So, we had a meeting today in which we were again introduced to the new leadership in our department. However, the preview to the meeting included a presentation from another leader that described this innovative new idea they were thinking about – get this – a web page that helps lead students to all of our learning assets. Gee, we haven’t seen anything like that before. You mean like a portal? an igoogle? a netvibes account?
Anyway, after all of this supposed innovation being introduced, and before leaving the room, he leaves us with this statement:
This will give us “fodder for the next award submission.”
What on earth? So, we aren’t doing this for our actual students or because it’s actually smart? We are doing this for the mere fact that we want to show that we are capable of winning awards? Hello, has anyone realized that the only people that get awards are those that apply for them? It’s not that these award givers go out and find the best. No, they wait until organizations pay them money to apply for the awards and so they are choosing the best of those that submit to receive awards. And, who has time and money to submit for awards? Well, government, or government contractors that work for government agencies that care about awards or large corporations or ….not sure who else and that’s because everyone else is working! They judge their product by sales or quality or return purchases or ……
Anyway, I turned to my old boss and informed him that this was my problem – I’ve had the wrong goal I’ve been striving for all this time. I’ve actually wanted to do good work, improve processes and simplify everything. Alas, I’m totally messed up. I was supposed to be making sure I looked and sounded good and made sure that leadership thought I was best even if I wasn’t the person actually doing the best.
Perhaps my feeling to “stand still” will rapidly melt away over this next few months and I will progress into an environment where my self-esteem and my quiet efficiency is rewarded. For now, I will let it go. Why fight with small minds or deal with selfish perspectives? Not good. I need to rise above the gar-bage and reach for a standard of excellence despite my surroundings.
