OWN IT
Saturday Aug. 4, 2018
Accountability, something we grew up with …
Accountable to parents, teachers, friends, coaches. We needed to show up, to reveal what we were doing, how we were doing – we had to own up to our mistakes, shortcomings and failures.
Some of us grew up with that package ‘constructively’, others not. Some of us grew up knowing clearly marked boundaries between right and wrong, between OK and ‘not OK’, between ‘our business’ vis-à-vis ‘everybody’s business’.
Technology today tracks (like it or not) everything we do, every mistake we make. Yes, every success recorded too – but we can’t hide our mistakes, our ‘oops’ moments of life (like job applicants who can’t live down those regrettable tweets), haunting people like ill-considered tattoos.
Nearly every decision we make is less private, faster and without deliberation over consequences than ever before. We don’t make things, deliver services and manage our business nearly as much as we make DECISIONS. All day. Every day. Mostly little ones like ‘which piece of paper or email to act on next’, which call to make next, which event to attend or which one to avoid. Which call to return first, which person to ignore at the party …
My point is that technology/complex issues are the whirlwind, but what is important – more than ever, is being accountable to ourselves. Whatever little thing we did, or didn’t do; whatever inefficiency or error in judgement will haunt us like the avoided debt or forgotten obligation and the missed opportunity.
Who records those?
Only one person – in our head, knows all of those, each of us.
More than knowing/remembering, what are we doing about them?
