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Ignorance cannot recognise itself

10.01.2020 // Leave a Comment

I remember Ash Wednesday like it was yesterday. The 16th of February 1983. It was my grandmother’s 67th birthday. I rode my bike to school that day so when Mum walked into my year 6 classroom to collect me, I knew something must be wrong. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by gale force winds had left a path of destruction spanning from South Australia where I grew up, right through to Victoria. Years of severe drought and extreme weather combined to create one of Australia’s worst fire days in a century. There were 28 deaths in South Australia that day, and 47 in Victoria, including 14 CFA and 3 CFS volunteer fire-fighters.

The fire was extinguished before it reached our town, but as a young child it scarred me. “It” wasn’t just one day, but years punctuated by death and destruction and recovery. Entire towns had been wiped out and swathes of farmland razed, left desolate of life. My Dad worked for months afterwards, cutting down the burnt pine forests, only returning home every few days literally black with caked-on soot. The impact of the fires was inescapable.

And so I’ve spent a lifetime terrified, and somewhat obsessed, by bushfires.

After the Black Saturday fires, I took on a worker at our farm whose wife and two young sons died on that horrendous day. They had a bushfire survival plan, but when fireballs grew taller than skyscrapers upon the horizon, they realised it wouldn’t be safe to stay. Rod ran out to the shed to fetch the car but by the time he got back the house, they were gone. 173 lives were lost that day.

Bushfires are ferocious and awful and cruel, and in our rugged Australian landscape they are as inevitable as drought and flood. As I write this, our farm in the NSW Southern Highlands sits at the epicentre of three separate fire fronts. Of course, I’m hoping they won’t reach us. Or at least will travel slowly enough to allow livestock and wildlife to retreat, and firebreaks around buildings to be effective. But for now, all I can do is follow my fire plan and the advice of our local Rural Fire Service, who are doing a superb job of keeping us informed and safe. Not just this week or this month, but all year round.

It’s a stressful and frightening and exhausting time. Many of the towns where lives and homes have been lost are very familiar to me.  But what makes it even harder is the opinion being sprouted in the media and online by every man and his dog, all playing the blame game and making demands about what should be done. Even though most of them have no flaming idea of the complexities at play.    

They’re so sure that they’re right, it doesn’t enter their consciousness to consider an alternate point of view. And why is that?  Because ignorance cannot recognise itself.

Of course, it’s not just about the fires. All around us, across all facets of life, we see examples every day of people who simply do not possess the skills needed to recognise their own incompetence or lack of knowledge. They’re ignorant, but they don’t know what they don’t know.

This form of cognitive bias has a name: the Dunning-Kruger Effect.  What psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger identified in their research is that people who are less competent consistently over-rate their abilities while – paradoxically – those with higher levels of expertise tend to under-rate them.

And, as the level of knowledge and capability increases from zero up, the level of confidence will actually drop as the individual begins to appreciate just how much they have to learn; and only rebuild as a level of expertise is attained.

In other words, the less we know, the more confident we are; and the more we learn, the more we realise there is to learn.

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The RFS and Fire and Rescue – along with all our emergency services and first responders right across Australia’s fire affected areas – have done a sterling job. It’s not over yet, but when you consider the loss of life this summer as compared with other catastrophic bushfires, it’s really quite remarkable.  And this has much to do with what we’ve learned from past disasters, from the emergency services and systems that have been put in place, and from the expertise that has been developed across our agencies to plan for and manage our fire seasons, which are increasing in intensity.

So, if you have time on your hands and feel compelled to offer advice about the current bushfire disaster, can I suggest that you stop and think twice. It might be that you don’t know what you don’t know, and perhaps a simple “thank you” to our frontline may be more appropriate.

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Jen Dalitz

2 years ago

Jen Dalitz

Thought since it's too hot to ride today I'd write another post with some more insights from my equestrian adventures. This one is about the hogwash of goal setting and was inspired by the influx of deals in my inbox from so-called "experts" and "thought leaders" offering their services to assist me in setting goals for 2020.

BREAKING NEWS: Setting goals won't of itself make change - it takes relentless hard work to turn a dream into reality and you have to be willing to stay the distance.

Happy new year everyone, and may you stay the distance to achieve all the good things you’re willing to work hard for. I can't wait to follow your success!

#dreams #goalsetting #staythedistance #thisisleadership

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Will you stay the distance? - Jen Dalitz

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As is customary this time of year, many people are planning their resolutions and setting their goals for the year ahead. An increasing number of ...
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Jen Dalitz

2 years ago

Jen Dalitz

There’s a saying in the equestrian world that the horse always comes first. That means, amongst other things, that in the morning the horse gets breakfast before you even put the coffee on to brew; when you arrive at an outing you set up base camp in a safe place with a fresh supply of water and tether your steed before setting up your own swag; and when you get home in the dark after hours of driving and the adrenaline of competing has long evaporated, it’s the horse that gets unloaded and fed and packed away first.

This extends to inspecting the dressage arena or show jumping course to identify potential hazards or gradients or tricky lines that can make the going tougher; and to walking a cross-country course to scout out any obstacles that might surprise or spook the horse. In so doing, the rider can be prepared to sooth her horse over any lairy logs or daring ditches that may otherwise seem impossibly high or wickedly wide to navigate at full gallop.

Quite apart from the issue of animal welfare, riders put their horse first because they need their horse to believe in them. Together they form a partnership, a special bond and trust that plays out not only on the ground but more importantly when mounted, where the stakes are higher and there’s less wriggle room for getting out of sticky spots. Manoeuvring half a tonne of flight animal around obstacles at pace requires a willingness and commitment by the horse to follow the rider’s lead, come what may.

The horse for his part will do this without blinking, knowing that the rider always has his interests at heart. He learns that when the going gets tough his rider will be right there with him, offering encouragement and a kind word or a scratch on the neck when reassurance is called for.

A horse will follow the lead of its trusted and competent rider, even though it’s sheer size and might offers a clear and ever-present choice to not follow.

One might draw parallels from the power and persuasion of the horse and the confidence it draws from its rider, to the sheer size and scale of a nation and the confidence it draws from its appointed leaders.

The nation, through its population dispersed geographically and economically across country or continent, has a clear and present choice as to follow it’s political leaders, or not. Whether to believe in its leaders, or not. Whether to elect or re-elect its leaders, or not.

I believe the single greatest determinant in this choice is whether a constituent feels that they come first, or not.

Of course, coming first will mean different things to different people but there are certain factors that at an aggregated level will be universal. Factors like leaders being present, decisive, compassionate and showing they care in times of crisis.

Think Anna Bligh during the Queensland floods. Kevin Rudd in the aftermath of Black Saturday. John Howard in the devastating wake of the Bali bombings.

And then there’s Scott Morrison. As I write, bushfires are raging across five states and there have been “watch and act” and emergency levels incidents for months. Mr Morrison’s home state of New South Wales is in the throes of a megafire the likes of which the Rural Fire Service has never seen. Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia are also on tenterhooks as a mostly-voluntary army of firefighters decide hour-by-hour, day-by-day and week-by-week where to prioritise their emergency response.

Against this backdrop, Mr Morrison decided the time was right to take a family vacation to Hawaii, far away from the smoke and haze that his constituents in Sydney have been enduring for weeks. It was only the tragic deaths of two volunteer firefighters, both young men with young families and in the prime of their lives, that inspired Mr Morrison to cut short his holiday and return home a day earlier.

Upon his return, and during a press conference at the NSW Rural Fire Service headquarters in Sydney, Mr Morrison stated the obvious: "I get it that people would have been upset to know that I was holidaying with my family while their families were under great stress”.

Umm. Yes. It’s surely a reasonable expectation that our elected leader would stand with his people during a crisis of such magnitude, if not through a feeling of genuine concern or obligation then surely to at least to create an impression as such?

He then added “But I'm comforted by the fact that Australians would like me to be here, just simply so I can be here, alongside them as they're going through this terrible time ... and I apologise for that."

My view is it’s not so much that I would like him to be here at this time; but that I can’t understand why he wouldn’t want to be here with the citizens of the country he leads, at what for many is their darkest hour.

It surely doesn’t feel like his citizens come first.
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Jen Dalitz

3 years ago

Jen Dalitz

Oh dear. Poor Leigh Sales. For many women though, the business kiss is an increasingly frequent occurrence. So, is there ever a place for it? My thoughts on the matter here... and what managers and people leaders should do now. ... See MoreSee Less

Is there ever a place for the business kiss?

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Friends you may have heard me on ABC radio today commenting on Leigh Sales' unwanted lip-kiss while MC'ing at a charity event on the weekend. While it...
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Jen Dalitz

3 years ago

Jen Dalitz

What are the lessons you’re teaching your kids? We took the opportunity of a holiday long weekend to visit my mum interstate as the timing of the trip coincided with my son’s favourite AFL team battling it out against my mum’s beloved team. Perhaps only those of you with the love for AFL will appreciate why we’d plan a long distance trip around a game of footy, but suffice to say it was a passion project! With every ounce of anticipation, the game was a tough, tight duel and could easily have gone either way. Yet when the final siren sounded, it wasn’t our team that was smiling. It sure is tough for a 10 year old boy to sit within a crowd 41,000+ people all cheering for the opposite side. It was tough for him to see the exhaustion and disappointment on the faces of the players he adores. And yet, it’s so important for him to learn that his team won’t always win. There’s so many lessons in that, but the one I chose to instil is that you won’t always back the team that wins but you’ll always back the team that you love. That’s why I asked him to wear his team colours home the next day, and show his support even when the chips are down. That’s the kind of commitment I want my son to learn and the kind of team player I want him to be. PS. #gotheGiants @GWSGiants #neversurrender ... See MoreSee Less

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Jen Dalitz

3 years ago

Jen Dalitz

I haven’t been here in a while as the writing has been on hold. But I was reminded today that there are things in our life that light us up. That might take us out of our comfort zone but, once you sit with it, bring you both joy and a sense of “I can do this” achievement. These moments are such a gift. So I’m curious, what’s your special thing that lights you up?

Despite (or in spit of) my professional career, these moments for me normally involve my horses. I’ll never be an equestrian Olympian, but I take great pleasure in all the lessons my horses teach me. They remind me that it’s a team effort, we’re in it together, and that if I’m prepared to give a little bit more, they will too. That’s true whether we’re on the ground taking care of their feet, or grooming, or when I’m atop riding as one. Two hearts one team.
It’s hard to describe the adrenaline and joy they bring to my life. But I’d love to know, what lights you up??
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