Cleaning Up the Mess

We seem to live in a society which seems to have a need to assign blame. Accidents do not happen; it must be someone’s (i.e., someone else’s) fault.

For example, during televised sporting events, if someone makes a mistake that leads to the other team scoring (a run, a basket, a touchdown or a goal), there is a camera shot capturing the celebration of the score followed by a camera shot of the person who made the mistake as if to say the score was his fault.

This aspect of our society also has implications for leadership.

If I assign blame when bad things happen, then it is someone else’s fault (not just an accident or a random act), and thus I am not responsible for making things better—“they” are.

Fortunately for Israel, Caleb and Joshua did not take that approach. The Israelites were influenced by 10 leaders to rebel against God. As a result, they incurred the wrath of God and wandered in the desert for 40 years.

I suppose at some point during all of that wandering, Caleb and/or Joshua said to someone, “See! I told you we should have gone into the Promised Land, but noooo, you just had to go back to Egypt!”

That would be human nature (for most of us). But even if they said such a thing, what’s more important is what they didn’t do: They didn’t release themselves of the responsibility to make a tough situation better just because they weren’t responsible for creating it.

We can surmise this because of what we read in Joshua, beginning in the very first chapter. Joshua had assumed the senior leadership role. He had trained or caused to be trained leaders (including Caleb) who were aligned with the vision, with him and with one another. They could be described as eager to conquer the Promised Land, and the book of Joshua recounts their success in doing so.

So even though Caleb and Joshua weren’t to “blame” for the Israelites wandering in the desert, they took the responsibility of changing the circumstances so that when the opportunity to enter the Promised Land was presented again, the Israelites were ready.

Changing circumstances for the better—no matter who is responsible for the original set of circumstances—is part of what good leaders do to influence people to good outcomes.