It has been awhile since my last blog, the reason being we are almost finished with the Tribal Leaders Institute Project (TLI). The initial development phase of the TLI will come to an end at the end of August, and I have been working hard to make sure we meet the deadline. Beginning in September, our website will be somewhat different. I will eliminate some features, but I will continue to write blogs.
Right now, I am writing the fifth and final course, which I titled, Ethical Decision-Making for our Tribal Leaders. The goal of this course is to encourage tribal members who are in leadership positions to approach decision-making using the same ethics: courage, honesty, perseverance, and generosity, as our ancestors did 150 years ago. This blog is a sneak preview of the course:
The Tale of Two Tribal Leaders
(Disclaimer - the case studies below are not describing an actual event.
They are the product of my imagination.)
Tribal Leader #1
On the last day of high school, Tribal Leader #1 received a phone call from a parent of a senior who had an unusual request. Apparently, the parent's child did not complete all the requirements needed to graduate. His request was to let his child walk across the stage with the other graduates and he would make sure the student completed all the work the week following graduation, so the student would receive her graduation diploma.
A month earlier, Tribal Leader #1 attended a board meeting in which the subject of students who might not graduate came up. Tribal Leader #1 and other tribal leaders present directed the principal to make sure he notified every parent a month in advance of graduation if their child was in danger of not meeting graduation requirements. And parents notified were to do everything possible to ensure their child graduated.
Therefore, the first thing Tribal Leader #1 did was ask the parent, "Did the principal call you about a month ago and notify you your child was in danger of not graduating?"
"Yes," the parent replied, "but they told my child yesterday that [the child] only needs to finish a couple of tests to graduate."
Tribal Leader #1 wanted to make sure he heard both sides of the story before he or she replied to the parent. "Let me make a phone call, and I will get back to you," Tribal Leader #1 told the parent. He then called the superintendent (not the principal) and relayed the parent's request. As a responsible board member, Tribal Leader #1 knew all communication with the school staff should go through the CEO; in this case, that was the superintendent. When he called the superintendent, the superintendent responded by assuring Tribal Leader #1 that everything was done to help the student in question. In fact, the superintendent said one of the parents acknowledged it was the student who shirks responsibility, not the school.
Tribal Leader #1 called the parent back and informed the parent there was nothing he could do. The parent became irate, so Tribal Leader #1 explained to the parent that a prior board had stopped the practice of letting students walk on the stage when they were close, but did not meet all graduation requirements. And Tribal Leader #1 added, "it sends a wrong message to other students that they do not have to finish all the graduation requirements to take part in graduation and all its pageantry." The parent kept insisting on having his way until Tribal Leader #1 said, "I was one of the members of the previous board who decided not to let seniors walk across the stage if they did not meet all the graduation requirements." The parent became more irate, but knew Tribal Leader #1's reputation for standing by his principles, so after informing Tribal Leader #1 that he was going to talk to the rest of the board members, he hung up.
What makes this case study interesting is that Tribal Leader #1 was facing a tough re-election fight in a couple of weeks. The outcome would be decided by a few votes, and the parent in question had promised Tribal Leader #1 his support a couple of weeks earlier. "My whole family will vote for you," he told Tribal Leader #1.
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Homework assignment: Identify which traditional values (courage, honesty, perseverance, and generosity) did Tribal Leader #1 exhibit in his decision-making process when dealing with the parent's request.
Homework assignment: What is your opinion of Tribal Leader #1 as a tribal leader?
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Tribal Leader #2
Tribal Leader #2 looked over the crowd of angry tribal members. As usual, they were before the council because most of them had no respect for the chain-of-command. Tribal Leader #2 almost said, "You guys need to follow the damn chain-of-command," but thought better of it due to a number of his important supporters being with the group. And it was getting close to election time, so Tribal Leader #2 did not say anything. "Even if I told them to go back and follow the chain-of-command, they [tribal members] would ignore me anyway," Tribal Leader #2 thought. After all, it always has been done this way.
So, Tribal Leader #2 prepared for the humiliation that he would have to endure and for the blatant disrespect for council authority he knew would surely come. Especially since most of the accusations thrown back and forth were mainly to distract council members from the truth, and therefore prevent them from making a decision based in fact. Tribal Leader #2 thought, "I wish someone would try to control the shouting and mean spirited behavior that will come," never once realizing that he, himself, as a tribal leader, should try and control the behavior.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for the meeting to get out of control. Tribal Leader #2's conscience bothered him briefly, because a tribal member who had the courage and honesty to stand by his convictions was getting verbally abused and attacked from all sides. "But what the heck," Tribal Leader #2 thought, "that is how tribal politics works sometimes."
Tribal Leader #2 breathed a sigh of relief when the meeting was finally over and due to keeping quiet during most of the meeting, Tribal Leader #2 felt he did not alienate too many voters. Tribal Leader #2 knew tribal members would interpret his or her action as cowardice for letting the meeting get out of control and not standing up to the bullies in the crowd, but that would not matter. Tribal Leader #2's supporters would still vote for Tribal Leader #2, anyway. After all, Tribal Leader #2 supporters did not want Tribal Leader #2 to show any courage or honesty at these types of meetings. In fact, they did not vote for Tribal Leader #2 because of Tribal Leader #2's courage and honesty. Instead, they voted for Tribal Leader #2 for exactly the opposite reasons. They wanted a leader who could be counted on to let their group get away with their unethical cowardly behavior.
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Homework assignment: Identify which traditional values (courage, honesty, perseverance, and generosity) Tribal Leader #2 exhibited in his decision-making process when he decided how to approach the meeting.
Homework assignment: What is your opinion of Tribal Leader #2 as a tribal leader?
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I expect to be finished with this course in three weeks and will start on the final report to our funding agency then. After two years of writing courses about ethics, or lack of, on Indian reservations, I am convinced these courses are needed. The biggest question mark is, will tribal organizations be willing to hire Spirit Lake Consulting to train their employees in ethical behavior in the work place?
