Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I like to be ready. At times I forced myself to be less ready and learn during the moment. Those were quite satisfying. Project managers can take something from this and help their people learn.

I like to plan. Well, not to plan, I guess what is really like is to be prepared. That is part of the Boy Scout’s motto or something. I am not sure as I was never a Boy scout, but it sounds like I would have been an excellent Boy Scout. I hate to go into a situation where I am not prepared for all possible contingencies. There are many sleep-deprived nights where I lie in bed working through possible situations in my mind. I am ready for most of life far in advance.

My life is a contradiction to the title of this blog post. There, I admitted it. So why the title of this post? Because I find it to be a good way to go through life and the many experiences that comprise life.

Last year I walked 550 miles from Northern Virginia to Chattanooga, TN. (My wife was with me the entire time – don’t want to leave her out. I hope to walk again this year 550 miles from Chattanooga, TN to Southeastern Louisiana.) I thought about all the things that I needed to complete the walk and all the details and all…well you get the picture. In spite of my best efforts to be myself, I left plenty of room for learning. That was difficult! I cannot express how difficult it was.

The result was a joy. I learned countless things everyday as I was walking. I discovered each little town while walking through them. Every turn of the corner was new and enlightening. Learning at the place at the moment instead of ahead of time was great. In the evening, after transiting a town, I would read about it on Wikipedia.

On several occasions, I could no longer resist my urge to be ready ahead of time. I read Wikipedia before entering a town. The result was far less satisfying.

My long walk was a fun, extended vacation. Work at a paying job is work, not a vacation. What is satisfying on vacation may be a disaster at work, and enough disasters at work cause people to lose their jobs. Leaving room for learning, however, doesn’t have to be a disaster at work.

I am now writing to people who supervise other people. Take five minutes here and there during a frantic project to show people what they have just experienced, to help people learn from what they have just experienced. They will learn more at the place and the moment that something happens than they will ahead of time or even after in a classroom or formal “place of learning.”

On the job, be prepared, do your homework, be knowledgeable, exercise due diligence (am I leaving anything out?), and leave room for learning.