Sunday, September 29, 2013

A630.6.4.RB_FogartyShawn


This topic lands pretty close to home with one of my primary pet peeves from colleagues. I am able to restrain my inner desires to whack them over the head, however, when I head a response of “Its not my job” I internally go nuts. That is by far the most annoying comment I can think of amongst “the 50 Reasons Not to Change.” Although I’d lobby it to be renamed as “the 50 excuses’ to be lazy.’ I think todays lazy generation, is very much in congruent and well suited to make these comments. People try harder to not do work, than execute simple tasks.
            I am likely to be guilty of having used these excuses in the past. Although, as it’s grown to become a pet peeve of mine I try to catch myself in the act. In order to overcome the use of these annoying excuses I aim to apply the simplest technique, as in the golden rule. Treat others how I’d like to be treated in a given situation. Another simple way to look at it is what would I want done if I was in that persons shoes.
            Shifting focus, I would tend to agree Seth Godin’s concept “that change is driven by tribes” (Godin, 2009). The biggest element that I agree with is how force, as in motivation, is better suited from the tribe aspect. Humans being social creature of nature are likely to apply the ‘band wagon ideology.’ Get more people on the bandwagon and there’s more power behind one voice. Seth Godin illustrates this in his comments “Tribes, consisting of people who wanted to connect” is the principle factor to make change (Godin, 2009). He also lament that “true believers” (Godin, 2009) are those who are undyingly committed to the change at hand. I was humored in his other illustrations that he projects such as “The Beatles did not create teenagers, just decided to lead them” (Godin, 2009).  This point is easily acknowledged and I further agree that the bandwagon approach works. The advent of social media has further perpetuated this ideology essentially on people joining online petitions and establishing webpages exclusively lobbying for a particular change.
            The largest element that I take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career is to not go it alone. In my profession the concept of ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease’ is relative. However, given the tribe concepts above if all the wheels are squeaky then we get a whole new wagon. If I aim to present any changes in the future within my career, having supporters behind the cause will improve my chances of success.


Godin, S. (2009, February). Seth Godin: The tribes we lead | Video on TED.com [Video
            file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html

No comments:

Post a Comment