Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Essays

“Another visit to Bubba Jay with nothing on my mind except that I know that I will learn something from this maverick to the system. Football and most sports are win-lose. Peace is always win-win. What is the difference? We must see one in toto to find the other.”

A win-win situation is required, with no place for losing

     Maybe it was the expensive cowboy hat, and the alligator boots which first set in motion a long list of observations.  I had come to visit Bubba Jay the Third for our monthly “gab sessions” when I noticed the polished Lincoln in Bubba and Hummingbird Rose’s front yard.

     It had an oversized longhorn as a hood ornament.   It was Bubba’s younger brother, Bobby Joe Jay, the semi-retired ex-athlete, crusin’ in for yearly visit.

     Well, hi-y’-all, Bobby Joe,” I greeted, “that knee still predicting the weather?”

     “I would be still playing except for that leg injury with the long doctor’s name,” he remarked with a far away airy stare.

     Then, as if by a special miracle, he gave me his best West Texas smile, “The knee is all sewed up and mended. I danced a storm at the Cattle Baron’s Ball.  In fact, I go to practice every day and play catch.”  It just hurts that I am on the outside lookin’ in.  I’m a winner and “it’s hard not to play.”

     “Your car sales are going well, you say,” said Bubba.  “Not losing there.”

     “Yeah,” Bobby Joe sighed, but it is not the same.  Business is not like football.  I have hired guns telling me that I should play for a win-win situation.  Hell, I’m used to winnin’ and losin’.  That’s the only world I know.  This new-fangled stuff about human relations and customer service, about being proactive instead of my customary reactive is driving me up the wall.”

     “Interesting metaphor for a car salesman.”  I commented.”Bobby Joe, I played football too in college.  At some time in your life winning and losing is not the same.  The world, at least the best in your business world, had moved beyond that paradigm.”

“That what? A pair of dimes?”

Shift in thinking

     A paradigm is a way of thinking about something” Bubba explained. “Paradigm shifts in the world change how we see ourselves, or world, and our actions.  The automobile replacing the horse was a paradigm shift, as was the invention and the complete domination of the telephone, television, the computer, and human relations theory,” said Bubba.

     “My dearest brother,” he continued, “you still live in a football world where players are objects. x’s and o’s.  Bobby Joe, honestly you were an expensive commodity, a high salaried piece of football meat.  When the meat was damaged, you were expendable.  I hope that changes in your business world.  By the way, coach, how do you deal with players, oops, I mean employees?”

     “What surprises me is that my people just can’t make a decision by themselves.”  Added Bobby Joe.  Then he looked at me, “How do you manage?”

Simple system

     “My system is simple,” I said. “If someone does not know anything about the job, I tell them. If they know a little bit, I show them.  If they know as much as I do, I work as a partner to get the job done.  And if they know more that I do, I get out of the way while finding them the resources to get the job done.”

     “How can you call yourself a boss?” Bobby Joe asked.  I did not have the heart to tell him that I just am part of the team.  “You can’t defeat the other team with everyone making up his own mind about what should be done,” he continued.

     “That is why your model of ‘the game” is an outdated paradigm,” said Bubba.  “We don’t call the stadium ‘a coliseum’ for no reason.  Just maybe, we are still playing Detroit Lions and Christians.”

     “But you still watch and enjoy sports,” Bobby Joy said with an edge to his voice.  That was all the opening that Bubba needed.  He told his brother that he loved to study ancient history.  The Roman Empire and the Third Reich’s times were interesting although he did not want to live then or there.

     He knew the difference between a dead paradigm and an emerging, alive one.  Great businesses today attempt to create win-win situations with stockholders, employees, clients and the community.  “I enjoy sports,” said Bubba. “I don’t live it!”

Part of myths

     I am a product of a Greco-Roman upbringing.  Winning and losing has been part of my childhood myths too.  I know Jack on the Beanstalk of corporate climbing and Little Red with the Riding Hood has to kill giant industry and the wolf in grandma’s clothes (my competitors).

   At this moment in my life, I don’t own many things.  In fact, when I leave my home on vacation, my neighbors watch my house.  I do the same for them.  We don’t need all the huffing and puffing to survive anymore.