Don’t join them, beat them

This morning I hooted rather aggressively at a vehicle blocking my way. The car was making an illegal right turn from a compulsory left-turn lane and got stuck in the congested intersection, with me behind it. Mere minutes later, I pulled away at a four-way stop a few seconds before the car opposite me did the same. I had right of way so, instinctively, I communicated this through aggressive hand gestures aimed at the entitled driver of the other car.

And then I had the decency to feel like a fool.

I have, throughout my career, been forced into the company of some individuals who would block intersections in my career path. I have had to work with others who felt they had right of way and would cut me off, driving me to become aggressive or despondent. I was sometimes powerless against those so-called “snakes in suits” and would act instinctively; fight or flight.

But “[b]etween stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” (Viktor Frankl) I briefly gave up my growth and my freedom when I allowed myself to react rather savagely in traffic this morning. I welcomed feeling like a fool, because it’s my trigger – my reminder – that I have the power to decide how I act. I don’t want to give up that power and join the snakes; I want to beat them. I want to see their actions through a lens of kindness, because kindness is what I value. And I want to take long breaths between the stimulus that might upset me, and the response that might make me veer off my values.

When people block your way or take advantage, don’t join them. Rather beat them. Not with the closest office chair you are able to lift – tempting as it may be. But simply by staying in control of yourself. You will never know greater power.

PS: This is obviously still a work in progress for me and probably always will be!

Don't be that person

I’m not sure that I was born with the inclination to try new technology merely for the sake of it. I think, perhaps, I was born with the inclination to do everything by the fastest, easiest route. I have an affinity for convenience. But the fastest, easiest route is not cast in stone – as new technology develops and people fill convenience gaps in the market, the fastest, easiest route changes and becomes faster and easier still. So I make a point of keeping up. I work at it.

Yet, there are many people who prefer doing what they’ve always done in the way they have always done it. For them, the comfort of the familiar is more important than the convenience and discovery of the new. They’re the ones who prefer to print what others read on screens. They spend hours in malls getting Christmas gifts for people. They either don’t further their studies, or only do so through face-to-face interactions at a university. They know exactly how to do the things they do, because they’ve always done it that way.

The world of work does not support this way of being any more. We cannot build sustainable businesses by doing things in outdated, cumbersome ways. We have to adapt, adopt and recreate our workplaces and our jobs to become more capable, more efficient, more relevant. We cannot live in fear that machines will take over our jobs but do nothing to safeguard our future. We have to free ourselves from the tasks that machines can do for us, so that we can apply our minds elsewhere. Instead, many of us try to protect those tasks to prove that we are needed.

In 1902 – that’s 118 years ago! – this quote appeared in Puck magazine: “Things move along so rapidly nowadays that people saying: “It can’t be done,” are always being interrupted by somebody doing it.” And still, 118 years later there are still people who simply don’t keep up, who think it can’t be done. They get in the way of those discovering new ways to do old things. They slow down entire teams with their resistance. They become that thing they fear the most: redundant.

Don’t be that person.