Listics

[Thanks to Doc for the link to Mike Sanders who links to a review of Covey’s Eighth Habit and gives me a rush…]

"Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." 

Great advice.  I don’t know which leg is easier to grasp, but I am certain that if I just let go and let it wail that I can do either or both as the situation requires.  I’m working with the walking wounded.  A prior administration bled the State’s coffers dry and now the perceived wisdom is that state services can be shrunk to fit our diminished budget.  Shrinking services means laying off people and the agency that engaged me intends to cut ten percent of its staff over the next year or so.  One a day… 365 people will be out on the street.  That’s the plan.  It’s a matter of public record.

I work with about fifty people statewide who enable the technology that provides the IT infrastructure necessary for modern road building.  This isn’t the time for the rap about the modern highway system and how it makes the Egyptian pyramids look like sand castles slapped together by school kids in a sandbox during recess.  In fact, that’s giving those ancient Egyptians too little credit — but the point remains that the Interstate Highway System is the eighth wonder of the world. 

I can’t tell you how many cubic miles of concrete were poured over how many metric kilotons of roadbed to pave a stretch of road between Superior and Eau Claire.  But I have software that can give us the answer if we need it.

There are several dozen people around the state who support these systems and they’re worried that they won’t have jobs.  I’m traveling with a message.  The glass is half full, I tell them.  The state needs you right where you are.  Your work is safe.  Okay, your jobs may change, but you won’t lose your jobs.  That’s what I’m telling them and I know I’m not lying.

Some are afraid, especially the young ones.  No seniority, no experience working in the belly of the beast, the thrashing convulsing vomiting beast, dyspeptic, ill from decades of overeating… naturally for those in the mists of the acid reflux, those in the gale force winds of the foul breath roaring from the cavernous maw, those on the ground stepping lively to avoid being trampled by the mindless pain crazed brute, this isn’t as they say - PARANOIA - it is legitimate fear.

But I’m here to say the glass is half full.  The system needs people in our professions. The boomers are retiring.  A clear eyed look at the demographics would tell you that the numbers are those of a posturing politician.  Governor Jim can meet his numbers through attrition mostly.  The glass is half full for my co-workers across the state.  And the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. 

Not even Bob Dylan said that.