Pick Up The Napkin

I am thrilled to bits this week.

I have had my first comments posted in response to my wit and wisdom. Thank you. Now I know that at least two people are reading this. And so I will continue to entertain, educate and enlighten. And if anyone else out there is provoked or stimulated by my words, we have the technology to allow you to share your thoughts.

Moving on. This week I want to talk about napkins.

A few months ago I was having lunch with a very very senior banker, the sort of person who asks Mr Darling directly if he might have a few billions of our money. Times were hard. And so we were sharing muffins in a well known coffee shop. There was a paper napkin, or are they serviettes, lying on the floor which my banker friend picked up. It was not his napkin. It was not his job to pick it up but as he explained to me if we all picked up the napkins that surround us, the world would be a better place.

I was struck by this. And I was reminded of this conversation after two recent incidents in my sad, unexciting and uneventful life.

In incident number 1 I was held hostage in a London gridlock for 25 minutes by a bus driver who refused to open his doors 100 yards short of the bus stop. It was against the rules even if we were not going anywhere fast. An arthritic snail with a dodgy hip and a zimmer frame could have got to that bus stop before the bus.

In incident number 2 my local bank branch refused a request to open another till even though there was 30 minute queue. Seemingly though the staff were there, some computer system somewhere had declared that at that time of the day only one till, not two, was considered necessary.

I have invented a new counting game and I play it every morning. And this is a game the whole family can play. I awaken either to the svelte tones of Radio 4 or the more matey voices on Radio 5, dependent on whether I want posh or provincial, and I count in any 15 minute period the number of times I hear someone asking the government to do something or to spend more money to solve a problem. My record so far is 12.Think about it that is almost one request for the ‘them’ to do something per minute. That is staggering.

Why do we think the people who run our government have the answers? Indeed you would think that by now we would know that government might have all the answers, but not necessarily the right ones. Why should ‘them’ be any better at solving our problems than we can ourselves? Why do we ask ‘them’ to pick up the napkin when in many cases we can do it ourselves?

Are we losing the ability to pick up the napkin? Does the welfare state mean we all lose our sense of responsibility? Does the nanny state mean we forget how to take personal accountability? Following orders has become our favourite pastime. Passing the buck the best selling game this Christmas. Looking the other way is now an Olympic sport.

I worry we are creating a culture of dependency which is trapping us all. A culture where we have rules, systems and processes for much of our lives. And we have all become dependent on these for our decision making to the extent that we are losing the will and the ability to think for ourselves. We have become afraid to pick up the napkin. We do things right but do we do the right things? And if we don’t our customers, our businesses, our communities all suffer.

As someone far brighter than me, and I know that does not narrow the field down much, once said ‘Rules are to the interpretation of wise men and the obedience of fools’. My sentiments exactly.

There are many people out there who have seen the napkin and picked it up without asking for or waiting for government help. Chad Varah picked up the napkin and founded the Samaritans to help the lonely, the suicidal and the depressed. John Bird himself homeless, picked up the napkin, and founded the Big Issue to help the homeless. And across the country in the 19th century ordinary men and women, like you and me, though I am sure you are not ordinary, picked up the napkin in their locality and founded the building society movement to let them buy and own their own home. And so on. I dread to think how these fine bodies and organisations might work if they were state-run.

And it is not just on the big issues that we can make a difference. There are plenty of small napkins out there too, or maybe they should be called tissues. Whatever. How many times do we come across instances in shops, offices, customer service centres (an oxymoron of ever there was one) where people fail to use common sense because the rules, the systems, the processes don’t or won’t allow it.

This may surprise you but, whisper it, I am far from perfect. I too have from time to time managed to avoid picking up the napkin. I too have practiced the popular art of sticking my head in the sand. I have passed the buck. I have delegated responsibility. I have passed on personal accountability. But wouldn’t it be great if we could create a generation, a nation, of napkin picker-uppers? What do you think?

And so this week I want to make Napkin Week. And to call on all Cicero Speaks devotees, instead of looking to government, bosses or them, whoever them might be, to pick up the napkin, to take responsibility upon ourselves and to make life better for ourselves, for our families, for our customers, for our colleagues, for our communities, for society. Let us all pledge that from this day forward we will take responsibility for picking up the napkin. And let our rallying cry be ‘Seek forgiveness, not permission’.

Can we do it? In words of my favourite management guru, Bob the Builder, ‘yes, we can.’

Let me know how you get on. And please share with me the napkin you picked up this week. And next week I will let you know how I got on. Deal? I want us to beat last week’s record of two posts. Surely there are more than two people reading my fine words. Aren’t there?

Have a great week.

Ave atque vale. Et este fortunatus