This is written for remote mid-level managers (those that have both bosses and direct reports, so they are in the middle) that face problems where the bosses want problems solved but they do not want to involve your direct reports in the problem-solving.
Said another way, the bosses do not want to be honest that they are human, don’t know all the answers, and struggle like all of us with image, reputation, and honesty.
So here are the characters in our trick. Pay attention to who is who.
Your bosses will be the people seeking enlightenment. They need to solve a problem and look amazing doing it. They need the heavens to open and for the solution (so obvious!) to come beaming down to them. They will receive all of the sunshine and glory in this model. Thus bosses = ancient people of Israel, they seek direction or answers.
You are mid-level management. I only define that as someone who has a boss or bosses of your own that you answer to AND you have people who answer to you. There can be many middle levels–it doesn’t matter how many levels for this trick to work.
You are Aaron, you are the speaker, you talk.
The direct reports or the hoi polli are your front-line workers that have direct hands-on with the problem. They report to you. Because they are front-line, they know the problem the best and thus, they are Moses.
Your direct reports are Moses, they hold the knowledge or enlightenment.
Got that? It’s a bit inverted in terms of “power” but it’s correct in terms of “enlightenment” or “who knows what.”
So, pre-pandemic, web conferencing or conference calls were not very common as they are post-pandemic with Zoom being now a noun and verb in addition to a brand name. In my situation we primarily used phone-in conference calls but at the end of this article, I’ll give some suggestions on how to do the Moses and Aaron Trick with Zoom.
Here is the scenario: your institution faces a problem. The front line workers know the most about it, but the bosses have been tasked with finding a solution. The bosses, however, do not want the hoi polloi in meetings with them, so front line direct reports are excluded from problem-solving meetings. Thus, only mid-level managers will be there to represent the front line. So that is a key characteristic cluing you into this situation. You have to be the lowest ranking person in the remote room to successfully use the Moses and Aaron trick.
We used a phone conference calling system for meetings (a 1-800 number plus a passcode). If you were invited to the meeting, you received the passcode in the meeting invitation. What I knew about this system is that attendance WAS tracked and could be traced (this is an example of the tech back doors that I often detect at my workplaces). But I also knew that almost no one ever looked at attendance logs of internal-only meetings. There were “beeps” on the line when someone entered or left the line but again, few presenters were nimble enough to remember what codes to press on a keypad to get the number of current attendees.
So, you could sneak someone in.
I sneak in my Moses.
When the meeting conditions were just right, I prepared my Moses to join the call. We staged it so that they would dial in just at the same time I would and in case there was any question as to “who just joined us” I would make some excuse about hanging up accidentally instead of hitting mute and that I had entered twice. In truth, the second beep was my Moses entering and staying on mute. I also had my Moses especially situate themselves in a quiet situation just in case the mute broke (yes, mutes can break.) Final set up item: Moses would be on instant messenger with me.
Ha! You really need to pick up these remote tips, people!
In my cases, I was not on camera but you can be (I’ll explain how later). So I could tip-tap away on my keyboard during the meeting and even if the sound of the keyboard came through the call, typing during calls was very normal for my bosses.
They were somewhat famous for instant messaging back and forth all day to each other to the point of obvious distraction during our supposed 1:1 phone call check-ins, but whatever. My point is that typing was not considered rude or out of bounds. I generally observe now that it is even MORE true now.
I knew I was going to be asked detailed questions about the problem during this problem-solving meeting (how many? Did we try…? What shade of blue was it?) so my Moses would IM me the answers that I would then talk (I’m the Aaron, the talker.)
This trick worked brilliantly!
When it came time to leave, I would just do a “pretend fumble” again so that they would not notice 2 departing beeps (if they noticed at all).
Before I tell you the next story, you might be thinking “Oh but, this seems dishonest!” You are right! It is! I’m using a tech loophole–they are not checking that 6 people are on a 5 person call. But I would like to point out that the solution is for the bosses to be OK with hoi polloi being in the room helping problem solve in the first place!
It is about bosses not wanting those direct reports to see or hear them that represents the true problem here. I’d point out that some organizations don’t have this problem. Disney is famous for asking their front line employees for proposed solutions when they face a problem. It is possible to ask for help and NOT lose face as organizational leaders.
And my next story starts right there. My workplace was facing a problem and the problem-solving meetings were being drawn up. My direct reports knew that they were not being invited and they wondered–why? What’s the big deal? What is discussed in these secret meetings that they cannot be witness to?
It was about to be revealed to them.
Now, I have to take you on a very short side story where karma comes to visit:
One day, my boss was unhappy with a team metric and instructed me word-for-word to bring the hammer down on my team. I did so. One of the team members went to HR and said “Our boss is creating a climate of fear.” HR called my boss and said “We have complaints about your underling creating a climate of fear.” In an evil genius move, my boss said “I’ll handle this.” He raked me over the coals. I reminded him that this ‘climate of fear’ was instigated and approved of by him. He kicked that away, saying it was all my fault. He then returned to my team and reassured them “I’ve warned her. You can trust me.”
Meanwhile, I went to HR and explained my side of the story. When I said “Yes, I created a climate of fear–because my boss told me to.” HR said “Oh well, he must have been having a bad day that day.” I said “Yes, but he has the power to target my bonuses and pay raise with his bad day– that would be highly unfair.” (Not to mention the damage done to my team by said fear climate). HR was unconcerned. And my boss did use this as an excuse to target my pay. I received no manager bonus and no pay raise that year. Boss 1, me 0.
But what ho! Here arrived a need to do the Moses & Aaron Trick with this exact team and with the team leader who went to HR about me. Even though my team was wrong about me, I knew they had been misled, so I harbored no ill will towards them.
So here we go: I prep for Moses and Aaron Trick because I needed it for a separate work problem.
I prepped this new specific Moses to join the call. The call was cantankerous. Multiple departments were casting blame. It’s your fault! No, it’s your fault! At one point, a different department lobbed a particularly tough accusation at me and my Moses/team “They are lazy. They are not doing their work! They should all be written up for not doing their jobs!”
My Moses heard this. It was about HER.
And my boss heard it too. Before I could get a word out, he immediately kow-towed to the accusation “You know, you could be right. Maybe they are not doing their jobs. Maybe I should have them written up. Hmm.”
My Moses had a FIT on instant messenger with me.
“How dare he? We are working 60 hour work weeks on this problem!…” and further protests.
I sat there aghast and covered my mouth to stop my giggling. I had just seen the boss that had so happily driven the bus over me a few months prior now drive the bus over my Moses.
Karma, Fate, Call It What You Will.
My Moses was devastated. I still laugh about the entire incident with tears in my eyes (it was ridiculous and terrible) because I snuck her in. I could have witnessed my boss drive the bus over her on my own, but instead, she heard it directly from him. He never knew that she heard.
After the meeting ended, I kept working on the problem and life continued but I have not forgotten that my Moses really got an earful that day.
How would you do a Moses and Aaron trick now with Zoom and cameras? If the meeting is in a non-Zoom platform, there are still plenty of ways to be anonymous or conceal your identity online.
If you are at a workplace, of course, you MUST assume that all keyboards have keyloggers (they probably do) and all internet traffic is watched (it probably is) and use a different internet connection but I hope you are wise enough to figure that out.
Just yesterday, video dropped of the Better.com Zoom call layoffs. From the video, it’s clear it was captured from a phone that was watching a laptop. Basically, a well-backed up smartphone is a good alternative access system for meetings.
What about typing your IMs during the call? I recently observed that it seems to be acceptable now, without question, that people will be typing during meetings. I’m happy to see this– as kinesthetic actions during meetings can really help some of us that need to move to stay mentally active. It might be assumed that you are typing notes. Just be nimble with explaining your typing. 🙂
If you made it to the end of this, bravo! Remember that the Moses and Aaron Trick is about problem-solving for mid-level managers. Sometimes you are stuck between the folks that know the answers (but can’t enact the power) and the power holders (who don’t have a clue what to do). It has been done and I encourage you to use this trick if you need to.
I hope, truly, that you never do.
