I really enjoy the game of soccer. Watching on TV is okay, but I really love being in a small high school stadium watching a talented team of kids. Jean and I used to watch the local high school team play all the time. We liked to sit near the top of the stands so we could easily take in the whole field and the flow of the game. I don’t know why we stopped going; either too old or too lazy to make the trip I suppose.
During these games I’d get wrapped up in the action on the field and would, well, to put it politely, get a bit too verbally involved. After an errant play I might say a bit too loudly, “Get the ball down!” or “At least put it between the posts!”
There was this one game where I was particularly engaged in the action on the field and allowed my frustrations to percolate out my mouth even more than normal. Eventually the grandfatherly gentleman sitting next to me smiled and leaned over to say, “It looks easy from up here, doesn’t it?”
I had to laugh to cover my embarrassment, but I immediately realized he was so right. He was essentially stating the old adage, “Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.” I knew I couldn’t do any better, so who was I to criticize? I was silent for the remainder of that game, and have attempted, with modest success, to muzzle myself ever since.
As I approach retirement I am constantly reminded of this grandfather's comment at the soccer game. I know that as my final workday approaches that there will be colleagues who will review my career, or what little portion they are familiar with, and make some assessment of my abilities, successes and failures over the years. I wish that soccer grandfather could be present in such moments, and say in my defense, “It looks easy, doesn’t it?”
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Surveys
A brief rant –
I have a friend who works for an organization that lacks a backbone. Whenever an issue arises, his organization inevitably proposes to do a survey of the competition. They claim that they want to determine, and follow, best practices for the industry, but to me this rings hollow. My friend tells me that they want to be a world-class organization, but simply following the trend makes you part of the trend, and not a trend-setter.
In their defense, the desire to survey the competition is completely understandable. Maybe somebody out there is doing something unique you had not thought of. That would be an admirable motivation. But there is a risk in conducting the survey in that it might influence you rather than informing you. There is the risk of lost opportunity in that you fail to engage in informed thinking. There is the risk that you instead take the easy route, and are influenced to conform by the survey, and become, well, average and indistinct.
There is a joke about two French radicals observing a mob boiling down a Paris street during the French Revolution. The one radical said to the other, “Come, my friend, we must see where this mob is going so we can lead them!” Whether at the front of the mob, or the back of the mob, it is self-deluding for these radicals to think they are leading anything.
Imagine what the world would have been like if back in history a few more individuals had the backbone to think independently rather than following the “best practices” of their time. Imagine what my friend’s organization could accomplish if they were willing to think independently rather than simply following their competition.
I have a friend who works for an organization that lacks a backbone. Whenever an issue arises, his organization inevitably proposes to do a survey of the competition. They claim that they want to determine, and follow, best practices for the industry, but to me this rings hollow. My friend tells me that they want to be a world-class organization, but simply following the trend makes you part of the trend, and not a trend-setter.
In their defense, the desire to survey the competition is completely understandable. Maybe somebody out there is doing something unique you had not thought of. That would be an admirable motivation. But there is a risk in conducting the survey in that it might influence you rather than informing you. There is the risk of lost opportunity in that you fail to engage in informed thinking. There is the risk that you instead take the easy route, and are influenced to conform by the survey, and become, well, average and indistinct.
There is a joke about two French radicals observing a mob boiling down a Paris street during the French Revolution. The one radical said to the other, “Come, my friend, we must see where this mob is going so we can lead them!” Whether at the front of the mob, or the back of the mob, it is self-deluding for these radicals to think they are leading anything.
Imagine what the world would have been like if back in history a few more individuals had the backbone to think independently rather than following the “best practices” of their time. Imagine what my friend’s organization could accomplish if they were willing to think independently rather than simply following their competition.
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