Saturday, June 25, 2016

When the Quality of Results May Take Second Place


Beware of placing an emphasis on achieving good results and ignoring whether the process of that achievement will cause others to feel left out or diminished.

We can be misled by the assumption that cold, hard, results will always overcome feelings. 
In fact, people may even prefer inferior results if those are attained without an implied insult. Colonial powers used to argue that they would provide better government than their native successors. They did not notice the larger negative message that was inherent in their governance.

Results will not be celebrated if they are accompanied by implications of inferiority. Status and respect can trump quality. Team assignments and reorganizations should be made with this in mind.

Life can be prose but often it is poetry.

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