Hmmm

I was at a meeting today where, among other things, a troubled program was under discussion. Some decisions were made that I feel will merely postpone the eventual demise of this program. However, some individuals were charged with creating a “paradigm shift” that might potentially reshape and rescue the troubled program. Translation:  no one at the meeting actually had an actionable plan but it would sure be nice if someone could come up with something that might work in the coming days so hard decisions could be avoided.

I came home to find that Adrian Savage is telling Coyote stories again. This one is about, you guessed it, “paradigm shifts”. The paradigm shift didn’t bode well for rabbit either.

I’m a few months into my interim directorship position. I knew within the first week that most all of my assumptions were false. I had an interesting conversation with my former boss today. Actually we talk most days but today he stopped in to see whether I would mind if he interacted directly with my boss (formerly his boss) on a project that is critical to our organization. It’s funny, when I first took this on, I wanted/needed to DO IT MYSELF. ALL. Three months in…”are you kidding?! that would be terrific!”

One of my colleagues who nominated me for the position had initially wanted me to perhaps do it as a “co-director” for a bit while I gained experience. At that point, I was frankly miffed that this person felt I would need that. Three months in I realize that with my daily conversations with my old boss that this is essentially what has been happening. He may not have the official title for this role, but he certainly has gone out of his way to make my life easier. In some ways I think that because he was the director for 20+ years that he, better than anyone, knows what a thankless position it is.

Back when I used to do martial arts, we started every class by saying SHIKIN HARAMITSU DAIKOMYO which translates into something like “In every encounter experience, there is the potential for gaining our enlightenment, the possibility of finding that one missing piece of the puzzle that brings about illumination. It is our own mind that determines the experience to be positive or negative.” -Masaaki Hatsumi.  I find these Japanese words in my mind often these days.