Incompetence: Traps and Snares

One common source of frustration at work is incompetence — whether one's own, or the incompetence of another, or the incompetence of the organization. By incompetence I mean a lack of skills, abilities, or understanding relevant to the problem at hand. I include also a lack of ability to acquire the relevant skills, abilities, or understanding. Incompetent individuals or organizations, then, can neither do the job nor address their inability to do the job.

This definition is at odds with a common use of the term. I've often heard one person judge another as incompetent when more appropriate terms might be untrained, inexperienced, uneducated, demotivated, overloaded, or something similar. In other words, not everyone who can't do the job is incompetent. Some people who can't do the job merely lack enlightenment, or devotion, or resources.

A lack of enlightenment, devotion, or resources might appear to be repairable, and often it is. But in some cases, that lack is irreparable. When that happens, we're not dealing with mere incompetence. What we have is either an Incompetence Trap or an Incompetence Snare.

The differences between traps and snares can be subtle when viewed from afar. A snare is a kind of trap, but not all traps are snares. In a trap, the force or obstacle that keeps the victim from escaping is inherent in the trap. A snare is a trap in which the force that keeps the victim from escaping comes from the victim. The classic mousetrap is a trap that isn't a snare, because it holds the victim by the force of a spring. An example of a snare is a loop of wire laid across a small game trail. When a rabbit, say, runs along the trail and catches itself in the loop, it keeps running, tightening the loop, from which it cannot then escape. See "Snares at Work," Point Lookout for May 30, 2007, for more.

Incompetence traps

An incompetence trap is a situation in which a situational factor prevents people from acquiring the enlightenment, devotion, or resources needed to carry out their responsibilities. For example, they might not have time to learn a new skill. Or they might be directed by a supervisor not to be concerned about serving a particular class of internal customers. Or they might have been directed not to repair certain classes of defects in software, even though they might be accountable for repairing such defects.

To the customersAn incompetence trap is a
situation in which a situational
factor prevents people from
acquiring what they need
to do their jobs these people are supposed to serve, they appear to be incompetent. Some customers might even advocate termination of the people they regard as incompetent. The people entrapped might indeed be incompetent, but a more likely possibility is that they are trapped in incompetence by their circumstances.

Incompetence snares

An incompetence snare is a situation in which factors associated with the ensnared person or organization maintain the incompetence of the ensnared person or organization.

For example, suppose Daniel believes that acknowledging the superior judgment of experts is tantamount to acknowledging Daniel's own inferiority. This can be difficult for some senior managers who must consult — or accept the judgment of — expert subordinates. Daniel is therefore reluctant to consult experts, or to recruit them to help him solve his problem. He is thus ensnared in incompetence by his own beliefs about asking for help.

As a second example, suppose Daniel's project encounters trouble as a result of a faulty decision he made. If Daniel believes that acknowledging his error is an impossibility, he's more likely than he otherwise would be to continue making similar errors, because he's unlikely to have learned from errors he's already made. Daniel is ensnared in incompetence by his inability to acknowledge that he needs to improve his own performance.

Some traps are concealed. They exploit deception to capture their victims. But some traps attract their victims with bait. The classic baited trap is a mousetrap with cheese. The classic baited snare is the hope that if my personal preferred view of reality turns out to be correct, all I need to do is hope and then all will be well. That rarely works out, because hope is not a strategy.  Top    Next Issue

Is every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory for just about everyone's best work including yours? Read 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics, filled with tips and techniques for succeeding in workplace politics. More info

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Workplace Politics:

Devious Political Tactics: Divide and Conquer: I

While most leaders try to achieve organizational unity, some do use divisive tactics to maintain control, or to elevate performance by fostering competition. Understanding the risks of these tactics can motivate you to find another way.

Dismissive Gestures: I

Humans are nothing if not inventive. In the modern organization, where verbal insults are deprecated, we've developed hundreds of ways to insult each other silently (or nearly so). Here's part one of a catalog of nonverbal insults.

Approval Ploys

If you approve or evaluate proposals or requests made by others, you've probably noticed patterns approval seekers use to enhance their success rates. Here are some tactics approval seekers use.

How to Stop Being Overworked: II

Although many of us are overloaded as a result of our own choices, some are overloaded by abusive supervisors. If you find yourself in that situation, what can you do?

Grace Under Fire: III

When someone at work seems intent on making your work life a painful agony, you might experience fear, anxiety, or stress that can lead to a loss of emotional control. Retaining composure is in that case the key to survival.

See also Workplace Politics and Workplace Politics for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming April 2: Mitigating the Trauma of Being Laid Off

Trauma is an emotional response to horrible events — accidents, crimes, disasters, physical abuse, emotional abuse, gross injustices — and layoffs. Layoff trauma is real. Employers know how to execute layoffs with compassion, but some act out of cruelty. Know how to defend yourself. Available here and by RSS on April 2.

And on April 9: Defining Workplace Bullying

When we set out to control the incidence of workplace bullying, problem number one is defining bullying behavior. We know much more about bullying in children than we do about adult bullying, and more about adult bullying than we know about workplace bullying. Available here and by RSS on April 9.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrentSgXnAlNVWlhxNIJner@ChacAtZoEYrrmofzZnjPoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info