Wrong People in the Wrong Places

Wrong people in the wrong places:

What do we really mean?

Square pegs in round holes is

Often used to describe this scene.

Wrong people and wrong places

Do you see what I am getting at?

Everything is wrong here

And nothing can change this fact.

Are wrong people right for anything?

Where do they fit if they are wrong?

Can a place be found for them?

Or is a misfit only where they are strong?

Can a right place be found?

Can a wrong person be in a right place?

Wrong people in the right places

Even that doesn’t sound in good taste.

Wrong people in the wrong places,

This cliché is so often abused

That the dunce as well as the educated

Feels quite smug in propagating its misuse. 

It just doesn’t make any sense

O dear simpleton, can’t you see?

All right!  I can see the wrong person

But where O where can that wrong place be?

Let us study a scenario for just a minute,

Someone is put a particular position

But he or she doesn’t do well

Even though with high recommendation.

Perhaps he or she is wrong for the position

But tell me what’s wrong with the place?

Does that wrong person make the place wrong too?

No sense in that; not even a trace.

Was that position seriously needed?

Or was it just politically expedited?

If the place was needed it can’t be wrong,

I hope on this we are all united.

Wrong people in the wrong places

That just does not make any sense

So throw out the over worked cliché

For all who use it there is no defense.

Square pegs in wrong holes?

I may be willing to accept

But wrong people in wrong places

I most definitely reject.

It’s a misnomer if ever there was one

 And I guess you know what that means,

It means a way of saying nothing

It’s better that we decide to come clean.

The place is right but the man is not

And there is someone to fill the spot

Hence the right man for the right place

That’s the way to improve the lot.

The right people in the right places

It’s for that we need to aim

And when we do I am sure we will find

Wrong people in wrong places are not to blame.

For it can never happen, that cliché of sorts

When things never seem to go right

Wrong people in the wrong places - not at all

It’s the wrong man that causes the blight.

So look again; consider what you say,

Contemplate it from head to toe,

This saying, perhaps centuries old

Doesn’t make sense; I hope you can see this is so.

Wrong people in the right places

Now who is to blame?

I leave that for the political experts,

They are best at playing the blame game.

Square pegs in round holes?

Now I can give that a thought

For I know at least one situation

In which square pegs were sought.

Remember the old board and easel

And when round pegs could not be found?

A pair of improvised square pegs worked,

They certainly were not round.

Square pegs work depending on the job

Though with not an exact fit,

The board was kept aloft as though with round pegs

And that chalkboard did not even slip.

Not so in the world of work

In which sound leadership is required,

When such mistakes occur as they often do

The misfits should be removed or be fired.

Wrong people in the wrong places

No!  Such as I have shown is impossible

But the reality is what the reality is:

Right places but filled with wrong people.

Stewart Russell © September 2017