Beyond Victimization

his picture was drawn by a woman who was a member of two warring organizations who had met for a two-day planning session. It shows a person caught in a vise that is being tightened by the employees of each of the organizations.

When the creator of the drawing lifted it up, there was a hush of recognition across the group. "This is me in the vise," she said. "But it could be any of us, really. We are all taking turns. All of these people are just waiting for their turn. When we aren't getting screwed, we are busy helping to turn the ropes and screwing each other."

The emotional content of this picture is powerful. Verbally, this group had described their problem as too much work and not enough resources or support. The picture shows more of the story. It reveals how everyone in the group contributed to their own misery.

It is rare to talk to a government employee who doesn't feel as if his or her hands are tied. Many feel like victims of the system-trapped by legislation, led by fools or surrounded by idiots and predators. Silence is the perfect breeding ground for this victim mentality. People who are forbidden to discuss their piece of the picture lose their curiosity to discuss anyone else's piece-much less the bigger picture.

Without genuine dialogue, most people believe that their dangerous truths are really true. Training them to pretend that they don't see what they think they see just makes things worse. For this group, continued sermons preaching cooperation and empowerment only increased their cynicism. They needed to speak their own dangerous truths before they could embrace this bigger picture.

Other drawings from this group showed more one-sided views of the situation. One depicted a garden, with one manager as the sun and another as a cloud. Another person drew a boat splitting down the middle as the two divisions rowed in different directions, with one group looking happy and the other sad. But the picture of the vise holds up a mirror that is big enough to show a deeper truth. It reveals that all of the problems weren't simply caused by "good" and "bad" senior managers. Even if senior management had provided the vise, it was the people in the room who had turned the screws on each other. Those who embraced the message of this drawing embraced responsibility for improving their lot-and relinquished their victim status.

Not everyone in the session was moved by this picture. Some people clung too tightly to their status as victims. The directors of the two organizations represented at the meeting were noticeably absent from this effort to air dangerous truths-each presumably boycotting the day for their own reasons. Another dangerous truth is that some people don't want things to improve.