Burn the Flag

So the vote was 17 to 9 (by my count). Significantly more members wanted us to make the flag hammock than were opposed to it. But we are not a democracy here and on this issue I am happy to have the minority win, even if it means over turning my work.


figuratively only please

We were getting an offer by a fairly good sized US catalog and chain store middle range company. They were talking about buying “hundreds” of the Candy Cane hammocks which are red and white stripped. Add a navy blue pillow and you have a patriotic hammock. I was never crazy about the flag hammock, it offends some of my principals. And I am the marketing manager for a company which sells plastic furniture, I am used to my principals being offended.

“But how does this work?” you are perhaps asking yourself. “Can just three people voting against the flag hammock stop 17 people who want it? Is there some threshold or ratio at play so we know how to make these decisions?” Nope, we wing it. No threshold, no ratio – it is neither consensus not voting but some wild middle territory between. If there had only been 3 people opposed, we likely would have gone forward with it. If it was 5 or 6, the hammocks general management would have gone and had a long talk with the planners.

Persons schooled in radical decision models (sociocracy, consensus, anarchist direct action techniques) are likely scratching there heads and thinking these technique is fraught with problems and ripe for set ups. I am the first to agree.

In the spirit of compromise, we will satisfy the orders we took at the trade show and future orders from customers who not interested in only the flag hammock. I talked with all the planners and several critics today. Everyone is happy with this fix. Of course it helps that we have lots of business these days. We can give some up to take care of the ethical concerns of a minority of our membership.

Welcome to my wild world.