When they go low, we go high!
I used to love the speech that Michelle Obama gave on bullies. I fully believed in the rightness and clarity of her message.
As a kid, I used to try the high road. I’d try to find a way to dominate the way Michelle and every smiley happy liar seemed to encourage. That always ended up with me having a fat lip.
Instead, I learned to turtle when being chased. In middle school alone I broke four dudes wrists resulting in them failing exams and repeating the year.
Going low works.
Hockey was the same. When big men tried to take my head off, I’d go low and send them flying. I was scolded once by a coach. He told me that I could injure someone that way. You do that in the wrong place and you’ll put someone in a wheel chair.
That was the whole entire point.
These dudes wanted to change my behaviour.
These days, the bullies occupy the ‘moral high ground’.
They think that somehow they are on the ‘right side of history’.
Such arrogance can’t be met by attempting to move higher.
Instead, when facing powerful forces that aim to decapitate you, go low, that’s where the true power is.
The folks who say, go high? They are the elites inclined to top down, imposed change.
If this happens in your workplace?
Go low.
Undermine the bosses.
Undermine their agenda.
Positive change doesn’t come from above.
And those who believe they know better
Do not.