The problem with ‘our way or the highway’

Here’s a little trick I want you to try.

Walk into your next team project meeting and say to everyone there;

“Fuck you lot. By my calculations you’re not only ignorant, but determined to see us fail. From now on you’re not getting a say – I’ll be telling you exactly how to work and if you don’t like it then too bad.”

Next, try and get your team to work with you to achieve something great.

You wouldn’t do this obviously, because that would be insane. Whether leading a group or just an active participant, when you throw your weight around and call the people you need to work with incompetent, you’re unlikely to inspire them to amazing things. Start with threats and shut down reasonable discussion and you’re on a fast track to a revolt, unlikely to get you where you hoped to go.

So why then, do council animal management departments so often use this exact approach when they interact with their communities? Rather than work with them to inspire, they take an adversarial approach that blames and berates.

Frankston Council is the latest offender. After limited success with the ‘very big stick’ approach, they’ve busted out the ‘incredibly big stick’, stomping all over both the feelings of the community’s pet owners and the rights of local vets to have final say when it comes to the medical procedures performed on their clients.

Frankston’s animal lovers are becoming increasingly concerned about council’s compulsory desexing of dogs.

Responsible dog owners say they are being caught up in a local law designed to decrease the unwanted puppy population.

Website chat rooms have been established to debate the issue and vet clinics have been receiving complaints from people forced to have a pup desexed against their will.

Frankston woman Noelene Lance said she was forced to have her miniature schnauzer, Ralph, desexed after he escaped from her yard.

“We were treated like people with a wild animal at large, rather than responsible people whose little puppy had got out through the fence,” Ms Lance said.

“He was only missing for minutes when we realised he’d gone and began searching.

“The pound told us we couldn’t have him back until we agreed to have him desexed.

“We pleaded with them and said we planned to have the operation done in a few months and even had our vet call, but it was either agree or lose Ralph.

“It was appalling. The whole thing, fines included, cost us $700.”

Dr Scott Tinson from Karingal Veterinary Clinic said compulsory desexing was now “an issue of concern” in the community. “My concern is that some are too young for this operation,” he said. “It isn’t ideal to do this on a pup under five months old.”

Dr Tinsen said council should have a good registration scheme backed up by promotion of responsible desexing at the appropriate time.

“We need more understanding and common sense from council.” (ref)

The result of Frankston’s policies was always going to be a breakdown in the relationship between council and community and bucket loads of bad feeling. When you take good pet owners and paint them bad. When you take away people’s rights to choose what is best for their furkid. When you use a sledgehammer when a flyswatter would do, you end up with the very people you need to help, turning against you. And that’s not good.

There are a dozen different ways to work with the community to get the result of a desexed pet. A simple violation could written which could be revoked if the pet was desexed in 30 days. Or, with the owner now on the radar, they could be given 30 days to comply with a desexing order, or to produce a letter from their vet stating otherwise. Council could even offer the pet desexing to the owners free of charge if the hurdle to compliance was cost.

Certainly a big stick approach of ‘shut the fuck up’ can have an effect. But someone who complies with you belligerently, is not standing by hoping you’ll succeed. They’re not going out of their way to help and work with you. In fact they’re just waiting for you to stuff something up; then they’ll be the first in line to sing your failures from the rooftops. And if this is how your ‘good’ team members feel about you (the ones who should be on your biggest asset) just how big a stick are you gonna need?

Frankston better be able to prove their ‘toughest town in Victoria’ approach gets results. Hundreds of pet owners, having had their pet held to ransom under threat of death, will be watching their progress closely.

See also: More solutions from Calgary