At the end of every school year, my kid’s elementary school hosts a ‘Sports Day’. It’s basically a day of games, races, and hopefully good weather. The teachers participate, parents volunteer, the grade sixes run the various stations; everyone has a role to play. This year was great, the highlight being an inflatable obstacle course that was busy throughout the day.
Another highlight was the much anticipated unofficial water fight which is generally started by a parent with a squirt gun. This year however it was initiated by the janitor who ambushed us from the roof of the building. The kids loved it (I’m not so sure about the teachers and parents who got caught as well). As I watched the janitor squirting anyone who walked within range I was struck by the rather random thought that the janitor of my elementary school wouldn’t have done that. In fact, while I’m fairly confident that we had a janitor in elementary school, I honestly cannot remember them. Perhaps that’s really not such a big deal or all that uncommon, janitors don’t generally play an upfront role in a child’s education – a significant, behind the scenes role to be sure, but not always upfront.
I don’t know what my children’s normal experience of their janitor is, but I’m guessing they don’t interact with him a great deal. I do know that on Sports Day, he was a favorite. And while that one moment may not seem all that significant in the grand scheme of things, it reminded me of a subtle, but vital truth: everyone plays a part in contributing to the culture and success of an organization. In smaller organizations this is easier to see, but it holds true for larger ones as well. Everyone has an influence on how successful an organization is and whether or not it is a great place to work. And just like my children’s elementary school where some roles may be more visible and may have a greater influence than others, there are no unimportant people.
Having well defined, established, and articulated core values is important, making sure everyone understands those core values and knows what they can do to encourage and support them is also very important.
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Everyone Matters
Another highlight was the much anticipated unofficial water fight which is generally started by a parent with a squirt gun. This year however it was initiated by the janitor who ambushed us from the roof of the building. The kids loved it (I’m not so sure about the teachers and parents who got caught as well). As I watched the janitor squirting anyone who walked within range I was struck by the rather random thought that the janitor of my elementary school wouldn’t have done that. In fact, while I’m fairly confident that we had a janitor in elementary school, I honestly cannot remember them. Perhaps that’s really not such a big deal or all that uncommon, janitors don’t generally play an upfront role in a child’s education – a significant, behind the scenes role to be sure, but not always upfront.
I don’t know what my children’s normal experience of their janitor is, but I’m guessing they don’t interact with him a great deal. I do know that on Sports Day, he was a favorite. And while that one moment may not seem all that significant in the grand scheme of things, it reminded me of a subtle, but vital truth: everyone plays a part in contributing to the culture and success of an organization. In smaller organizations this is easier to see, but it holds true for larger ones as well. Everyone has an influence on how successful an organization is and whether or not it is a great place to work. And just like my children’s elementary school where some roles may be more visible and may have a greater influence than others, there are no unimportant people.
Having well defined, established, and articulated core values is important, making sure everyone understands those core values and knows what they can do to encourage and support them is also very important.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.