WHAT PROVOKES THESE “MAD DOGS?”
Mad Dogs are easy to provoke.
Some of the things that make them
rabid have nothing whatsoever to do
with the club. Their wife may have
run off with the postman, their job
may have evaporated, their Jaguar
may have been totaled or they may
have discovered that their number
three girlfriend is about to have twins.
These aren’t short term issues, they’re
not easy to resolve, and they fester
in the Mad Dog. They bite the club
because the club allows them to bite.
Sometimes Mad Dogs truly believe
that they know “The Good” and
have a compelling need to let the
world know they know. They’ve
run a business during an economic
downturn (though the business may
have gone bankrupt in the process!)
and are now ready to see how well or
poorly the board and management
do it at their club.
Sometimes the Mad Dog is right.
But their A.Q. (annoyance quotient)
may exceed their I.Q. (intelligence
quotient) or their communications
skills may be weak---they think one
thing and say another---and their
ideas get lost in the clutter.
Assume that these characters
are rabid, ready to bite, needing
controversy to fill the holes in
their otherwise dull and mundane
existences. What stirs them into a
frenzy, foaming at the mouth?
thing. I just had an incident where
a well meaning board member-
--who we’ve come to believe is
a Truly Deranged Stealth Mad
Dog--- wrongly explained the board’s
thinking on a Calcutta event. The
Mad Dog who was listening then
came to me as club manager to
“investigate” this snippet, got the
truth about the board’s reasoning
and then had a field day telling others
that nobody knew what they were
talking about. Who’s telling the truth?
The issue was not the truth but the
inconsistency of the message---they’re
trying to smoke me.
Mad Dogs go wild when they see
different strokes for different
folks. Two members known as “bad
boys” (crude but pleasant, drunks
but not combative) were recently
suspended for nine months for telling
dirty stories (which they thought
were a howl) to a woman staffer and
a member’s wife. Good riddance
to two very rotten apples. But a
board several years ago chose not
to suspend a long-time “authentic”
member who viciously and with
bad intent called a senior woman
manager a truly foul name. Do the
“rude and the crude” get a different
form of justice from the “old guard
authentic member”? Trust begins to
evaporate when the Mad Dogs think
they do.
Mad Dogs go wild when they hear
different stories from different
authority types about the same Mad Dogs go wild when they witness
decency shown those who deserve
no decency. Mad Dogs want the bad
guys to pay for their transgressions.
Fact is, most members do. So when
the bad guys go free, or are given
and annoys that supervisor
about the one just spoken to.
Within twenty minutes the entire
employee team knows what’s
been said, all take sides and chaos
then reigns. Everyone becomes
demoralized, stressed, angry.
Trust evaporates. them and the membership at
large. E-mails start swirling about
and the President ends up trying
to stop the rumors before they
infect and fester. The club’s
governance team is vulnerable,
their relationships public and very
fragile.
Mad Dogs corral board members
separately and use their “insider
info” to plant the seed of distrust
between them and other board
members, between them and the
management team and between Mad Dogs bite with words,
tenacity, access and spin. They nip
at everyone’s heels, make everyone
edgy and angry and prime the
organization for an internal
collapse. Trust is the cement that
a slap on the wrist, the Dogs begin
to howl. And members will listen,
because they’re as annoyed as the
Mad Dogs who’ve begun to howl.
Mad Dogs go wild when they receive
smoky explanations as to why, how
and when. They want “the straight
scoop” when things go wrong. Mad
Dogs can smell “smoke”---after all
they’re clever types---and can tell
when the board or manager are
trying to obscure the facts with a lot
of rhetoric.
Mad Dogs go wild when the “big
cheese policy makers” go into
hiding after making big decisions
over big issues that are divisive and
controversial. Decisions are made
in the boardroom but need to be
explained and defended in the light
of day. Mad Dogs want to bite when
they hear about decisions and can’t
find a board member to talk to at the
club.
Mad Dogs go wild when they hear
silence in the face of big hairy
rumors. Mad Dogs love it when
rumors start flying---fact is, they love
to rev up the rumor mill and relish the
opportunity to stir up the pot---and
none of the decision makers choose
to confront those rumors head on.
It’s like fresh meat for the Dogs.
Mad Dogs are easy to provoke
because they’re itching for a fight.
Boards and managers feed th em
unknowingly when they ignore the
very things that provoke them.
holds it all together and once the
bonds of trust are weakened the
entire governance system begins
to stumble. The club can go from
“love-fest” to “suspicion-fest” in the
blink of an eye.
Mad Dogs want to become the
“Alpha Pooch” and their histrionics
bring attention to themselves,
providing a sense of self and
purpose otherwise absent from
their lives.
Gregg Patterson
WWW.GMA.ORG.AU
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