I recently learned about something called the Gish Gallop, which I had never heard of. I was relieved to discover that people I know hadn’t heard of it either. The Gish Gallop is a debate technique deploying a firehose of bluster, often falsehoods, that the debate opponent simply can’t fact-check or even keep up with. It’s named for a Creationist back in the ‘30s called Duane Gish, who used the technique to great effect.
I had serendipitously discovered a book by Mehdi Hasan, called Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking, and this is where I learned of the Gish Gallop. Hasan says there are three things you should do when faced with the Gish Gallop. First, pick your battle. Find one element of your opponent’s argument that is wrong or a lie, and completely take it apart, reducing it to absurdity if you can. That casts doubt on the other things your opponent says. This is hard to do, and won’t always work. Second, name it. Actually say that they are using a technique called the Gish Gallop, which is designed to obfuscate and deceive. And third, don’t budge. Break up their momentum wherever possible. It’s hard to do, but you have to try.
This is all of interest to me lately as I have been thinking about the onslaught of new work and new issues facing privacy professionals. It’s like the Gish Gallop – you can’t keep up with it. There are new laws in the works, on the books, or awaiting enforcement. AI is a big new thing that we wonder whether it is above and beyond all the privacy work or just gets absorbed into the privacy work. And many businesses are looking for new ways to adapt to a changing marketplace, and that innovation creates new privacy work. What can an overwhelmed privacy pro do to cope?
In the spirit of flight attendant guidance that tells you to put your oxygen mask on first and then help your child, let’s talk about self-care. First, breathe. Find your breath, as they say. My bet is that at times in your life when you were upset and someone said, “just breathe” you thought they were nuts and completely missing the seriousness of the situation. But it’s good advice. Basic deep breathing will get your emotions under control and center you, getting you ready for the things you need to do. This works in a tense moment, and it can work more broadly as a daily practice to help you focus during stressful times.
Go outside. Connecting with nature is surely one of the best ways of centering and you are almost guaranteed to have some good ideas about how to address the problem. The list of writers, scientists, philosophers, and artists who recommend going for a walk is very long. It allows you to step outside of the problem and see it from a different angle. This spurs creativity.
Setting up an environment that allows for your creativity isn’t only useful for helping find solutions. It is empowering. Stress and creativity don’t have to be incompatible, if you’re reducing distraction and finding flow. Figure out what you need to feel more creative, and prioritize meeting that need. It’s an investment in problem solving.
We are all terribly distracted, by email, texts, phones, work, interruptions, everything. Breathing, going outside, all help with reducing distraction. Being overwhelmed is a distraction. It can be helpful to take a lesson from Mehdi Hasan fighting the Gish Gallop. Focus on one thing. It doesn’t have to be the nutty thing. Pick a problem that is in your control, and focus just on that problem. Getting one thing solved is empowering.
Figuring out what is in your control is the trick. How often have we thought that going to work shouldn’t have to be a practicum in Stoic philosophy? The Stoics are big on picking your battles, being clear about what is in your control and what is not, and making sure you’re not expending energy on things you can’t do anything about.
The key to prioritization is being clear about your purpose. What is it about feeling overwhelmed that bothers you so much? What is it keeping you from doing that you want to be doing?
Now that you’ve taken care of yourself, you can apply the same ideas to your organization. The key here is culture. Peter Drucker is credited with saying that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” A workplace culture can undermine the most brilliant strategy. But flip it around. What are the strongest elements of your culture that can drive change? Reframe.
What are the holistic and generalizable solutions to your problems? Reframe not around a particular law, but around compliance themes. Think bigger.
Get creative about setting up faster decision-making mechanisms. So much delay arises from the swirl around what to do. Get clear on who decides. Then clarify decision criteria. Keep at it, it will get better.
The first response to the Gish Gallop is focus – pick something you can fix and focus on that. Completing something is empowering and will build confidence in your team and provide a sense of control. The second Gish Gallop response is name it. It’s okay to say out loud to your team or the organization that you are overwhelmed. Name the problem. Then breathe, go outside, and get creative on solutions. The third tactic is break it up. What can you do to break the momentum of your onslaught? Here is where setting up faster decision mechanisms can help.
Finally, try to have a sense of humor about it. Humor is a powerful weapon in a debate.
Nothing I propose is a guaranteed remedy. The problems we face are hard. These suggestions are a way of stopping, reframing, and finding a different way to approach the problem.
In any disaster, crisis, or moment of feeling overwhelmed, humans seek a beacon of hope. These remedies provide hope. They are a way out. A good coach can also be a “broker of hope” or expert companion to help you see the problem in manageable pieces, and plan a strategy for moving forward.