Chicken Mind Nuggets.
Hosted by Wifey
Chickenmindnuggets.com
chickenmindnuggets@gmail.com
@mindchicken
References for this episode
Introduction music graciously provided by
Music from https://filmmusic.io "Thinking Music" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Show script: (may differ slightly from spoken word)
Chicken Little Syndrome is characterized by the lack of help from peers, friends, or loved ones, coupled with their driven desire for results. Have you ever worked on a project and everyone wanted to benefit from the results, but not provide any help? Have you ever tried to solve a problem, and everyone is waiting on the solution, but no one offers to help fix it? These are cases of Chicken Little Syndrome. Everyone wants the bread, but no one wants to help plant the wheat. It’s common among work groups, friend circles, and within families, but we don’t know what to call it besides, “irritating.” You are working hard to plant and grow the wheat, water it every day, turn the wheat into flour, and make breads that everyone wants to enjoy. This type of results-sucking is unfortunate, because I don’t think a lot of people know they are a part of a Chicken Little Syndrome scenario. I am aware of the real story on chicken little; how they thought the sky was falling and the story of the little red hen is the one who made the bread. But feeling the weight on your shoulders of everything depending on you is why I am calling it Chicken Little Syndrome. We all have tendencies to stand back and let someone else run the show because we are too afraid, or too unskilled to be able to participate. Sometimes we prefer to turn the other way and not look at the train wreck because you don’t want to see the disaster, but you want to know the outcome. Why do we stand back and let one person, one little chicken do all the work, or take all the heat? Is it our nature or nurture to self-preserve to the point to where we lose our compassion for the person who is bearing the weight of the world? When we step back from the situation and feel relief that it is not us going through it, do we also feel the loss of being connected to another human being? Why can’t we use our pair or grow a pair in needed circumstances? I think some of us are born to plant and harvest wheat and some of us are born to bake the bread, but all of us are able to see the situation from an outside the farm situation and observe who is doing the most work. How have you felt when your boss leaves you with the sole responsibility for a project when you know 14 more hands can help? Are you leaving someone else trapped in their circumstance because this is your way of getting back at your boss?
I think it’s important to point out when Chicken Little Syndrome is happening because it reminds the group that everyone bears responsibilities. Not everyone will take their fair share, in fact I work with certain people who refuse to help and do the work correctly because of their attachment to their ego-driven soap-box pillar of rightful thinking. It matters that you point out what is happening. Call out the elephant in the room. Embrace the discomfort that you will go through by being observant and outward. You won’t get everyone to be on board with you and some people will be pushed away further once you point out that they are a part of Chicken Little Syndrome. The point isn’t to shame anyone, or label anyone as bad or lazy, it’s to bring to light a harmful situation with group benefits created by one person. Chicken Little Syndrome is also a chance to check your boundaries. Did you end up in this situation because you say yes too much or didn’t ask for help? Have you taken a third-person look at yourself to see if you have isolated people from working with you? Have you kept knowledge to your self that only you know which puts you in a risky/valuable/selfish situation? Chicken Little Syndrome can be self-induced.
The sky may be falling, the bread may need baking, the field may need tilling, and the plants may need watering. Don’t try to hero yourself into a burn-out position with left-over guilt that turns into “woes are me’s” about not at least trying to ask for help. You can tell the world that it is too heavy and other Earthly citizens need to help you with weight. Those that have checked themselves for self-induced Chicken Little Syndrome will be the ones who take a couple of pounds off your back.
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