Thanks for sharing what I feel -- and I wrote it. It's got a lot of "poor me" in it.
The story would be very different if I told it from today's point of view. The purpose was to tell it the way I was feeling it at the time.
There were a lot of things learned, but like any real story in life, it's muddled. One of the things I learned, not mentioned, was that if you have a problem that you can't solve -- it's your responsibility to communicate it. And to keep communicating it until something is done about it.
But at the time it was very muddy, as I think you can tell. Can't help that -- that's the way it happened. Maybe there are other people in similar circumstances that this would speak to that wouldn't get the point if told differently. Also the story is more powerful by being told the way it is, in my opinion, of course.
Great point about living in the past. I think maybe you misunderstood the tone, however. I still feel very badly about the whole thing. It's not like I think of this as some kind of great feat that I performed. It was a total disaster. I was lucky to have skated through as well as I did.
I'm out of this conversation, as I'm way too biased to do a good job commenting. Thanks for the thoughts.
I don't know of another organization that, on balance, comes across as having a deeper well of general competence and organizational smarts than the marines (/not a marine).
How much of marine philosophy and organizational style makes it into your consulting work?
I had a similar experience at one point, though in different circumstances and a different organization. Hardscrabble, self-bootstrapped types tend to try and solve everything on their own b/c that's just how they've done.
It's good to have that backbone but can be sabotaging if it's your only strategy; the frame of mind it puts you in is intrinsically adversarial and limiting -- how do I do X for Y despite Z? -- instead of collaborative -- Y wants me to do X but there's Z...can Y and I figure something out?
People from more privileged backgrounds generally are more comfortable taking the latter approach; the behavior can be learned, but once you do you realize how much ground you needless lost, which is sobering.
Thanks for sharing what I feel -- and I wrote it. It's got a lot of "poor me" in it.
The story would be very different if I told it from today's point of view. The purpose was to tell it the way I was feeling it at the time.
There were a lot of things learned, but like any real story in life, it's muddled. One of the things I learned, not mentioned, was that if you have a problem that you can't solve -- it's your responsibility to communicate it. And to keep communicating it until something is done about it.
But at the time it was very muddy, as I think you can tell. Can't help that -- that's the way it happened. Maybe there are other people in similar circumstances that this would speak to that wouldn't get the point if told differently. Also the story is more powerful by being told the way it is, in my opinion, of course.
Great point about living in the past. I think maybe you misunderstood the tone, however. I still feel very badly about the whole thing. It's not like I think of this as some kind of great feat that I performed. It was a total disaster. I was lucky to have skated through as well as I did.
I'm out of this conversation, as I'm way too biased to do a good job commenting. Thanks for the thoughts.