Are We There Yet!?!?!?

One of the greatest frustrations of my job is that many people I run into daily don’t see classes and mentoring and feedback as pertinent to their careers. They are so concentrated on the tasks that are currently on their plates – what’s immediately in front of them -- that they see having to participate in development activities as extraneous. They take a “check-the-box,” get-it-done mentality.

The bad thing is that these employees’ management has been NO help. They tell their people, basically, “Take two classes; I don’t care which ones they are, just take two before the end of the year!”

Yeah, these people are going to learn a lot…

It’s “fun” having them in class!

Or the management says, “Get into a mentoring partnership NOW!”

…great…

The other thing that didn’t help is that we have in the past offered a recognition ceremony with a plaque and a nice padfolio for completion of a course in each of the six imperative areas we were concentrating on. People saw this as the Holy Grail, the finish line, and they took a horse race approach to getting their classes done. They’d cram in all six classes in three months, not learn a fucking thing, and then bug me constantly:
“Where’s my plaque!
Where’s my plaque!
Where’s my plaque!
Where’s my plaque!
Where’s my plaque!”

Well, now that we’re moving to a new corporate-wide program, we suggested to corporate that there be no “end” – that the program concentrates on NEEDED development and CONTINUOUS learning instead of some Amazing Race-like mindset.

Well, this morning at a meeting we were told that to tell our company president that some people took this mentality and that some managers saw employee development as a check-the-box activity would piss him off. That we were basically taking a dump in his sandbox (since this program was his “baby.”)

Well, fuck that! I understand politics and giving the news with a spoonful of sugar. But where does “paying attention to politics” morph into “being dishonest” or “outright lying.” This HAS been a problem with the past program, and if we do not address it, it WILL BE a problem with the future program. It will be a hindrance to its success!

I don’t understand how we cannot apparently communicate this in a sensitive way that won’t get the president’s poor widdle feelings hurt SO WE CAN AVOID IT IN THE FUTURE.

So, I know my battle this next six weeks is trying to push people to be honest about flaws in the past program despite the fact that you might inadvertently and unintentionally bruise our company president’s apparently uber-sensitive self esteem!

See, this is how corporate dishonesty starts. It starts by someone calling less-than-honest communication “being politically savvy!”

And to me, honesty trumps politics.

Not that I don’t understand that honesty can be delivered in a sensitive way instead of with a sledgehammer. But certainly, to NOT communicate something because it might put our $4-million-a-year president’s Underoos in a bind is bullshit! It’s dishonest and unethical!

I want us to get to the point where our classes as well as mentoring, career coaching, career planning, and good management help employees stay engaged and happy and fulfilled. It’s a fact that the average American spends 70% of their adult waking life at work, going to and from work, thinking about work, ortalking about work with their friends and family.

70%!!!

That means, kids, that if you ain’t doing something that you can look back on with pride and a sense of fulfillment, you are basically wasting the largest portion of your life!

I know this is harsh – and hard to swallow, but I believe this with every fiber of my being.

Still, I cannot make others change. There has to be some motivation on their part. They have to come to what we offer with a want to change and the belief they can. Sometimes I start to doubt that anything but a life-and-death challenge ever gets anyone to really change. Like they have to have a figurative gun pointed at their heads.

But we’re certainly not going to get there doing it the way we’ve always done it.

Are you happy with your life? I am relatively happy, but I admit, it could be better. And only I can make those changes.

It’s like the old saying: “If you want the exact, same results you’ve gotten for your entire life, keep doing things the way you’ve been doing them.”

Of course, me personally, I’ve been trying to find that figurative gun to point at my own head. Trying to drive myself to the point that I know I have to change. But at least I’m looking for the gun, ya know? I want to change, just not enough yet, or enough hope that I can actually do it isn’t there yet, or something…

First, it takes honesty, and even an understanding that my own sensitive esteem probably needs a little beating up, too.

…fun…