Humans in A Bucket
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Caption: CD Cover art, “Crabs In A Bucket” by Nines (performer).
You may have heard the parable of the “Crabs in a Bucket”.
In brief, the anthropomorphic version has it that any crab that makes it to the rim of a bucket full of crabs is quickly pulled down by the other crabs.
So, the moral is that a crab on the bottom is not about to let another crab succeed.
And, we can apply that to the people we work with if those people only want what is best for themselves, not for us.
I heard that story a few decades ago and had not given it much thought until now. The odd thing was that the source of the story, a coastal town native, was to prove the ascribed moral.
She pulled me down when I needed lifting up.
Flipping the story, I put humans in the bucket (as illustrated) and wondered about the outcome.
Would humans not help each other get to freedom?
We know that most humans are cooperative and kind-intentioned. Those qualities – in our DNA – explain our survival and advancement over the millennia.
An evolutionary cliché is that “you’ll never see two monkeys carrying a log”, but there is evidence of a form of cooperation among some species, but we do not know whether it is intentional like the human kind.
In most circumstances, the people in a bucket would help each other up and out until the very last person was free.
Of course, there are exceptions but even in a bucketful of human jerks, I would expect those jerks to cooperate and help each other.
Once out, the jerks would most likely revert to their uncooperative behavior, but for that short moment it would have been an “all for one and one for all” moment, much like this illustration of a team’s effort in getting over a 12-foot tall wall.

Like the rapper Nines on the rim of the bucket, a consultant I knew would reject anyone asking for his help when they were starting out at the bottom of the consulting business.
He refused to give them a hand up. At the top of the bucket, he was kicking down!
Maybe he was being a Darwinist; the survival of the fittest, etc?
I saw it as selfish.
Because of humankind’s general inclination to cooperate and to be helpful, your skill improves and your business grows when you help people,
Keeping your expertise to yourself conceals your contacts but fails to help others and may eventually come back on you.
I wonder about the woman that told me the crabs story. I had promoted and backed her in several efforts to improve our organization all with considerable success.
But, when I needed her help, she was the crab in the bucket.
I would guess that in the guileful organization in which we worked she was only looking out for herself to survive.
What can a leader do to promote the “one for all and all for one” culture?
It’s pretty simple:
Never get petty.
Never get territorial.
Always do good for others.
Practice the Golden Rule.

Caption: Life Lessons: The Story of Little Crab a book by Travis Csoka 2021
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© Copyright all text by John Lubans 2023