My involvement in the foundation’s for-profit businesses is now “from a distance.” And I’m amazed by what that distance lends for perspective I can use to help my partners and the people they manage. The quality of my input seems better.

The three most important businesses to us currently are the Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers in central Ohio, the media business we sold in 2007 (and repurchased in October) and Cleveland Whiskey, our foray into a start up in a tough category in which we are completely inexperienced.

Right now, things seem overwhelming in all three. The media business requires a complete reorganization. Our “mother ship,” the chicken fingers restaurants are experiencing operational challenges borne of people and organizational dysfunctions. And of course the whiskey business inevitably goes through cliff-hanging moments that every new start up is bound to experience.

And as with every firm’s challenges, it all starts with people. But here’s what I can see that I couldn’t see when I was in the center of the fray: Identifying the “good” guys and the “bad” guys during trying times is a fool’s game.

You’ve seen it first-hand I’m sure.

• The “old guard” doesn’t trust the “new guard.” 
• The new investors want to tell the old investors all the wrongs they’ve committed. 
• And every person in sputtering organizations is looking for safe harbor, most assuredly not where their boat is moored. ☺

Yet from this distance, I’m able to help my partners see that it’s all smog – probably born of our training as athletes and from the “good guy, bad guy” movies and books we’ve read all our lives.

My partners are fighting the battles close in so I must often remind them that when lines are drawn, it’s usually due to misalignments of interests. Often, there are only even style differences. But when we’re in the center of the battle, and someone is saying to you “well, you didn’t do this or that” or “he told me” and “she said,” we can accidentally create the old “bad guy/good guy” logic. That’s when, in my new role I can say to the partners, “Don’t fall for it”.

Who is in your sphere of influence that you could honestly and accurately call “bad” people? They may be bad for your situation; their interests could be misaligned with yours; or you may just hate the way they do things compared to how you would do the same things. But bad people?

I’m struggling to remember, and the thought may help in a situation you’re facing as well, that when I consider every single person that’s involved in our challenges, I can honestly say they are real “good” guys. So to create a “bad guy,” even if they’re setting me up to be one creates unnecessary drama.

Peace,

Tim McCarthy