Shallow Bench Syndrome Plays Havoc With Everything

What is described as a shallow bench tends to play havoc with our plans and just about everything. This syndrome has been played out on the big screen for decades. Sadly, it is very real. Think of the person that has built an empire and in his later years looks around to find those he thought or at least hoped would step up to the plate to take over his legacy are nowhere to be found. In the movies, his children are usually portrayed as playboys or girls that "just want to have fun."

The term, “shallow bench” is often used in sports. It shines a light on the obvious vulnerabilities coming from having no extra team members to call on when the situation requires it. Members of small teams usually need to play multiple roles. The result is burnout and injuries, overall this hurts their ability to compete. In our modern society, the lack of competent players ready to step into the game is evident at every level.

Unlike in the movies where a child steps up to the plate, in real life, this seldom happens. To make such an occurrence even more improbable, in the movies, the returning savior is generally a successful child that moved to the big city and has a high-powered well paying job. Yeah, right, in real life, how often does such a kid realize there is no place like home and return to take over the family business?

This syndrome has become a plague for baby boomers wishing to exit a world where work takes precedence over leisure. For people that have worked for years to build a business not finding a competent person to take over often moves retirement into the distance. I want to make it clear that this syndrome is evident everywhere from non-profit organizations to the highest level of government. In society, while there is an abundance of fools, morons, and clowns, there is a major shortage of competent motivated dedicated individuals. 

The shallow bench syndrome helps to explain why political parties put forth such a miserable group of candidates when it comes to the primaries. Whether untested, under-qualified or just plain frightening the only common quality many political candidates often display is Harris is Biden's replacement indicates this shallow bench syndrome is alive and well. Another example is the rise of Pete Buttigieg from a small-town mayor to Secretary of Transportation even though he had no background in the transportation sector. Yes, a small-town mayor, totally unqualified to make decisions about the future of how we move people and goods is now in charge of hundreds of billions of dollars.

The problem faced by those elected to office is essentially the same when it comes to filling positions of power. They look around and have few good choices to fill the hundreds of key positions within the government that continually need to be filled. Trump found this to be a huge problem. Unfortunately, the people thrown at him often rose from the very swamp he promised to drain. Others proved unable to hold up under the assault anti-Trumpers threw upon them or quickly realized working for the government was not their cup of tea. 

Moving the next moron in line up the ramp is the most common answer, and one Biden has embraced. If not he has simply turned to someone that meets a certain social demographic which tends to create even more dysfunction in an already broken system. Since businesses tend to fail when too many incompetents are allowed to integrate into their workforce, these people generally are pushed into other areas. Today our political system and institutions are full of these clowns and the fact they face a dearth of people with talent working at their side to cover their incompetence, plays havoc with everything. 

 

 (Republishing of this article welcomed with reference to Bruce Wilds/AdvancingTime Blog)