There was a viral video years ago from the Chief of the Australian Army, in which he made the statement that the standard you walk past is the standard you accept. It’s an interesting one, and on examination, I think he’s right - but only half right.
Humans tend to behave in certain ways. While there’s a lot of art to leadership, there’s also some science. Psychology and social science can teach us some things that are pretty certain when it comes to how we behave in certain circumstances. One thing we tend to lock on to is status. And who has status tends to be who sets standards.
A recent experiment - an uncontrolled one, but instructive - was run with a group of managers in a large organisation. The managers were brought in from every department for a training course, and as part of the course, a messenger chat was set up to pass information about the course between the trainee managers. Another group was set up for the training staff to pass on changes to the training program or details about meeting rooms and the like. These two messenger chats were seperate; the supervising trainers only had access to one group, while the trainee managers had access to both.
The organisation is in a male-dominated industry, but females have been making up a larger percentage of the workforce over the last couple of decades as senior managers look to expand their skill bases and skilled recruiting pool. This particular training course was one of the first where there were a significant number of women among the trainee managers, while the supervising trainers were exclusively male. One of the trainers was a former senior VP within the organisation, who was invited to review the training being conducted. He brought with him decades of experience, and the status to match.
Halfway through the week-long course, it became obvious that there was a spectrum of behaviours from the trainee managers. Some were progressive in their thinking, and looked for opportunities to improve and include everyone. Others identified more strongly with the organisation’s historic male-dominated culture, and were less accepting of the increased number of women in their developing demographic. As the course continued, the trainee manager’s group chat became a means to pass derogatory memes and comments. These were kept to the trainee’s chat only, with the training staff not aware at first.
As the memes proliferated, individuals in the trainee managers group faced a choice. In the words of the Army general, they could walk past the standard, or confront it. But as social scientists and psychologists will point out, confronting a group is not easy. In fact, it’s very not easy - some would say it’s extremely difficult. But it seemed that confrontation was not to be needed; in a classic 2021 mistake, someone posted a meme on both the group chats, which most of the trainee managers thought would stop the memes and see the offending managers called out.
But they weren’t. The meme was ignored, and by default, it was tacitly accepted. While none of the trainers endorsed it, they neither derided it nor called out the behaviour of those who created and posted it. This set the standard. The status of the group was held most by the trainers, and by walking past a standard, they had set it for the entire group.
It’s not enough as a leader to not do the wrong thing. It’s not enough to set the standard for yourself, and trust others to follow suit. As a leader, the standard you set it is the standard others will accept. The standard you walk past is the standard that everyone in the organisation will see as acceptable. Most of all, this standard must be public, and it must be consistent. If you berate and correct others for poor behaviour, but are seen laughing at inappropriate jokes at a later date, you’ve set the standard at the lowest level. There can not be two standards, and the lower one will always be the one others see as acceptable.
For members of a group, it’s hard to set the standard for the group. Status plays a huge part in who sets the group standards, and without formal authority, the group’s standards can be hard fought or easily transgressed with little repercussions. As a leader, the standard of the group is the standard you set. Others will see it as the way things are done around here; the bedrock of culture, of defining what it means to be a member of that group. Beware the standard you walk past, for it is the standard not just for you, but for all.
A remake of the viral video now might be more accurately stated as: the standard you walk past is the standard an individual accepts. The standard a leader walks past, is the standard everyone accepts.
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