Draining the swamp…
There is an old adage that it’s hard to remember that your there to drain the swamp when your up to your armpits in alligators.
I find that to be more and more true in the corporate workplace as the phone, the instant messaging, and the non stop emails all vie for your time. Tactical demands – that troubled customer on the phone, or in your in basket trump the strategic efforts of designing new capabilities, or social engineering to enable others to recognize and respond to the changing realities of the market place.
How is one ever to get caught up, so that they can move ahead? To move ahead, to lead, to work on more complex things, one must give away their present position. Give away does not equal dump on someone else. But, one might stop and examine the things they have held onto so tenaciously in their current job roles. Are they a bottleneck? Could they share access to information resources with others? Can they create opportunities for others? As we give away what we hold onto, we make room for new.
Before long, the alligators will be have moved on, and one can focus on the original task of draining the swamp.
