Others

Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.  Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Hebrews 13:17

I love the old Family Circus cartoons. I think if I went through boxes and bookshelves at my mom’s I would find that there are still a few books; you know, from the time before comic strips could be searched and enjoyed on the internet.  There were a few tied to the concept of accountability with a houseful of children.  Something is broken, missing, eaten, a door is left open, all the things that happen every day in real life. When the parents ask who it was each child is quick to respond “not me”.  In one of the cartoon strips there are “ghost” figures filling the role of “not me”, “must have been him” and “the dog did it”. 

I have recently been involved in an improvement process discussion in my department at work and it is an exercise that I have found to be very frustrating.  We have a tool that we use to take in new work. This might seem odd but it’s common in a variety of industries. Our Information Technology department of 100ish serves nearly 6000 end users, all of whom have an adjustment they would like made to the system. This becomes a challenge because the 6000 know what they don’t like but they may struggle to explain that to someone else.  Additionally, what happens if one of the 6000 doesn’t like something but the other 5999 do? 

We have worked for the last 3 years to develop a process that can be followed by the person requesting the change, the team(s) responsible to review it and determine if it is a good decision for all 6000 users and then a process for assigning the work to the IT representative to complete it.  On our improvement process calls there has been a lot of whining.  “The system is too hard”.  “The people don’t know what they are asking for”.  “When I meet with them to talk about their request they actually want something completely different”.   And my all-time favorite – “I have too much work to do to help them figure out what they want”.   

As I have thought about these meetings after the fact I have been annoyed. Sometimes angered. Disappointed. Of course there are processes at work that I don’t like, I might think they are overly time consuming, or antiquated, or even burdensome but they are a part of our work. When we are looking for an improvement I would love to see our focus be among the things that WE can do to help our end users and one another.  No more complaining about the mysterious “them” who always does half the job and leaves the rest for someone without telling them.  No more excuses about not knowing how to use the system as a reason that your work can’t be completed.  Would we accept the answer of someone not knowing how to work the cash register to keep us from buying something that we wanted?  Instead of all the complaining, a spin on what we can do as a team to actually create an improvement, not only for our customers but our peers and ourselves.  If we don’t like having things dumped in our lap at the last minute then we need to model what we do want – a phone call, e-mail or message to ask if something will impact another.  And when that happens, we cannot react with annoyance because we were asked, but instead with gratitude – thank you for checking – that would have broken my build, or that’s a great idea – I wonder if it will work for another problem I’m having. If you work in a large organization you might hear this expectation referred to as corporate culture. 

After my last meeting I needed lunch and a little time with scripture. I loved both of these verses and the messages. In reflection of this scripture I thought “I trust you to be faithful – in this case to the organization that works hard to provide for you and your family.  I want you to do this work with joy, and not groaning, because all of that whining is bad for everyone – including yourself.” 

Prayer: God who is with us always, help me to be patient with others and to reflect joy in what I do.  Help me to recognize opportunities when I can put a positive spin on something.  Help me to model what I expect of others.    

Christi Moock