March 12; Execution On Time and On Budget
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

12 March

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

Schadenfreude

Execution is getting tasks done that the manager wants done on time and on budget.

But what happens when execution fails?

Schadenfreude is German–meaning to be happy at the failure of others. Don’t rejoice in the failure of another’s execution. It might lead to your own.

Kondraty Ryleyev was a leader in the Decembrist Uprising, a rebellion against Nicholas I who was enthroned in 1825. The new czar sentenced the rebel to be hanged by the neck until dead.

But the rope broke. The execution failed.

Ryleyev was not humbled but loud, defiant and worse: sarcastic, “You see, in Russia they don’t know how to do anything properly, not even how to make a rope!” He slandered his leader, his country and its products. (Greene 1999)

Finger pointing in failure is not what any manager wants to hear. This destroys unit cohesion and any affinity the team might enjoy. Defeat may be an orphan that no one will claim but no person or product should be kicked when down. And the manager should not allow it.

When Czar Nicholas I heard of the executioner’s failure to properly hang the condemned man he was about to issue a pardon. This was customary as the rope failure was seen as the intervention of Divine Providence.

But when the Czar heard of the malcontent’s mocking he was more concerned with division in his country than with tradition.

The manager needs more solutions. The boss needs to hear less criticism. He needs fewer problems. The rebel remained a problem.

The next day Ryleyev was led to the scaffold and hanged again. This time the rope did not fail; the execution executed.

Ryleyev should have managed his good fortune by not magnifying failure and imperfections of others. None of us is perfect. A condemned man is not made better and not set free by condemning others.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23.

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