There’s an obvious solution to stop asylum seekers drowning in the Channel, writes Charles Handy

After the Second World War, General Eisenhower retired from the army as a successful general and ended up as President of Columbia University in New York City, from 1948 to 1950.

When he arrived, the management committee were in a state of agitation. They told him that their front lawn – which was their pride and joy and had been manicured to perfection for centuries – had been ruined by the students using it as a short cut to the classrooms and libraries. They’d turned the beautiful square of green into a mush of mud.

The management committee said they’d put notices up saying “Keep off the Grass” and were now planning to set up lights and cameras so they could record the culprits who trampled on the grass and fine them.

Eisenhower, a very practical man, said, “If that’s the way they’re going to go, why don’t we make it easy for them by making a nice semi-circular path out of concrete across the lawn? Then they won’t get their shoes dirty and distribute mud throughout the building and we won’t have to pay all this money for lights and cameras.”

Everybody was happy. Most of the grass remained intact. Nobody got their shoes dirty. The students voted a motion of thanks to the management committee and life went on happily and cheaply for everybody.

I thought of Eisenhower when I listened to the debate on the small migrant boats in Parliament. “What would Eisenhower do?” I asked myself. I thought he would say: “If they’re going to go that way, let’s make it easy and safe for them.”

“Why doesn’t the Government hire a few ferries and transport them for free, safely across the Channel?” he would say. “It would be much safer than the present system. No one would drown and it would be much cheaper than sending them all to Rwanda. A much more pleasant way for these struggling travellers to arrive in England.”

In fact, I would even give them a degree, a BA in life experience because the journey they had experienced was much tougher than anything I ever experienced at Oxford. And much more useful in developing life skills than writing essays about Greek and Roman generals.

I always told my students at the London Business School, “The best management advice I can give you is use your common sense. Do the obvious thing. Don’t worry about the latest theories. Just use your common sense.” It’s always my best advice in business or for government.

So put the migrants on the ferries. No need for Rwanda. The boats are already there, just use them.

The same goes for most things in life – just use your common sense. Do the obvious things. Remember General Eisenhower when you are stuck. He won the war; he will solve your problem. Just do the bleeding obvious.

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