Little Boxes

by Jim Goding

People make sense of their world by fitting the things they see, observe and interact with, into little boxes. They classify things and people so that they can understand them, put them next to things in other little boxes, and most of all so that they can avoid the work of analyzing everything they see as they see it. Sometimes this can be taken to extremes. Sometimes things that don’t fit into the little boxes are ignored, other times they are thrown away, and sometimes the things that don’t fit into the little boxes are simply destroyed because they don’t fit together with the other little boxes. When things don’t fit into a person’s little boxes, it tends to make a threat to the way the person thinks about the world, or requires the person to think just a little bit outside of the box. Many valuable things and ideas might have been lost because they didn’t fit into the little boxes that constituted the way that people thought about things. All human advances in thought, science and technology have occurred because someone didn’t stay within the little boxes–or they stretched the box to fit ideas that were too big for it. Don’t get me wrong. I use them too. Little boxes are very necessary in my work as a writer, as a consultant, as an evaluator of surveillance and security activities and capabilities, as a trainer. They are necessary to every Surveillance and Security officer: When things don’t fit in the box, they need to be looked at again. Sometimes when many things in one area don’t fit in the available boxes, it is enough to require a full-scale investigation. The true challenge lies in how we handle things that don’t fit in the little boxes, and this is what makes an investigator, a supervisor, a manager. It is what we do with the things that don’t fit in little boxes that defines how well we do our jobs, no matter whether we work as a dealer, a cashier, a stock clerk, in human resources, in Security or Surveillance, as a manager or executive, or in any number of occupations where we have to deal with people either as groups or individuals. So, how do people handle things–and people–that don’t fit into their little boxes? Let’s take a look at some different areas as examples, and see the typical ways that people drop things into their own little boxes, but more specifically, how they handle things that don’t fit. While doing this, I will mention a few very valuable things and people that never would have fit into the little boxes that we use today.

Human Resources: Do People Fit the Little Boxes?

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Human Resources people should be aware that there are many people who could be extremely valuable contributors to their companies, who might not fit into their little boxes. If people don’t fit the boxes, though, those applications never make it to the manager responsible for hiring. Unfortunately, today’s Human Resources departments have had to reduce people to a set of numbers: “does or does not fit such and such a box.” There should be a person in every human resources department going through applications looking for people who may have something to contribute, but who don’t fit the boxes. There is very little “human” associated with Human Resources. And to tell you the truth, when things fit the boxes TOO WELL, there is often cause for suspicion. Recent research has shown that over 50% of people lie in their applications and resumes. There are no boxes in a Human Resources form for honesty, integrity, and willingness to learn and contribute far more than one’s share, simply because most people would be lying if they answered in the affirmative. In efforts to remedy this problem, HR departments consulted with psychologists who, true to current people-handling form, designed tests to see if a person fit certain personality profiles (little boxes) or could be a “team player.” More little boxes. What happens to the stars (Elway, Berra) when they fill out such a form? They can play with a team and contribute far more than their own weight, but they also rely on their own talents and instincts, and often contribute far more than their own weight in doing so. If Vincent Lombardi honestly filled out an HR “Personality Profile Test” in today’s world (at least the ones I have seen), his application would end up in the round file. Enough on Human Resources.

Surveillance and Security Little Boxes

As I wrote in one of my earliest articles, one of the methods Surveillance and Security people use is to spot things that just don’t fit. Guess what: that means  that person down there does not fit into the little box labeled “slot player,” or “recreational blackjack player,” or “correctly trained dealer” or “slots floor person correctly following procedures.” Now we have to determine what OTHER little box he might fit into: Maybe, through observation of his actions, he will fit into “slot cheat,” “distract and grab,” “short-change con,” or one of the other little boxes we have for people whose actions don’t fit the standard profiles.

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Or maybe they don’t fit because they are far too crooked to fit in a box. Thankfully, we in Surveillance and Security are not the ones who have to make these decisions. We simply have to report when something doesn’t fit. There is a very old story that goes with this. You can look it up on the internet. Use the search term “Procrustes,” and you will find articles that describe a person who forced others to fit his own preconceived ideas. If they did not fit the “bed of Procrustes,” he “adjusted” them to fit. If they were too short, he stretched them. If they were too long, he cut pieces off until they fit. Take it from me, a person who for decades has had to hide parts that didn’t fit the box: it is a very uncomfortable experience. When you are forced to fit into a box that is too small, it makes less of you than what you really can be. It is even worse when someone tries to add things to you that are really not true, as I have seen many times. For instance, I personally have never been able to deal with drunks, but this is something I had to do for several years as a casino dealer. I used the opportunity to learn some things, but I never became comfortable with it. Unfortunately for us, our current society is unable to do much else: Because everything must fit into little computer-screen boxes, if something doesn’t fit, we tend to disregard it or discard it. This is a trap, especially for Surveillance, Security, Human Resources and executives. Not every person who fails to fit within the box is a crook , a bad guy, or in the case of Human Resources, unqualified. Never presume that just because a person doesn’t fit within one box, he may not fit within a different one, or even a bigger one, or may not fit within a box at all. Investigate. Look. See what it is that makes that person different. Report only the facts, and don’t disregard some facts because they don’t fit your preconceived ideas of what may be happening. Sometimes you have to modify the box. Modifying people, or their actions, or especially your reports, in order to make them fit into YOUR BOX is not a viable option. Jim Goding

Copyright © 2010 by Jim Goding. All rights reserved under US and international copyright law. Unauthorized duplication or distribution in any form is a violation of copyright laws and of the proprietary rights of the author.