Untypical Thoughts

Imagine.

Give yourself the time and space to imagine.

There is an old saying opportunity knocks but once – but does it even knock once?

I go back to a time in the late 1980s when I had decided to leave teaching to try something different. I had done all of the “normal things” to find something – responded to job ads, spoken to members of my network, etc but, try as I might, I simply couldn’t find a new opportunity anywhere.

I recently read about someone who had just completed 50 years of service for their company. 50 years! Wow! Well done, her.

But, upon reflection, I wondered whether I should be impressed or concerned for her and the company she works for.

Many people use the words “change” and “transformation” interchangeably – as though they mean exactly the same thing. But they don’t mean the same thing … whilst certainly related, there is so much more to transformation than there is to change, even big change.

Pet hate, right there.

One of the great statements of change resistance is “yes, but the problem is…”. Every time someone puts up an idea for change, out come the hurdles, typically led by one of two phrases – either “yes, but the problem is …” or the other old chestnut “but that’s not the way we do things around here”.

I am all for people challenging new ideas and proposals for change but there is a difference between challenging and building roadblocks.

What proportion of your working week is consumed by creating reports, updates, responses to KPIs and other tasks of that kind? More importantly, what proportion of your working week is spent creating reports, updates and responses to KPIs that actually add value?

Yes, we need to keep track of progress – but seriously, how many weekly, fortnightly and monthly reports is too many? And, given the structure of many organisations, once these reports are consolidated and sanitised for senior consumption, how accurate are they anyway – are they presenting the true state of play or presenting an upward impression that might be less than 100% accurate?

Most large corporate organisations have a Chief Risk Officer (CRO) – either someone with that title or someone who takes on responsibility for risk across the business. But I have a theory that we should rename them the Chief “No-Risk” Officer …

Closely related to the previous “really busy”, is the “tell me about it” movement.

Colleague:  How are you?

You:  Really busy

Colleague:  Tell me about it

So, two things fall out of this.

In the last episode, I called out what I think is a growing trend of people being asked / expected / pressured into working on their weekends and after hours. Whilst it may not be necessarily written into their job descriptions, it seems that many, many people are heading home after a day’s work and getting their laptop out. Others are firing up their email on Sunday to get a head start for the week.

It was Loverboy who, in 1982, had a hit with the song “Working For The Weekend” but, 38 years later, it seems that their sentiment has been replaced for many people. It seems that for many, there is an expectation that “everybody’s working ON the weekend” … and in many cases, after hours during the week as well.