"I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that…." – who’s REALLY in charge of the Planet?

The current climate of fear, apprehension and inertia is paralysing the world. The City of London is like a wake after a funeral. Their old friend The Economy has just been cremated and the once thriving institutions have more or less gone up in smoke. The rest of us are asking ourselves “how did this happen?”

Paradoxically have we been lured into a false sense of security by all the rules and regulations, and compliance which was meant to ensure that the money ‘machine’ worked perfectly?

In the film 2001 A Space Odyssey when things start going wrong, astronaut Dave Bowman wises up to the scheming super computer that controls his space station – Hal 9000. Dave decides to take matters into his own hands to disconnect the computer, whilst carrying on a conversation with Hal who speaks with that chilling, blue blood voice.

Have we all been relying so much on the box ticking exercises so much (in all areas of our lives, not just economics), that we’ve removed the one sure fire mechanism that can spot a problem a mile off – human instinct and common sense? I know that I wouldn’t be able to function as a personal Coach without using my intuition.

All the check lists, procedures and regulations in Christendom can’t replace that which has evolved over the millennia – Intuition, experience and (shock horror!) gut instinct.

Of course now it’s all gone horribly wrong the pendulum has swung wildly in the opposite direction and panic has set in. Isn’t it time we stopped worshipping at the altar of technology and compliance?

Yes process has its place but pure logic is only one half of the equation. The current lack of trust between the institutions is being driven by – you guessed it – feelings……
Because we don’t trust our own judgement any more, and worse than that because we’re not using this skill enough, we’re losing the edge! Instead we are scared of our own shadow and the entire planet has lost its confidence. We are waiting, waiting for the silver bullet to put things right.

Of course it’s too late to apportion blame, but I am sure there are many in the financial institutions who may at some point before this happened, had a ‘notion’ that something was wrong which needed to be flagged up. But nobody had the courage to stand up and say anything….

Which leads me to ask the question: are we running the system, or is the system running us? Although sadly, it seems evident to me that even if we DID ask ‘the question’ the answer would probably be…… “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that…..”