I was one of the many who responded to the discussion topic about difficulties starting new programs with the complacency issue. I love your comparison to the cattle grazing out in the fields. I did have success recently initiating a program at my school. Just this past week I began another new program. This one is coming up against the uncertainty of change.
In presenting the new program to the board, the question posed was, “how do we know this new program is stable?” It was a bit of an uphill battle but we are going to move forward. We are slowly integrating the new program and there are a few pioneers making the leap to be testers in order to have the final say of how things go.
This all goes back to our reading from last week and allowing people to lead from any chair.
Having been an industrial and manufacturing engineer for close to 30 years, part of my function was to introduce new processes, methodologies and train on innovative skill sets required to having one accomplish ones job.
The resistance to adapt to these learning's came in the form of two distinct characteristics in the mainstream workforce here in the United States.
The first was 'complacency' where there are those who have been used to doing thing in one fashion and ONLY ONE FASHION felt too comfortable with that environment. And changes to that environment threatened their ability to scathe through life similar to the cattle grazing out in the fields.
The second was lack of confidence in one's self. Too often, our labor force are faced with little to no choices in what their form of employment is to be comprised of. When this exists, it becomes destructive in their physique and perpetuates the feeling of uselessness leading to questioning their own ability to do better.
I, for one, am excited about the prospect of the new platform being introduced at school. I keep feeling like I want to do MORE with the platform we have, and that just isn't possible given some of the limitations of that system. I'm eager to see if this new one is more satisfying.
ReplyDeleteI will admit to sometimes being a cow in the field; I like to feel safe and comfortable with the work that I have to do, and throwing new things in there - especially new things that I don't feel I have at least some mastery over - makes me insecure. Once I figure it out, though (and sometimes my runway can be quite long, but I DO eventually get my wheels up) I do just fine. I think the problem that most people have with introducing new things into their lives - regardless of what form those new things take - is that they're too impatient to wait out that awkward adjustment period.