I had a realization this week...or perhaps it is a re-recognition of something I already know. Here is what happened. I was asked to be a mentor to a team working on fixing a business problem. I accepted the invitation because I like being involved with fixing problems and have had reasonable success helping teams think through the process of inquiry, realization and implementation of productive change. Then comes the issue...
Life gets busy. Demands of my regular job started to pile up and when those things were not getting done, I had to start looking at what I was not going to do or where I was going to find more time to work on the list. In the midst of the thought that I was just going to have to ignore this process improvement team for a while, I realized that such an attitude flies in the face of everything I believe. These activities are the ones where I learn, I can pass on things that I know to others to help make them better, the company or organization we're collectively working for gets better for our efforts and something has actually been gained by our concerted effort to fix a problem. Value is created. That is what we're all about.
So, what goes?
I've made a resolution to be much more selective in this trade-off decision process. Because it is most often the case that the easiest things to ignore are actually the most valuable.
-Benjamin
