The Little Red Hen Rule
Are you familiar with Dunbar’s Number? It’s a well-known sociology study which attempted to determine how large a group can get before social relationships begin to break down. The widely accepted number is 150. The theory is that an organization or company exceeding the number 150 has reached the point where relationships, and thus, communication, and quite possibly, productivity will begin to fall apart. Cliques form, focus on common goals are lost. People pursue their own agendas. Trust is weakened. Even if you have a strong management system, the success or failure of the organization rests on the competence and skill of a few individuals, who are constantly torn between keeping the focus of the organization as a whole, and keeping their subordinates happy. It becomes impossible for those in charge to know what’s going on in every segment of the employee population.
A few facts:
The U.S. Federal Government employs an estimated 2.5 million people. In 2009, Ohio Senator Brown Voinovich was responsible for an earmark that allocated nearly $1.3 million for solid oxide fuel cell systems development for the Rolls Royce automobile. (You can find a pork barrel spending database at the following link: http://www.cagw.org/). Rolls Royce is an ultra-luxury automobile maker that originated in Great Britain. The average cost of a Rolls Royce is $400,000. A fuel cell is used to convert chemicals from fuel, usually hydrogen, into electricity to power a car motor. The Rolls Royce earmark was categorized under ”Energy & Water” spending.
Beyond the obvious REALLY??!, lies the larger question. If we are going to spend money to study the viability of fuel cells in the development of electric motors, why the hell are we spending it on an uber-swanky car that only the “one percent” can afford to drive? Why not put that money into the development of your average mini-van, something that real people are actually using, every day? Nobody takes their kids to school, commutes to work, and picks up the groceries in a stinking Rolls Royce.
If you buy the idea of the 150 rule (or even a 150,000 rule!), is it any wonder our government is out of control and failing miserably?
I have always wanted a really big garden–the kind I grew up with–with row after row of lush, thriving vegetables. I had dreams of perfect soil, no pests, enormous harvests. The problem is, I’ve never had a place to put a garden like that. And besides, I lack the practical and somewhat mystical skills required to make something like that happen. I brought up the idea of a community garden with a couple of neighbors one day and they liked the idea, but everyone admitted it would require a lot of work, and it would be a challenge to convince others to help. I joked with one friend, it would be like that old story, “The Little Red Hen,” who asks everyone in the barnyard for help preparing the wheat for bread and when none of them come forward, does all the work herself. In the end, when the smell of the fresh bread fills the barnyard, all the animals come expecting a slice. But the hen shares it with no one but her own chicks. The moral, of course, is that no those who refuse to help should reap no reward.
Does the 150 rule, then, work the opposite way, too? If too few people are on board, is a project doomed to failure? Possibly. But, if I take any wisdom from the little red hen, it is this: The power of one is an amazing thing to behold.
Think about this. Most successful, worthwhile endeavors happen because one person took it upon him or herself to make it happen. That bread would have never gotten made had the hen, upon witnessing the lazy indifference of her peers, decided to just take it easy. She couldn’t. She had chicks to feed. Necessity won out.
I have to wonder, though, if the hen had just been a single gal, would she have forged ahead with the all-important bread making?
I like to think she would have. There’s something just plain inspiring about the little red hen. She didn’t give in to negative thinking. It would have been real easy to say to herself, “Well, this is a waste of time. There’s no way I can do all this by myself.”
Yes, we live in a world that fails and stumbles upon its ventures when too many people get their hands in them, but on the flip side of mismanagement, incompetence, and dysfunction, is the power of one. And while, one person can make a stupid, detrimental decision (Rolls Royce earmark), I still believe in the ability of one person to make a positive difference–not just a difference, but an impact. One person can make something work, and work again when it’s broken.
Has a small child ever walked up to you dragging a fishing pole, a tumbleweed of tangled line in his hands? Have you felt the utter panic when he/she asks, ever-so-sweetly, “Can you?”
Well, can you? If it is possible to follow a thread through the hundred gnarly knots and terrible twists of a snagged fishing line, isn’t anything possible? The fact is, 149 helpers are not going to get that line untangled any faster or better than the steady fingers and cognitive focus of one person.
Now that I think about it, the snagged line is a good metaphor for where our government is right now. A singular vision exists; it just got pulled in too many directions. Where is that one person, the nimble-fingered hero we need? The one that will get that vision strung back on the pole so we can get back to fishing?
Perhaps those running for public office should endure the fishing line test (it’s a good indicator of so many things, patience and determination topping the list). Just put them in a room with a big old ball of a mess, and let them unravel it. Maybe, just maybe, faced with a seemingly impossible task, our potential leaders would be fired up by the impassioned purpose that only the power of one can ignite. Most people, upon setting their mind to a task, will stop at little to accomplish it. Maybe a colossal cluster has the potential to bring out the best in all of us. Call it the Little Red Hen rule.
