267: Babita Deokaran. Jeff Wicks. Friendship and Courage.
Good morning friends
Thank you for your feedback on my evolving LinkedIn strategy. I appreciate your time and support. Please feel free to give me input at any stage; it is an ongoing process of refinement.
I love dictionary people, Merriam-Webster’s recent advertisement for their Large Language Model. It reminded me of a t-shirt worn by Cape Town’s librarians several years ago. It declared, “The Original Search Engine”.
And, in case you missed it, this year’s Booker Prize shortlist has been released, as has the Goldsmith’s Prize for books challenging the novel’s form.
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/strategy
Friendships are an underrated source of strategic success.
They increase our resilience.
A longitudinal study of 2,835 nurses found that women who had ten friends or more were four times more likely to survive breast cancer than women who had no friends. A Swedish study of 17,000 people found that stronger social connections decreased the risk of dying from all causes by 25% over six years.
They make us smarter.
Sociologist Mark Gravonetter’s research shows that even the lower-intensity cultivation of a network of weaker, more casual ties correlates strongly with finding better work.
Friendships increase the complexity of our social systems, increasing our access to intelligence and opportunities. In turn, enriching empathy, increasing our situational awareness and intelligence; cornerstones of powerful strategy.
They make us happier.
Research shows that even the simple but intentional action of making eye contact, smiling at and interacting with your barista makes you feel better with an increased sense of belonging in the world.
We are social creatures.
The above research is cited in Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz’s The Good Life and How to Live It: Lessons from the World’s Longest Study on Happiness.
To strengthen connections at work, they suggest we explore these four sets of questions:
- Who are the people I most enjoy and value at work? What is it about them that is valuable? Have I appreciated them (i.e. have I told them how they contribute to my life?)
- Who is different from me in some way (who thinks differently, comes from a different background, has different expertise), and what can I learn from that person?
- What kinds of connections am I missing at work that I want more of? What actions could I take to make those connections more likely or richer?
- Do I really know my workmates? What could I do to demonstrate curiosity and an intention to deepen connection?
I’ve been using these storytelling cards in team settings to prompt more connected conversations.
Be warned. They’re not the ‘what’s your favourite movie’ variety. They require thought and vulnerability. The results are worth the effort.
[Connie Hadley does fascinating research on the power of friendship in the workplace; read more here.]
//self
Jeff Wicks’ The Shadow State: Why Babita Deokaran had to die tells the story of widespread corruption in the Department of Health in South Africa’s most populous province, Gauteng.
Babita Deokaran was a chief accountant in the Department of Health. She had uncovered what she suspected was large-scale looting and alerted her seniors. Then, on 23 August 2021, she was assassinated.
Wicks’ book uncovers the details of the R2.3 billion fraud that led to Deokaran’s murder.
Plastic buckets purchased for R9,800 each. Forceps, costing R70, bought for R2,500. Headblocks, costing R700, bought for R4485. Cervical collars, costing R120, sold for R2,106.
Tender upon tender, amounting to billions stolen, directly compromising the healthcare of the country’s most vulnerable people.
Those implicated bought property in South Africa’s most prestigious suburbs, amongst others, Camps Bay for R32million, Llandudno for R75million, Sandton for R16million, and the requisite stable of customised supercars.
Deokaran’s assassins are in jail, but those who perpetrated this large-scale looting are not.
Deokaran and Wicks set examples for us.
Deokaran spotted two trends. First, Tembisa hospital, a relatively small hospital, the site of the looting, was spending nearly as much as South Africa’s largest hospitals. Second, most of the expenditure was just beneath R500,000, skirting the fringes of more rigorous procurement requirements.
After her murder, her laptop and cell phone were taken into evidence. Wicks, with her family’s help, got them returned.
Then, with his leadership team’s support, he found experts who could access the information. An action that the police had, wilfully or neglectfully, not taken.
Deokaran spotted an aberration. She could’ve shrugged her shoulders. She investigated. Wicks could have reported on her killing and moved on. He went further. Deokaran’s brother might not have pushed to get his sister’s devices. He got them. Wicks’ leadership team could have refused the risk or cost of the investigation. They backed him.
All along the way, each person paused and then did more. They found the edge and stepped to it. They asked, ‘And what else?’
It is a challenge that life confronts us with every day.
Will we do just enough to get by, or will we make a difference?
The horror behind Deokaran and Wicks’ work is how blatant, how poorly hidden the theft was. It speaks, not to the thieves’ incompetence but to their confidence. A confidence that no one would look, and if they did no one would ask, and if they did, no-one would pursue or prosecute.
It is an important leadership lesson – how we treat violations sets our culture and shapes others’ actions.
Alongside the failures, Wicks tells us of Captain Freddy Hicks, a police detective who ensured Deokaran’s killers were caught and Advocate Andy Mothibi, head of the Special Investigating Unit, who is still pursuing the thieves.
In every system, we have the opportunity and obligation to identify and support excellence.
Three weeks ago, the SIU together with the National Prosecuting Authority attached the assets of one of the people implicated in the thefts.
They commented, “Maumela’s identified assets amount to around R520,000,000, including luxury vehicles and properties valued at R293,434,000.” Amongst the motor vehicles were a Lamborghini Urus Aventador SVJ, a Lamborghini Huracan STO, a Lamborghini Aventador Ultimate Coupe, a Lamborghini Urus and a Bentley Continental GT V8.
I would love to know what Stephan Winkelmann and Frank-Steffen Walliser, CEOs of Lamborghini and Bentley respectively, feel about this association.
We would know none of this without Wicks’ persistence.
He knew none of it when he started.
Share this post to increase awareness of his work. Better still, buy the book, read it, and share your own reflections.
When we celebrate people like Deokaran, Wicks, Hicks and Mothibi, we recreate our world.
(Thank you Ralph Freese for bringing The Shadow State into my ambit. See? Friends make you smarter.)
///soul
Pulitzer Prize Winner Richard Powers’ most recent novel, Playground, starts with the story of Taʻaroa, the Polynesian creator god.
Ta’aroa existed before everything. He encloses himself in an egg. After ages in solitude, he breaks open the egg. The pieces of eggshell become Earth’s foundations. His spine becomes islands and mountains, his tears of loneliness fill oceans, lakes and rivers with life, he plucks his feathers to create trees and bushes which he fills with birds, he uses his blood to paint rainbows across the sky. The world is god and god is world.
As the Earth emerges from Ta’aroa’s essence, more life unfolds. Each creation sparking new creation. Life begetting life, divinity flowing through everything.
In Ta’aroa’s world, we are all united: gods, humans, animals, plants, land, and sea all made of the same divine substance.
We are the makers of heaven and hell.
This week, the people aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla expressed the same principle of connection, the one South Africans know as Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu — that our humanity is realised in relationship; that dignity and moral worth flow from being embedded in community. I am grateful for their courage.
Best wishes
Karl
PS: You can learn about my executive coaching practice [here]. If you’re interested in increasing your leadership team’s strategic, communication and reflective powers, details are [here]. You can subscribe to this letter [here].