Personally, its become quite annoying to me to hear colleagues complaining about situations, situations that they could change and then do nothing about. It has become pretty common in our small environment to complain about personal items or irrelevant work related items. I've now begun to offer small solutions to their issues, not as an expert but as a leader. If they have ask a question, I try to rephrase it in another perceptive. The thing that use to upset me is, they have the power to change the situation, but they use excuses off of that list to avoid fixing the problem. They'd rather complain then fix. I now say, "if you want advice, I'd like to see you use it". I feel like that's appropriate. If they want to complain, we will work toward a solution, if you're not willing to change, why are we talking?
Do you ever use any of these excuses yourself?
Yes. I wish the answer was no but it's not. I feel like the "another company/person has tried it before" applies most to me. I've been thinking of things that could actually apply to change in our organization. I feel like someone's already brought that up or their just not interested. As I've come along in grad school, I've tried to not be so afraid of trying new things. The issue is, who likes change? Am I willing to risk my job for change? All I come up with are excuses from the list.
How can you overcome the thinking that creates those responses to change efforts?
The first step to overcome that thinking would be to explore what other people think about that idea. Sometimes, the idea doesn't leave my mind. What I should be doing is running the idea by other people who might share my enthusiasm or give me a boost in the right direction. If someone isn't willing to try to change, maybe all it would take in some encouragement and trust in that person.
Do you agree with Seth Godin's concept that change is driven by tribes?
I thought about this for a little while. I actually do agree with the tribe idea. I agree with it however as it applies to social media. There are many groups (tribes) that form online and do nothing but communicate and explore with each other online. Like our conversation last week, I find people to be more timid then they once were and although they may share commonalities online, how many people are turning that into face to face time? What I'm thinking is, people are connecting more then ever but they aren't really getting all of the personal interaction they need.
What can you take away from this exercise to immediately use in your career?
What I take away from that speech the most has to do with how people are linking up together, in new ways then the past. As a new leader, that is something that is important to understand. Additionally, it is important to understand people want to be lead, you just have to find a way o link them together in change or cause. There are some things in my workplace that we all have general issues with, maybe it is time that I try and find a common ground and then a solution to fix these issues.
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