The Gauntlet

There is a great scene from the Clint Eastwood movie, “The Gauntlet”. The Clint Eastwood character is asked, “Why do you think they gave you this job?” and Eastwood responds, “Because I get the job done”. His boss retorts, “No, it’s because you don’t get the job done, you were never supposed to get this job done”. And that, in a nutshell is what we call the Gauntlet syndrome.

When an analyst is brought in on a hopeless task for the sake of either showing progress, or for documenting that everything conceivable has been done and we are still failing. This is the nefarious twist. The same result occurs when the analyst is brought in on a project with a known outcome. You are there to prove that the right solution has already been discovered. Woe be to the analyst that thinks they can make a difference or perhaps worse yet, finds an actual solution to the problem. What’s left is nothing short of having to run a bureaucratic gauntlet that will leave you bloody and near dying if you have the guts to run through.

Most don’t have the guts to run through it, or having started will back down when their health begins to fail. Let’s say on some odd occasion the analyst makes it through. Perhaps, they might exclaim, “I stuck to it and I won, and the system works”. This is the height of nonsense. The system did not work if it takes months or years for the truth the emerge and for people to put everything on the line in it’s pursuit. Also, should you win, the ramifications could be the stigma of someone who was noble in their efforts but could be labeled as not a team player or someone who was a zealot in their own right.

We have seen this many times before. The best analyst is the one who can maintain a bit of independence from a problem. The best advocate is someone with a true interest in correcting the problem. If you are close to the issue you might be willing to run the gauntlet. If you are removed you will probably be unwilling to get bloody over the issue even if you know you have the truth in the palm of your hand.

So by definition the system does not work. And we, all of us, are perhaps no greater than the Eastwood character. We were brought in believing we can get the job done. But no one actually believed that we could, or we were really just supposed to go through the actions to support an a priori answer, or worse a decision that had already been made. This just makes us process bureaucrats and you don’t need a whole lot of education in our disciplines to be one of those.

So you have to decide each time – as you peer down through the gauntlet. Do you have enough protection to make it through? Is this one worth getting bloody over? This will probably be the most frustrating dilemma you will have to face. We can only offer that at times like these, if you haven’t done your homework, if you haven’t done the analysis to the best of your ability, if you haven’t followed the prescription for the truth that we hope we have captured as you move forward through these pages, this might not be the time to run down the rabbit hole. But if you have, if you are in possession of the facts, and have the answers to the majority of the questions that will come from both sides of the gauntlet, can there be anything short of life and death combat that could bring heighten your sense of awareness and make you feel alive. Don’t let it consume you; don’t let the sleepless nights ruin your health. But do occasionally run the gauntlet. That is what you are getting paid to do.