Is it possible to get a group of people with common purpose and common incentives aligned?
Is it possible to get a group of people to a common purpose even if their current incentives are not aligned?
Is it possible to get a group of people excited and inspired to work on a common purpose even if they have little else in common but being able to bring their strengths?
I have to grapple with these questions every day. They aren’t profound questions. They are vexing to the point of exhaustion. Every day I see individual egos climbing imaginary hierarchical towers with almost unbridled power over other people’s lives, pretending to care under “our values”.
The last question is the one that’s most on my mind. I fail often at it. I find it dispiriting at times at the effort I have to put in, just to fail. I keep at it though, and after two years, I am seeing how this can be more successful than the other sticks and carrots ideas that keep showing up in corporatedom.
I have slowly come to accept – even occasionally celebrate – that I have strengths in this weird combination of skills. Being invited today to talk to a bunch of marketers and strategists on how to improve their presentation and persuasion skils came out of the blue. Enthusiasm and inspiration, apparently, is not a common currency.
Hemingway Readability Grade 8