The citizens have gathered together in the city square (the forum) and are waiting for the barbarians. The senators are not making laws - because the barbarians are coming (why make new laws when the barbarians will come and change them all anyway?). The emperor and other leaders (the two consuls and praetors) are sitting and waiting at the gate wearing their best dress and jewelry (because that impresses the barbarians). No one is making speeches in the forum - again, they are waiting for the barbarians and the barbarians don't like listening to speeches.
The last stanza of the poem (see below) is particularly poignant. The people are disappointed because they have learned that the barbarians aren't actually coming today. In fact, they have learned from some of their soldiers that the barbarians aren't coming at all. They are now left asking themselves, "Now what are we supposed to do?"
Sound familiar? Think about it - the change management guru, John Kotter famously described a 8-step change model that starts with "Create a sense of urgency." People aren't motivated to change unless there is a so-called "burning platform", say, for example, like an organization that is starting to fail and is at risk of a hostile takeover, a health care organization that is suddenly competing with another hospital on the other side of town, or even a city-state that is being invaded by barbarians. Once they "see" that they have to change, the people will change. It's almost like the proverbial barbarians are going to save the city!
.
The problem is that the barbarians aren't going to save the city. The people in this city were looking for the wrong solution. Burning platforms don't always work. As a matter of fact, some have argued that really strong leaders never use the "burning platform" analogy as a way to motivate their teams.
Just take a look at what happens in the poem. Everyone is waiting for the barbarians to come and change things - presumably so that the city-state will eventually get back on the right track to prosperity (which is kind of an odd way to think, in my humble opinion). But when they don't come, rather than being thankful or relieved, everyone is greatly disappointed!
The lesson here is not to wait for the barbarians to save the day. Because they won't. And they may actually never even come. Indeed, there are better solutions to the problems that an organization faces. Our job as leaders is to find those solutions.
Here is the poem in its entirety.
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn’t anything going on in the senate?
Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What’s the point of senators making laws now?
Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting enthroned at the city’s main gate,
in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor’s waiting to receive their leader.
He’s even got a scroll to give him,
loaded with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don’t our distinguished orators turn up as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they’re bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
(How serious people’s faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.
And some of our men just in from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.
No comments:
Post a Comment