Newton’s Third Law of Motion is:
For every Action, there is an equal and opposite Reaction
As a female engineer, I discovered there is a similar law in the male-dominated workplace:
When one man Acts, all other men must React
Early in my career, my Reaction to this phenomena was to ask: “What are you guys doing?”
To me it was wild to watch the frenzy of activity that went in all different directions as each man gave his individual response.
Why do men act this way?
They do it to maintain a balance of power and their individual status. Now as women, we’re told men aspire to have power over each other.
Not true.
Men don’t want power over each other as much as they don’t want another man to have power over them. In other words, men want Autonomy more than power.
So, when one man acts, all other men must react in a way that shows they are not subjugated to the actor. If the actor acts in a way to prove his power over other men, then expect those men to rebel.
Any man who doesn’t react is seen as weak. He isn’t a man who has a manly sense of self or self-respect. He is a submissive man who can easily be used and manipulated.
Being a woman, this law of the male-dominated workplace didn’t apply to me, so I didn’t react. Then of course a man asked in a frenzied, panicked voice “Aren’t you going to do something?”
My response was typically:
“Do what? I’m not going to react just to react. If I need to react, I will react and I will do so with the appropriate response.”
In the first couple of years of my career men’s Law of Action and Reaction created one of my biggest pet peeves about working with men:
Too many men shooting from the hip.
It drove me nuts.
When men shoot from the hip, they don’t take the time to figure out the appropriate and best response. They don’t even take the time to figure out what really happened. They just React. Consequently, they create new but completely avoidable problems. Men call this:
The Law of Unintended Consequences
I call it: The Law of IGNORED Consequences.
Resolving unintended consequences wastes a lot of time and money which is my other big pet peeve. So, out of my frustration I got very forceful at breaking the Law of Action and Reaction.
One time when I was leading a meeting something happened. As soon as the guys started reacting, I ran and stood in front of the door. As I barred the door, I said:
“Guys, STOP! You don’t know what you are doing.”
That got their attention because challenging men’s competency is always a good way to get their attention. That’s another law of the male-dominated workplace.
Before they could React to me, I would tell them:
“Do you guys even know what you are reacting to? No, you don’t. So, let’s stop and figure out what is going on so we can respond the right way and we shut him down, for good.”
You see, in the male-dominated workplace the Law of Action and Reaction is perpetual. The original actor interprets the initial Reaction to his initial Action as an Action, so then he must React. This Reaction is then interpreted by the original reactors as a new Action so they must React again. As so it goes back and forth.
This back and forth can go on and on for days, weeks, months, years…
A great example of this is the Stock Market.
Something happens. The big investors immediately make the market plunge or soar. But is the reaction the correct response? There is no way to know because there is no tangible change in the performance of a company or sector yet. They react to possibility of a change.
Then when other men see the big guys acting, they get worked up into a frenzy:
“I have to React. I have to React.”
These “Momentum Investors,” then drive the market way too far up or way too far down – far beyond a reasonable response to the situation. But this is what happens when everyone is just reacting to what everyone else is doing.
The Stock Market calls it “Volatility.” I call it “Stupidity.” There is no need for it if we stop and think about the situation.
(However, on the positive side, it does create great opportunities for women to make money if we buy low when men over-tank the market and sell high when men get way too enthusiastic.)
In the list of tangible values women bring to the male-dominated workplace, our ability to break the Law of Action and Reaction is at the top.
It is of enormous value because we can stop the behavior that leads to the creation of wasted time, money and manpower. When we stop or disrupt this behavior we can make a huge direct and meaningful impact on productivity and the bottom line of our workplace.
Empowered Women Don’t React Blindly. They Respond Appropriately.
Making a video version of this blog to post on YouTube is on my to-do list. Stay tuned…and in the meantime, watch my other videos.