A Reader Writes... (Dress Code and More - Part 1)

In response to the post, “Dress Code and More,” a reader writes.

“I learned a long time ago to not disagree with Cain. Not because he is vindictive, but because he is never wrong. To his credit, he’ll let you ignore him and keep doing it wrong, up until you ask for his help again. Which he gives without the “I told you so.”

SC Response
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’m wrong plenty. What I do bring to the table is a wealth of experience at moving systems at speed and dealing with the flotsam and jetsam that occurs when you do so. What so many of you are attempting to do for the first time, I have done 10, 15, 20 times. At that point, there are fewer and fewer surprises.

What fools us when we are attempting to move our systems is that we think it will be easy (because it is logical) and we think that we and our people are unique. As you have seen, the easy moves occur only after we have made several difficult moves. I equate it to learning to like scary roller coasters. The first couple of times elicit stark fear. But once we train our minds to understand that we aren’t going to fly off the tracks and die, we learn to appreciate the thrill of the ride.

Then there is the understanding that our situation may be unique (though less so than we believe), but as people we are not. As a profession, our fears, complaints and modes of pushback repeat themselves from setting to setting. Once you recognize that, you can’t prevent it, but you do learn what you can ignore and what you can manage.

So there is no need for, “I told you so.” And the truth is, there is as more learning in the doing it wrong, than doing it right, so I’m always happy to observe a course of action different than what I recommended. It will either work or it won’t. Then we go from there.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...