CMA Syndrome

Back in the mid-1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev first became the General Secretary of the USSR's Communist Party, he brought two ideas to the Soviet Union that were meant to revolutionize the way the Party worked. Perestroika and Glasnost were meant to create an environment of openness within the Party and renew it's sense of responsibility to the people of the USSR.

As a part of the plan, Gorbachev wanted to streamline the entire economic system of Russia. As a result, he started going around to the government establishments (which, under communism, is everything) to see how they could work better.

For example, Gorbachev visited a hospital to see how the treatments were going and if everyone was getting timely care. However, the people in charge of the establishments Gorbachev visited were less than willing to cooperate with his new vision for the country. Instead, the higher-ups were more concerned with showing the General Secretary a well run institution. The hospital Gorbachev visited, instead of showing him its patients, shipped the patients to a former internship camp and replaced them with people off the street that they paid to be their 'patients' for the day. When Gorbachev asked them how their treatment was going, they truthfully said that they were returning home tomorrow. Meanwhile, the actual patients were left freezing in meagre former prisons.

It got so bad that at one point Gorbachev visited a plant in the Ukraine to see how things were going. Even though the plant was struggling with safety issues, they only showed Gorbachev the things that were going well. Looking back, it appears that Gorbachev was sincere in wanting to improve the efficiency of the institutions in the USSR, but the people showing him around thought that if he saw problems, they'd lose their positions of power. So they sugar coated everything, and Gorbachev left Chernobyl unaware of the problems the nuclear plant was experiencing.

In both cases, the people in charge of reporting to Gorbachev suffered from severe cases of what I call Cover My Ass Syndrome. It affects everyone to some extent and makes friendships and relationships much more difficult than they have to be.

Often when there is a problem or a disagreement between people, our first reaction is to point out that it's not our fault. Clearly, the problem is because of something the other person has done. We're not to blame at all.

Right.

Things would go so much more smoothly, I think, if people would stop trying to avoid blame and take responsibility for their actions. Whenever there's a problem between people, it should be the responsibility of each person to identify what he or she has contributed to the conflict. That way, we can avoid the unpleasantness of blaming each other for the problem and feelings won't be hurt by the suggestions that the other person is the only one at fault.

But, unlike the people running Chernobyl, we have to be able and willing to trust that the other person won't take advantage of our willingness to disclose our weaknesses, and that's where this usually falls apart... 'cause we feel we have to Cover Our Asses.