4.13.2005

cultures

it's amazing how we get caught up in a culture of behavior without realizing it.

for example ... some days i take a really early bus. in the past two months i've taken the 6:10, 6:25, 6:40, 6:50 and 7:15 buses. (don't ask how i know all these times by heart.) on each, the routine is the same: people mill around, waiting on the bus, and do the passive-aggressive shuffle to get on -- everyone kind of knows who got to the stop in what order, and everyone kind of obeys that order when the doors open.

but on the 7:15 bus, things are different. there's this older woman who demands to be first on the bus. she guarantees she'll get the first window seat in the first row. she always is first. always.

and her behavior affects everyone who rides the bus with her. there is a rigidly enforced line, straight as an arrow, for the 7:15 bus. but she's never in the line. she waits in the little bus shelter, all by herself. when the bus arrives, she sprints as fast as her vericose-veined legs can take her to the front of the line. and we all wait, quiet and orderly.

same thing at work. the taskmaster -- i'm fond of "the taskinator," only because it allows me to get a mental picture of ahnold sitting in my staff meetings -- does not believe in deviating, ever, from the image of the modern manager general, which reminds me of a song:
she is the very model of a modern manager-general,
she's information time-tracking, vacational, action-plan-ical,
she knows VPs of finance, and she quotes projects historical
from mainframing to wireless, in order categorical ...

anyway. that's the taskmaster. and the culture of the people i work with permeates my daily life. i'm using "bandwidth" to discuss how busy i am. i'm thinking about the "a ha!" moments during my day. i'm writing knowledge at home on how to brew coffee.

in short, the culture i'm in every day is changing it even after i catch the bus ... and i'm never, ever the first in line.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good post, boss