The Tribe has Spoken-You’ve Been Voted off the island, by Conway Hill, deep thoughts by Larry Eder

One
of my favorite TV shows is the reality show Survivor. If you aren’t
familiar with it, it’s where 18 to 20 people are put together in a
remote location – usually an island. They are there for approximately
40 days and every 3 days someone gets “voted off the island” by the
tribe. There are various challenges, some for rewards, some for
immunity. But in the end the goal is to be one of the final two people
not voted off. Then it is up to the final 7 or 9 people voted off (the
Jury) to vote for the person they feel was the best player of the game
– the Sole Survivor. That person is the winner of the game and receives
$1 Million!

What I love about the game is that it’s not just a
game of strength, or skill, but rather involves a combination of skills
& traits. Some challenges are physical, some mental. Strength is
needed but endurance is just as important. And at the end of the day,
perhaps the most important facet of the game involves ones social
skills. Because in the end those people that were voted off, need to
think enough of you and how you played the game to want to give you a
million dollars. And far too often it’s been the lack of a good social
game that has cost many players that prize!

I bring up Survivor,
because as I have watched the dismissal of former CEO Doug Logan from
USA Track and Field, I can’t help but see parallels. As with Survivor,
a team of people (Board & Logan) were put together to try to
accomplish a singular goal. In this case the operation and improvement
of track and field in the US. And, as in Survivor, one of the huge
tasks that they faced was that of integrating their varied talents to
work cooperatively towards that goal. But as always happens in the game
(and typically in the game of life) egos, conflicting personalities,
differences in vision, and most importantly the all important “social
game” came into play to wreak havoc on what seemingly should have been
a “strong tribe”!

In Survivor perhaps the single most
destructive force to a person’s chances of making to the end is the
social game. Individuals with seemingly indispensible skills – great
“providers”, awesome on challenges, terrific leaders – often find
themselves voted off the island long before the end because they lack
social skills. Too outspoken. Too overtly manipulative. Too many
alliances and conflicting members find out about them. Too cocky. These
are just a few of the negative “social game” plays that take what
should be strong game players to “Tribal Council” only to leave after
hearing the words “the tribe has spoken and you are the nth person
voted off the island”! And typically it is the people who just knew
they were the best and definitely in line for the $1 Million, that
can’t believe they were voted off and proceed to state how “weak”
his/her tribe mates are; how the tribe will fail without them; and how
stupid they were to send him/her home!

Such was USATF with Doug
Logan and in the aftermath of his departure. Apparently this was a
tribe that was destined not to succeed together. Because from all
accounts Logan was determined to run the tribe as he saw fit, without
the input or support of his tribe members – an early strike in any
season of Survivor. As with the former heads of Enron, he was certain
that he was the smartest man in the room when meetings were held, and
that he and he alone had the correct recipe to “win the game” – in
spite of the fact that he was newer to the “island” than anyone and
hadn’t taken the time to get fully acquainted with either his new tribe
mates or the island itself. Another deadly recipe in the game of
Survivor.

But perhaps the worst part of Logan’s game play was
the assumption that he could indeed win the game WITHOUT  the support
of his tribe mates. And THAT is anathema in the game of Survivor as
well as the game of life. Because NO man can be an island unto himself.
So it was that playing a VERY POOR social game, that after the most
recent “Tribal Council” Logan found himself hearing the words “Doug the
tribe has spoken and you are the 1st person voted off of Survivor
USATF”! And in typical Survivor fashion, just KNOWING that he was
better than his tribe mates, and how dare they vote him off the island,
Logan has gone on an exile’s tirade. He’s referred to the USATF Board
of Directors as “15 bodies in funny suits stumbling out of a little
car” – AKA clowns. He wants to take credit for the US having “just
finished a terrific competitive season” – though if I’m not mistaken it
was the athletes, and not Logan, that did the competing. He’s said that
the President of USATF, Stephanie Hightower, is “driven by ambition”,
and that Brooks Johnson, the former head of USATF’s High Performance
Division, has been “intellectually dishonest” in statements he’s made
on his blog.

All of which makes me feel like I’m watching the
most recent episode of Survivor, as the current exile takes none of the
blame for his departure, but instead insists that he was done wrong by
everyone else. Most fittingly however, it tends to be those with the
worst “social game” that never seem to understand why they’ve been
voted off! They never get that no matter how smart they think they are
– or might even actually be – that beating others over the head with it
may not be the best way to get their point across! Or that constantly
berating the other members of the tribe may not have endeared them much
to their tribe mates. And that cursing them on the way off the island
is not a good idea if you have any hopes of playing the game again –
because sometimes in Survivor you get invited back to play the game in
a different locale and with different players. But by then your
reputation precedes you, and rarely does someone who left the game on
BAD terms last very long the second time around. They’re usually a
target and get voted off as quickly as possible!

Logan has
turned this into a very bad episode of Survivor. A very ugly episode.
The sooner we can turn the channel and turn this episode off, the
better the sport will be.