A little while ago my son Sam was asking me if there were some odd jobs he could do to earn a little extra money. I told him that this summer I was planning on painting our fence and if he helped me I would be willing to pay him for his efforts. Without missing a beat he looked at me and said, “Dad, are you using paint that is good for the environment?”
I must admit, I was a little taken aback. I wasn’t sure how to respond because quite frankly, I didn’t know. And, when I bought the paint I never even thought to ask. It’s not that I think environmental questions are not important, I believe they are. It’s just that my son’s response highlighted something very important, he thinks differently than I do. And I don’t believe it’s just him, I think he may be somewhat representative of his generation. They discuss environmental issues much more than we ever did when I was his age.
This conversation got me thinking about other things. There is great diversity within our organizations these days. Each generation looks at the one following it and generally comments on how different they are. So maybe I am just following in my parents footsteps, but I genuinely believe there are some significant differences that need to be accounted for; the approach to our environment being just one.
And it is obviously not just generational diversity that we need to recognize. There are many voices in our local culture that bring a variety of values and beliefs to our workplaces and organizations, and there can be strength in this. Many of the issues that we currently face require different vantage points and perspectives to address effectively. The issues are complex, and different viewpoints can perhaps help each of us to recognize our own blind spots. But diversity does present its challenges. We need to work harder at understanding others who are different than we are and, as a result, we need to work harder at building great teams.
I think the good news is that the fundamentals for building great teams have been around for a long time and are relatively straightforward. They may take a great deal of effort to implement, but it is possible, no matter what the make up of the team might be. Over the next few months I would like to send out comments on some of those fundamentals; topics that seem to be at the heart of working well with other people, especially when we come from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives.
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Environmentally Friendly Paint?
I must admit, I was a little taken aback. I wasn’t sure how to respond because quite frankly, I didn’t know. And, when I bought the paint I never even thought to ask. It’s not that I think environmental questions are not important, I believe they are. It’s just that my son’s response highlighted something very important, he thinks differently than I do. And I don’t believe it’s just him, I think he may be somewhat representative of his generation. They discuss environmental issues much more than we ever did when I was his age.
This conversation got me thinking about other things. There is great diversity within our organizations these days. Each generation looks at the one following it and generally comments on how different they are. So maybe I am just following in my parents footsteps, but I genuinely believe there are some significant differences that need to be accounted for; the approach to our environment being just one.
And it is obviously not just generational diversity that we need to recognize. There are many voices in our local culture that bring a variety of values and beliefs to our workplaces and organizations, and there can be strength in this. Many of the issues that we currently face require different vantage points and perspectives to address effectively. The issues are complex, and different viewpoints can perhaps help each of us to recognize our own blind spots. But diversity does present its challenges. We need to work harder at understanding others who are different than we are and, as a result, we need to work harder at building great teams.
I think the good news is that the fundamentals for building great teams have been around for a long time and are relatively straightforward. They may take a great deal of effort to implement, but it is possible, no matter what the make up of the team might be. Over the next few months I would like to send out comments on some of those fundamentals; topics that seem to be at the heart of working well with other people, especially when we come from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 at 9:55 am 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.