Philosophy -- in the Jungle

Just how does the philosophy I learned in school extrapolate to "real life"? Or does it? Are the chiropractic leaders today really leaders or just managers? Perhaps Morris Fishbein suffered from the same subluxation as Hitler. Why a four colored pen? I don't believe I've ever been taught to use the green.

This is my first attempt at writing a non-technical column and there are so many questions and so few journals to write for. So, today, class, we will discover the true meaning of life in the jungle with (or without) effective leadership.

In life there are producers, managers, and leaders in all fields. We feel doctors, pretty much, are the producers. I submit to you that, with a couple of exceptions, most who fancy themselves chiropractic leaders are really managers. Unfortunately, we have too few real leaders. Why do I feel that way? Let's examine what makes up a manager and a leader. Managers deal with how to accomplish certain objectives: acceptance by insurance companies, HMOs, hospitals, and the like. Leaders deal with just exactly what it is we want to accomplish. Do we truly want to be an alternative health care system? Who cares if State Farm likes us or not? Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two if you envision a group of producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes. They're the producers, the problem solvers. They're cutting through the undergrowth, clearing it out.

The managers are behind them, sharpening their machetes, writing policy and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies, and setting up working schedules and compensation programs for machete wielders.

The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, "Wrong Jungle!"

But how do the busy, efficient producers and managers often respond? "Shut up! We're making progress."

Does this ring a bell?

Being field doctors and needing to keep producing just for our very survival, we're often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don't even realize our leaders have us in the wrong jungle. This rapidly changing environment in which we operate makes effective leadership more critical than it has ever been for our profession's very life.

We are more in need of a vision or destination and a compass (a set of principles, directions, or purpose) and less in need of a road map. We often don't know what the jungle ahead will be like or what we will need to go through it; much will depend on our judgment at the time. But our inner compass will always give us direction.

Effectiveness (survival) does not depend solely on how much effort we expend (i.e. public education, winning lawsuits, etc.), but on whether or not the effort we expend is in the right jungle. My friend, the metamorphosis taking place in chiropractic demands leadership first and management second.

Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual has phrased it, "like straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic." No management success can compensate for failure in leadership. But leadership is so hard because we are caught in a management paradigm.

I'm convinced that too often our "leaders" are trapped in the management paradigm -- thinking of control, efficiency, and rules (standards of care), instead of direction, purpose, and unity.

This lack of leadership extends even into our personal lives. We're into managing with efficiency, setting, and achieving goals before we have even clarified our values and principles.

There are literally unlimited numbers of ways this script in our life can be lived out. At any one time on cable television there are hundreds of programs to choose from, but we can only tune in one at a time. It doesn't lessen the validity of the other channels just because we are not tuned into them; they are there to be tuned into, but we have made our choice. Herein lies the problem: A man's opinion is no better than the information he bases it on. So how can we tell if we're tuned into the right channel? What makes a true principle, and how can you tell it apart from a value adopted by a group of like mind. When is a chiropractic "principle" only a value? Principles are not values. A gang of thieves can share values, but they are in violation of fundamental principles. Principles are the territory. Values are the maps. When we value correct principles, we have truth -- a knowledge of things as they are. Principles are universal laws which exist independently of our knowledge or acceptance of them.

There are principles which are guidelines for human health, which are proven to have enduring, permanent value (i.e. they're fundamental). They are essentially unarguable because they are self-evident. On way to quickly grasp the self-evident nature of these principles is to simply consider the absurdity of attempting to live a healthy life based on their opposites. Can you imagine lack of nerve integrity, loss of function, and degeneration to be a solid foundation for lasting health and happiness. Although we may argue about how these principles are defined or manifested, there seems to be an innate consciousness and awareness that they exist.

The more closely our maps or paradigms are aligned with these principles or natural laws, the more accurate and functional they will be. Correct maps will infinitely impact our profession's effectiveness far more than any amount of effort expended on changing our attitudes and behaviors.

So where are the leaders? Those who would insure better quality information and help to clarify values and principles. We have far too many personality-based leaders, when what we need are men and women of character, integrity, and vision.

We must begin with the end in mind. At the turn of the century, what do we want public opinion to express about chiropractic? What course of action must we take to get to the public holding that opinion? Finally, we must do first things first in order to get to that end. We must clarify our values and establish our principles. Are we truly the only true health care system or are we an adjunct to the disease-based delivery system America is presently burdened with.

What a terrific imbalance -- 12 percent of GNP is spent for treatment of disease. Ninety-nine percent of that is in after the fact care, leaving less than one percent in prevention. It is estimated that more money is spent during the final week of "life" on "health" care than is spent in a life time for preventive care. In the measurements used to compare the effectiveness of health care delivery in the industrialized nations, the United States isn't in the top 10 in any of the categories except one; we spend more than any other country, but for a far inferior product.

Do we really want to be a part of that travesty? Who's jungle is this anyway? Any how, can we get back to our own jungle?

Doctor, where do you stand? Which jungle are you in? The right jungle or the wrong jungle!

Thanks to the Covey Leadership Center for many of the analogies used in writing this column.

Michael A. Temple, D.C.
Scottsdale, Arizona