Schlagwort-Archive: Doing

The act belongs to the individual

If difficulties arise, at first glance, it is due to other people. Why? It is easier to look for mistakes somewhere else than to be part of the trouble. A look at the usual generalizations illustrates this tendency.

  • Development is not able to design products that can be manufactured with little effort.
  • Production is not able to assemble the developed items without errors.
  • Sales can only sell proven commodities.
  • Purchasing undermines the trustful cooperation with suppliers.
  • Management does not decide.
  • Employees do not participate.
  • Suppliers are not delivering adequate supplies.
  • Customers nitpickingly take offense at insignificant flaws.

Such stereotypes penetrate our everyday business. At the same time, approaches for our actions can be found in these inappropriate generalizations – because the act belongs to the individual.

Difficulties that arise are reflexively pushed away from oneself. However, this apparent relief offers no solution and delays essential levers – our contributions. Especially if the others are not willing to take over tasks. It is wiser to take a closer look at the own share in the difficulties and actively participate. The following questions will help to do this.

  • What am I doing?
    Our acts are the personal portion of a case. The doing consists of the tasks we undertake, the activities we perform, and the behavior according to the observable (re)actions. There is nothing we can better influence than the doing that we execute by ourselves – Except: the reactions triggered by the limbic system, which can only be subsequently revised.
    If everyone takes care of its part in a task and contributes to the correction of the flaws, then the best possible solution results from the interplay of all.
  • What does that do to others?
    One’s actions produce results that affect the environment. For this reason, we should discuss the impacts in advance with those affected or at least anticipate which consequences are imaginable (i.e., follow-up activities, effects, opportunities, and risks). Comparing desired and probable outcomes provides approaches to improve acts.
    Determining in advance the final state and the effects on others in more detail is a prerequisite for adapting at an early stage and avoiding unintended consequences as far as possible.
  • What would I like to change?
    Even if we initially want to change the outer conditions, it is better to start with ourselves. We need to make sure that the actions also match our attitudes. This requires a self-conscious, open examination of our attitudes – i.e., skills (abilities, knowledge, and experience), convictions (values, beliefs, and mental models), and role (the assigned tasks, authority, and responsibility). We possibly need other skills to perform the acts. It can also be that we need to rethink our previous beliefs and conclusions due to the new situation. Often, we may even lack permission to proceed differently. To take effective action, we must adjust the premises accordingly.
    No one has more power to change us than ourselves.
  • What is it doing to me?
    These reflections are not about sacrifice ourselves and selflessly only doing what others expect of us. But just as we consider the environment, we must also think about our internal balance and the impact on our well-being. If the changes create tensions between skills, beliefs, roles, and most importantly, actions, then the changes should be revised so that we can live with them without stress – e.g., if job security is cut in favor of a cost advantage.
    Our actions should always fit us and our attitudes.

Bottom line: Difficulties arise, above all, in the interplay of different interests. This leads to the fact that the responsibility for a solution is always arguable and out of convenience initially sought at others. Yet, we are the best leverage point for change. We need to be aware of our contribution to the issue: What am I doing? What is it doing to others? What would I like to change? What is it doing to me? Once we find actions that answer the four questions to our satisfaction, then that is our share we can contribute to the solution. If everyone asks oneself these questions, we get the best possible result because the act belongs to the individual.

When doing gets false

These seasons that seem colorless and uncomfortable to some. When the clouds are hanging low in the sky and moisture is constantly exposed to gravity. The soil is no longer able to absorb the water. And artificial roads seal the ground additionally. Then shallow lakes are formed everywhere, in which the dark clouds are reflected. And then a car drives through a puddle and hurls the water into the air. Bad luck for those, who are passing by at this very moment and, in addition to the rain from above, get a gush from below. The natural reaction is to scold after the car.
But why? What the hell happened? Who did something wrong? The motorist, who was forced through the puddle involuntarily? The pedestrian who had nothing better to do than walk by the puddle right then? When gets doing false?

Let’s take a closer look at the situation.

  • The driver
    Driving with a car in pouring rain can be strenuous, even at 40 kilometers per hour. The spray of oncoming vehicles, the thick raindrops and the roads full of puddles require the full attention of the drivers. And then it happens very quickly. If it weren’t for the pedestrian besides the puddle, the driver would have done everything right. He had no reason to soak an unknown passer-by. Did he DO something false?
  • The Pedestrian
    With such weather, you don’t chase a dog outside. You can’t escape moisture with the largest umbrella. At the next corner the drops are even flying horizontally. One escapes only partially from the downpour. And then it happens very quickly. If the car hadn’t arrived exactly at the moment he passed the puddle, the pedestrian would have done everything right. I bet the passerby didn’t want to take a shower. Did he DO something false?
  • The circumstances
    It is not common for a downpour to dump so much liquid onto the road that the drains can no longer absorb the water masses. In the trenches at the roadside rushing streams evolve, which here and there expand into small lakes. It is easy to sink in these puddles of water above both ankles. And then it happens very quickly. With a sufficiently dimensioned drain, this puddle would not have formed and the car would not have sprayed the pedestrian. No one had created this general weather situation either. Or who DID something false?
  • Prior reasons
    On this day, the driver had started his journey earlier than usual in order to drive particularly carefully. The pedestrian had waited specifically long for the rain to stop. The road was built in the eighties according to the latest guidelines for drains. Many other stories could be told. And then everything happens very quickly. In the end, fate came true at this puddle. No one would search in the previous stories for the cause. Or what was DONE false here?

Nothing happened intentionally. Everything is just an unfortunate concatenation of circumstances that led to the event described. And actually, false DOING is not the right description for errors that happen. No one makes deliberately mistakes like this – except: the arch-enemy who waited to deliberately throw a giant fountain at the hated pedestrian. Whereby this action is not really a mistake, but a well-founded, deliberated act,

Bottom line: To do something wrong requires that there is an intention part of it. If mistakes happen at work or elsewhere in everyday life, then these events, whose guilt is blamed on someone, cannot be prevented, because they happen unintentionally. Ok – you could have been more careful, less negligent and more committed. And yet mistakes would still happen. To do nothing is the only way to avoid wrongdoing. And that would be the biggest mistake. To maintain momentum, it is better to develop tolerance to errors. A mistake is a learning opportunity and provides the starting point for new solutions. Then doing won’t get false – and less goes unintentionally wrong.