Admitting mistakes and failures is never easy, especially when accompanied with “I told you so”. However, when your mistakes, failures and woes are subject to immense publicity in mainstream media — as has been the (mis)fortunes of the Congress of the People — it is best not to deflect, defend or denyi. Instead, the party leadership, its members and supporters need to pause and ask themselves: WTF?
Asking “WTF?” in a crisis situation, I have found, is a more balanced and pragmatic approach to strategic planning than the SWOT analysis precisely because it, if undertaken properly, provides a solid foundation for critical and honest reflection.
It can be argued that addressing organisational, group or individual Weaknesses, Threats and Failures (WTF) is a pessimistic and morbid exercise — for the optimists among us I would suggest a “SO WTF?” analysis instead, but I believe my approach has its merits. Prior to reading JK Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement addressii failure was one of those dirty and unmentionable words — something that I and the country more broadly have preferred to banish from our vocabulary due to the discomfort it causes.
Yet, one passage in Rowling’s speech hit home, hard … and it made perfect sense!
“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. […] I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a […] big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
In contrast to my own intense distaste for failure, Rowling’s experience provided a sensible alternative to the overly pessimistic “woe is me” perspective or the alternative desperately optimistic approach that sugarcoats failure.
At this pivotal point in the history of the young Cope, a time of more “WTF” than anything else, pro-actively and frankly engaging with the ominous position it finds itself in is crucial in stripping the party of the inessential, forcing it to stop pretending it is something it is not (or never was) and recommitting itself to that “big idea” which I and so many of us — perhaps naively and overwhelminglyiii — bought into at the time of its formation.
I believe that doing a SWOT analysis — engaging in strategic planning that departs from an investigation of strengths — will only further cloud the perception of leadership and supporters. Before digging an even deeper hole for the party, now is the time to arrest and admit to the collective weaknesses, threats and failures of the party, own them, internalise them and deal with it!
In this regard the mainstream media has probably been Cope’s biggest friend by reporting on the ills facing the party. This relationship may be described as antagonistic, and sure, there is some strategic advantage to dealing with matters internally, but the immense publicity the party’s fate has enjoyed will, one can only hope, force it to confront its demons, and there are many:
- A pervasive factionalism, even tribalism, specifically the continued reports of a top-level leadership struggle;
- An unhealthy, counter-productive and unmerited obsession with former president Thabo Mbeki;
- An inherited or transplantediv and incoherent organisational culture;
- A lack of human and financial resources;
- Non-existent or dysfunctional and unrepresentative organisational structures; which compounds the problem of a
- Breakdown in or lack of clear channels of communication, with an unelected leadership speaking on behalf of, and infrequently to or with its membership or support base; underscored by a
- Lack of horizontal accountability and representationv, as the unelected leadership perceives vertical accountability as dissentvi — rooted in a transplanted organisational culture in which dissent is not tolerated, denied or suppressed;
- An unfavourable or antagonistic relationship with the media, the result of the party’s communication strategy which is largely uncoordinated, defensive and rarely informative; and
- An unfavourable public perception and founding myth constructed due to the above.
These constitute an incomplete overview of the major obstacles to taking the movement forward. If the organisation and its leadership refuse to deal with these, the party deserves to wither away and die — as is the attributed fate of the partyvii — because it shows a commitment to the temporal, and not that “big idea” it sold to 1.3 million voters.
The party needs to take stock and adopt a “back-to-basics” approach in an attempt to redefine and re-present itself to the South African electorate. It has failed to deliver on its “New Agenda for Hope and Change”, providing immense hope, but nothing new, no coherent agenda and no significant change (apart from a slight reconfiguration of the political landscape). This has left supporters and members with a sense of betrayal, disillusionment and a longing for a tangible “new agenda for Cope to change”. A party founded on “hope, faith and charity” — to borrow from the King James Bible — cannot sustainably survive on these alone.
Admitting and addressing mistakes and failures is painful, but as the old adage goes: what does not kill us only makes us stronger and rock bottom becomes the necessary bedrock foundation from which to SOAR (corny, I know, but bear with me, it’ll become clear as we go along).
i “Cope says leadership tussle just a ‘perception’,” Mail & Guardian Online [Last Accessed: 14 July 2009] “Cope deflects claims of leadership crisis,” Independent Online [Last Accessed: 14 July 2009]
ii JK Rowling “The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination,” Harvard Magazine [Last Accessed: 14 July 2009]
iii “IOL readers will Cope with change,” Independent Online [Last Accessed: 14 July 2009]
iv Zapiro
v “Facebook group challenges Shilowa,” Independent Online [Last Accessed: 14 July 2009]
vi “Cope ‘gags’ Grindrod,” Independent Online [Last Accessed: 14 July 2009]
vii “Cope will not see local elections — readers,” Independent Online [Last Accessed: 14 July 2009]
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