False Democracy
I appreciate that Jim Collins acknowledges the potential for the False Democracy aspect of work / learning environments. In my experience, educational institutions at all levels are rife with the “let me get your input, students (or teachers), even though I’ve already made up my mind” dynamic.
Disingenuous “collaboration” always frustrates me. I’d rather have the person in charge just say “Hey, this is how it’s gonna be.” instead of creating a false democracy. It’s more respectful to the participants - because the false democracy dynamic isn’t composed of people actually listening to each other and trying to understand varying points of view, it’s composed of people pretending to listen, so they can say they “listened.” This often goes hand in hand with the artful corralling of participant’s input, guided by the leader’s preconceived notions of what should (and probably will) happen. And kids in a classroom can sniff this dynamic out in a second - they totally tune out when they feel like their teacher is just paying lip service to the idea of a collaborative learning environment.
Thanks Jim Collins. Now I have a name for something I was only able to scantily sense before: A False Democracy.
