Hello again
Some new thoughts on the subject:
"You are not paid to think, your paid to work" stops a lot of people
around here from their respective "entreprenural" activities.
I have a co-worker who is a master complainer, and enjoys telling long
stories of unfair or paradoxical behavior in management (the hung if you
do, hung if you don't story) but he is extremely (and openly) suspicious
of me because I do things in a "non-standard" way, and don't "conform"
without questioning.
I guess I'm obnoxious to him because I can't "not think" just because I'm
paid to work. He complains and resists new ways of doing that could solve
what he's complaining about, I do-and gain long term solutions, and save
complaints for the few times I really feel bad, and then I only tell my
wife (I hate office politics, so I keep the stories short and close to
home). What is interesting is that many of my ideas are getting attention
from upper management bit by bit, and I'm becoming known as someone who
can figure things out, while my co-worker just braces for another 11 years
until retirement and grumbles his way along.
I don't mention my co-worker to pick on him, I'm using him as an example
that I see quite often-and can't understand. Why do people choose this -
what looks to me to be- quite a painful existance? He hates his job, but
won't get a different one (that he likes). He hates the system, but
defends it from folks like myself who actually care about the system
enough to try to improve it or help it grow (change). What is the source
of this "putting in my time" point of view? It is the opposite of the
attitude of an entrepreneur, and I think that in the long run, it may be
hazardous to the company.
Any ideas?
On Tue, 11 Jun 1996, Archie Kregear wrote:
> I think that it is very easy to stifle entrepreneurship. Some of the ways
> I can think of are: critism, control, blocking resources, customers can
> make outdated or petty requirements on a RFP, ISO requirements can limit
> what a company is willing to try, cost containments and paralysis of
> analysis. Some people will not take any risk and try anything new because
> of a critical parent. I have seen managers so control a department that no
> one can do anything different than what he says. Finance can limit a
> budget so risks cannot be taken. The marketplace demands backward
> compatibility for DOS which severly limits new operating systems on PC's.
> One company I know was afraid to try out a new idea for fear that it would
> alter or delay their ISO 9000 certification.
>
> Individuals can, I believe, do incredible things when set free to resolve
> problems. We cannot be stifling those around us, we as individuals must
> become people who can bring out the best in others.
>
> Now to add to this the question, how do we install in a team the resolve
> to persist towards the resolution of a challenge?
>
> Archie Kregear
--Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>