Many employees are given assignments without context or the opportunity to comment on the intended use of the project. Sometimes bosses don’t know why projects need completed because they are told to just divvy up tasks with strict deadlines from their bosses. Other times, we are so self-focused on our own needs that we fall from leader to manager status, too busy to monitor the level of our own gas tanks and the well-being of our teams. Widget designs, knowledgeable articles written, sales copy created - these are all examples of daily assignments completed by cogs of corporate empires.
A researcher in New Orleans responded to a question posed by the media with his own question recently, a familiar tactic I use with my university students to get them to analyze more and do rote work less: If you don’t understand the source of the problem, how can you solve it?
Dr. Ibrahima Seck was reflecting on research of a wicked problem in America’s past, rooted in how to educate people and discuss its far reaching impact. He understands the waves of effect even if daily there is a struggle to understand the “why” of the original horror.
Daily, everyone faces contradictory problems and many people wonder at their own difficulties (wondering why we work where we do, ways to get out of toxic employment environments, reviewing alternative careers to better match our “right space”). Regardless of your background or appearance, you can ask the right questions to solve the right problems. It’s not the first question, or even second and third, that produces the correct direction.
Keep asking questions to get to what’s really important. At work, perhaps that widget was thought by someone to make a better mousetrap, but really it’s the spring that needs modification. Focus on the right path rather than the easy assigned one. In your personal life, look at the ways you actually spend your time rather than how you want to be spending your time.
For instance, do you think Patrick wanted to lead the snakes out of Ireland and have the day of his death celebrated 1,556 years later? The real story is that he was captured and made a slave by the Irish when he was sixteen. From his life’s work, it’s obvious that he didn’t ask the question, “Why was I captured and enslaved,” but wondered, “What can I do to make a difference for them?”
After he escaped to his family, he became a cleric and returned to the people who enslaved him. He used his time during oppression to develop himself. He was a foreigner in a sometimes unwelcoming land. Though celebrated as a Saint, he’s never been canonized by a Pope, has no official declaration (or thanks) for his good words and works by his “employer,” the church.
Perhaps you have felt this way at work. Maybe there are times when you feel that your Herculean efforts receive no recognition regardless of the money and time saved for your organization. Consider if you are asking “What’s wrong with my boss,” instead of a more important question like, “Where can I contribute more value on a daily basis?”
If you ask the right questions as you face the future because the past will influence it but not bring you truth; the answers will make more of a difference to you.
Fear not and keep searching, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Heather M. Hilliard is Principal and Chief Strategist for R. Roan Enterprises, LLC, a professional services consulting firm supporting businesses in pointed areas of expertise as well as with individuals for targeted projects or career development. For more articles like these, visit her posts on LinkedIn or on G+.
#seizetheday, #makeithappen
