Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

It seems that it is difficult to find the right type of people to hire into a project. We need people to be creative at some times and pound-it-out to do the work at other times. I found a place where we can recruit lots of such people.

Saturday evening I was surrounded by several hundred, maybe a thousand, teenagers. They were:

doing something bigger than themselves

doing something none of them could do alone

having the discipline to be rigid at one point and creative at another point

knowing when to choose between the two

being a part of a large group

working towards a group’s goal

having fun

They were not:

acting disrespectful towards anyone else in any way

I was attending a high school marching band competition in Meridian, Mississippi (why I was there is a long story, but I was Taking A Walk and…).

So I look up at the list of things these teenagers were doing and not doing. I would happily have any of these kids working with me building a system. These are all attributes of people who can work together and build great systems that delight people and add to their lives.

A couple of odd things: (1) I’ve been told that today’s kids are all about “me” and not about anything more than “me.” (2) Mississippi is supposed to rank last or next to last in all achievement-related things.

I guess all these things “I’ve been told” and these “supposed rankings” are wrong.

What is right is these kids. What is right is the kids all across America in small towns, big cities, rural areas, and every place else as well.

The evening ended with a performance by the “Maroon Typhoon” – the Jones Country Junior College Marching band from Ellisville, Mississippi. You’ve probably never heard of them, but they have performed, among other places, at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York City and the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. That’s not bad for a group of 18 and 19 year old kids from rural Mississippi. My niece is in that band now; my nephew was a couple of years ago.

Yes, I think we’ll be alright. All we have to do is get out of the way and let them lead.