When you are passionate about something, you try to find ways to share the message. I created a newsletter at work as a means of communicating issues with our global support team. In addition to editing the newsletter, I maintain a column of my own called "Points to Ponder" where I share observations, often abstract, that relate to our work. In this issue I chose to draw a connection between my volunteer work on the farm and some of our challenges at the office.
Lessons from the Farm
Those of you who know me should be aware of two things: 1) I love to volunteer at Farm Sanctuary, and 2) I love to find lessons in weird places. This issue’s article will attempt to draw from both of these.
I go to the farm to volunteer at least once a month. I love the opportunity to work with my hands and to spend time with the animals, not necessarily in that order. Admittedly, much of this time is spent cleaning barns and getting dirty. An interesting phenomenon that I have noticed is that my aversion to getting my hands fouled with “recycled animal food” (I am trying to put that as delicately and politely as possible to avoid offending our readers) has been significantly lessened. In hindsight it strikes me as strange, but as I got to know more of the animals it became less disgusting somehow when my hands would get soiled. Mentally I am sure I would tell myself, “Oh, that’s just Coco’s (My favorite goat) ‘recycled animal food’” and somehow that familiarity made a difference. It is possible that I am just a pretty weird individual, but this fascinated me.
It fascinated me so much that I began to see parallels in my other life as well. The source of “crap”, whether it was in design, quality, or performance, can make a big difference in how I perceive it and how I respond to it. If a peer with whom I have a friendly relationship made a mistake that resulted in a crappy outcome, my reaction would be lessened in the same way as it was at the farm. This can be even more pronounced when we are looking at the quality of our own output.
This is dangerous in three ways: 1) The effect to perception prevents us from being objective, 2) It sends a mixed message when we are not consistent, and 3) Someone inevitably suffers down the line whether it is my team, my field customers, or my end customers. There is a fourth way that this effects us and that is the little voice in our head that knows that we may have compromised ourselves. This voice has a tendency to linger.
So what is my message? I guess it could be summed up, rather than beleaguered, by saying that, at the end of the day, crap is still crap regardless of the source and we need to be cognizant of that and try to avoid it. We need to do so without damaging the relationships that we rely on and cherish, but we have to be strong enough to stand up to it. We also need to be receptive to these messages when we receive them from others and recognize the value of honest, well delivered feedback. The CEO at one of the previous companies I worked for called this type of information “the greatest gift” since far too often it is easier not to provide it and it allows us to glimpse ourselves honestly in the mirror. This runs contrary to the old adage that “it is better to give than receive”. Through the receipt of tactfully delivered and honest feedback we can truly better ourselves.
On the other hand, excellence is excellence regardless of the source and we need to make extra effort to seek it out and recognize it. This balance will go a long way toward our overall credibility.
Well, I hope that this issue’s “Point to Ponder has left you with something to think about, other than whether or not it is wise to shake my hand next time we meet.
