responsibility

On The Oregon Shooter

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As you probably heard, the shooter apparently was on a campaign to kill sinners according to his diary.  It shocked his church and family, and it seems fairly obvious he was pretty troubled.

The thing is everyone is talking about how they were surprised.

I think by now, we’ve heard so many times that “oh, he shouldn’t have done that” or heard how “how surprising this is” to think that maybe we should stop being surprised.  It’s clear that when people miss someone is on the way to a violent breakdown missing it is no surprise because it happens all the time.

It’s up to us to watch out for each other.  Not keep watch on each other, we don’t need some panopticon police state in our heads (we’ve got enough would-be’s in the world).  We need to make sure we’re there to ensure our friends and family and neighbors don’t fall into the darkness.

It’s up to us to pay attention for when things look like they’ll fall apart.  It may not be a mass shooting (and for all of you I hope it never is), but it’s realizing someone may have a drinking problem, or is losing their way and falling in with radicals, and so on.

It’s up to us to actually care about each other as opposed to expect people to follow some rote behavior that will inevitably cause them to snap or snap worse.

When someone snaps and there’s surprise, that’s no surprise.  That’s a problem.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

The Sixth “R” of Reporting – Responsibility

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Last week I covered the fifth stage of Reporting as a Project Manager; Regret. There’s always the stage where you understand what’s going on and the inevitable reaction that follows; regret. That’s a powerful force, to truly see and know the flaws, and a good detailed study helps you understand the results and what’s wrong (and right).

Sometimes regret feels pretty good. At least you know what’s wrong.

So what happens after going “hey, our reporting system is flawed” or “OH MY GOD I’VE BEEN LIVING A LIE?”

The next stage is Responsibility. Someone has to step up and take responsibility and say “I’ll fix this.”

If you’re the Program Manager or Project Manager who did all this? Guess what you’re the first person to stand up and be responsible for how this gets fixed.

You won’t be alone, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Here’s why you’ll stand up to fix it:

  • First of all, you’re a Program/Project Manager. You use this report, it reflects your projects, you should lead making it work. You might be the one who cares the most.
  • Secondly, you’re a Program/Project Manager, and you’re an organized bugger. You might as well do it.
  • Third, you know the data, what it means, how it’s transformed, and what it’s supposed to do. You remember how you had to learn all that stuff? Yeah, well now you know it.
  • Fourth, someone’s got to. It might as well be you.
  • Fifth, you kinda publicly showed what’s wrong, people are going to figure you’ll solve it.

Though really, number two is always a big part. People like us naturally try to fix things. You’re going to do it anyway.

I also said you won’t be alone. You won’t.

See a good mapping, a good discussion, a good exposure will lead people to help, to solve problems, to fix things. The people that stand up and try to help? They’re the ones you can count on to help you on this.

Come to think of it you might find people who can help you on other things by seeing who stands up.

Scary? No, I find that people will stand up to help, they will take responsibility. You’ll probably be surprised. I usually am.

So now you’ve taken responsibility, and you’ve found those who will help. We’ll get to the final stage next.

Well the sort of final stage. That takes a little explaining, so be patient . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

The Matter-Eater Lad Principle

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I am fond of the infamously ever-continuing (and lately ever-rebooted) comic tales of the Legion of Superheroes.  Set in the 30th century, it’s about a group of young people who revive the superheroic ideal, band together disparate races and cultures, and have grand adventures.  It’s kind of it’s own genre, but is probably closest to the Japanese Anime trope of “bunch of people with abilities have adventures.”

Now it may sound weird, but this series actually had a moment that I find is a great thought provoker.  It happened when Tenzil Kem, aka Matter-Eater Lad (Yes, the names were a bit lame) was drafted to run for office on his homeworld.  Yes, imagine a political system where anyone could be in office, wether you wanted to be or not.  I suppose it was a bit like the Drazi of Babylon 5.

Now, this rather humorous incident in comics actually made me think; imagine a society where office was that random.  Imagine a society where at any moment any citizen could end up with political power.  As much as there’s humor in those statements, it’s also a thought-provoker.

See, we live in a high-tech democracy here in America.  Yes, we can certainly criticize the system, the media, the candidates, and . . . well everything . . . but people can still have a voice.  That voice may be carried by single vote or by blog or whatever, but it is a voice.  Certainly in the age of Joe The Plumber (OK he’s neither Joe nor a Plumber, stick with me), any of us could end up a political focal point.

We all have some amount of political power, and might end up with quite a bit.  We’re all a bit like Tenzil Kem, only with less of a publication history.

So are we ready?  Are we, like the inhabitants Tenzil’s homeworld of Bismoll (yes, it is a lame joke, but that’s the real name), ready to exercise our political influence?  Are we ready to have our words put into action?

Are we ready for the repercussions?

When someone makes a political statement, says what we should do, etc. I always like them to spell out their plans.  How will their idea work?  What are the repercussions? What are the side effects?  What did you base your ideas on?  Someone who can’t answer that – or who responds with snide comments and accusations – isn’t ready for political power of any kind, from a blog to a position.

We can have influence at any time.  We should be ready.

Of course judging by the sorry state of our politicians, pundits, preachers, and media people supposedly with political power are in no way ready to wield it.  Or express it.  Or in a few cases I doubt they can tie their shoes properly.

So maybe we should be holding everyone to higher standards.  Including ourselves.  In fact, starting with ourselves, since it’s too easy to just accuse others of being wrong.

Do it.  Do it for Matter-Eater Lad.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.