of Nazi leadership? Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci, and Colin Firth were the main characters who demonstrated in spades what happens when corruption becomes embedded in leadership, and how an institution can be transformed from the inside… creating a totale Scheißshow.
In 1942 Senior Nazi officials coordinated what they called the “Final Solution” to systematically exterminate Europe’s Jews. The movie has no battle scenes, and the story takes place almost entirely around a conference table. The leadership group is made up of lawyers, bureaucrats, military officers, and civil servants discussing genocide as casually as you or I would discuss our organization’s budget.
The dehumanization, pure evil and annihilation of an entire race seems inconceivable on its face… or is it?
Here’s a profound and chilling lesson: Sometime organizations are destroyed not by “the enemies at the gate,” but by leaders who hollow out the institution from within.
I know of a Midwest university whose board of directors became the “play thing” for several highly controlling and conniving board members who wanted to control the direction of the institution. Aided by an outdated governance model and disengaged stakeholders, the board found themselves being manipulated by a few highly influential and dominant board members that, when their actions became known to the public, infuriated the majority of the alumni and donor base.
The board was not overthrown by infiltrators. The destruction of alumni and donor relationships came about willfully as those few board members redirected the institutions values and mission toward their own ideology. The rot came from the inside… all conducted within the bylaws and policies of the institution.
In the Conspiracy movie:
- the courts, police, government agencies and much of societies structures remained in place, but their purposes were all changed to align with the leader’s vision.
- Lying, normalizing evil, and planting chaotic messages were all intentional… resulting in destroyed trust for what had once been the trusted institutions of government, media, religion and higher learning.
- The Nazi leaders spoke in dehumanizing ways (i.e. imprisonment, starvation, physical and sexual abuse, and genocide) as if it were just routine activities to run the institution.
- Second-level leaders were valued for ambition and unflinching loyalty versus experience, creativity, and character. Any second guessing or challenging of the leaders was seen as treasonous.
- Power of the citizens (voting, public assembly, freedom of speech) was abolished and placed in the hands of just the privileged few.
- The moral collapse of the leaders spread like a cancer to other institutions. (Ex: Most of Germany’s religious leaders lost their spine and voice out of fear and became puppets of the regime.)
In Conspiracy, Reinhard Heydrich was the central character. He was not an infiltrator, but a person whose lust for power and warped sense of reality helped him rise through the system towards increasingly destructive ends. What’s the old phrase? Power Corrupts: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Make no mistake about it. He and his colleagues were powerful, influential and believed their cause was just. They literally scared people and institutions into silence and submission. And, at the same time they were rotting from the insider out.
QUESTION TO PONDER: What is to be done by those who still have character and a moral compass while a small faction gains control, attempting to change (or is successful at changing) society’s core values from the inside while preserving the outward structures?
This all sounds familiar to me. How about you?
My next blog will focus on the vital steps a board of directors can take to avoid these pitfalls.
Please share this with your friends who are nonprofit leaders.
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This blog shares perspectives on how you could create new story endings that are filled with meaning, power and hope. I facilitate culture-changing processes through keynotes, workshops and consulting that help organizations achieve greater impact. Also, I provide leadership coaching to help executives and aspiring leaders become the fullest expression of who they’re intended to be. If you’re looking for coaching or consulting services, contact me at contactbrianbecker@gmail.com.
#nonprofitleadership #vision #boardgovernance #boardengagement #nonprofitstrategy
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