MOSES ON MANAGEMENT by DAVID BARON & LYNETTE PADWA

Author:DAVID BARON & LYNETTE PADWA
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Management
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2001-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

27

Create a Mechanism for Repair

MOSES IS FAMOUS NOT ONLY FOR BEING A GREAT LEADER but also for being a flawed one. No beatific guru, he was a passionate, driven man whose moods swung from anger to nervous hand wringing to selfless compassion. Although some Israelites may have revered Moses, many of them undoubtedly had mixed feelings about their leader, in turns resenting, respecting, fearing, and leaning upon him. There’s no question that he made mistakes, both in the eyes of his people and in the eyes of God.

Although Moses led the Israelites to the Promised Land, God forbade him to enter it—punishment for overstepping his bounds years earlier. At Kadesh, when the Israelites were hungry, thirsty, and whining (as usual), God told Moses to stand before a rock and “order the rock to yield its water.” Feeling cranky, Moses deviated from the plan. He called the people together and taunted them: “Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?” Then he struck the rock twice, and out poured water.

God was not pleased. He had said to order the rock, not strike it. God, not Moses, set the terms for miracles. The penalty was that Moses would never enter the Promised Land. A lot of people think this punishment is like being executed for a parking ticket, but the point is that a perfect, flawless role model doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist in a president or in corporate CEOs—it doesn’t exist in the human condition. Too often, people don’t accept the fact that they are dealing with other human beings who are occasionally going to make mistakes. Since (as the law of entropy instructs) breakdowns are inevitable, every organization should anticipate them and have in place a mechanism for repair.

Moses, through God, created such a mechanism at Mount Sinai. When he emerged from atop the mountain only to see a wild orgy taking place before the golden calf, “he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.” God was even angrier than Moses—he wanted to obliterate the Israelites on the spot. Only through Moses’ intercession were the people spared divine wrath. But by the next day, having rid the group of members who were not “for the Lord,” Moses regained his composure. He told the people, “You have been guilty of a great sin. Yet I will now go up to the Lord; perhaps I may win forgiveness for your sin.”

The result, according to biblical commentaries, was the first Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement. In this ritual, God gave the Israelites a mechanism for rupture, for correcting past mistakes and moving forward. To reap the healing benefits of atonement, you must recognize that you did something wrong, accept responsibility for it, apologize directly to the offended party, and commit to correcting the wrong. If you do that—and if the sin wasn’t so egregious that no atonement is possible—you can enter the new year with a clear conscience.

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