The North Wing

Yesterday, Information Resources had a professional development retreat on campus.   After unit reports (not your usual talking heads!) in video, our guest speaker was Frank Pastizzo; a motivational speaker.

Through stories, jokes, and music, Frank talked about how people view work.  He had us visualize our favorite place to go and then he asked us, “how many chose work.”  No one raised their hands.  Shocking, isn’t it!  Most chose something near the water and many chose a place with palm trees.  His point was that most people at work are there because they have to be not because they choose to be.  Because of that, work can be a difficult place to be.  It doesn’t have to be, he saide, we can make our work environment a place where it’s safe to be human. 

Human beings make mistakes.  Whate everyone needs is a sense of belonging, a sense of freedom, a sense of power and a sence of fun.  If misery loves company, he said, then joy also loves company.  If you connect with the human spirit within the other person before you get down to business, you create a sense of community and belonging. 

He pointed out that all of us work in human services.  We are humans providing a service to other humans.  And the best way to provide service is not the golden rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you), but rather to treat people the way they would like to be treated.

This concept sets everything into a different perspective and provides a lot of food for thought.  And as I continue to think about that, it also brings to mind some of the other points he made.  As we get mired in our jobs, it absorbs us and we get into the flow.  One of the dangers of this “intoxication of momentum” is that we forget to look around and see new ideas and explore new ways of doing and being.  We always go to what we know for a sense of safety. 

To learn, we have to move out of this momentum into a new energy, a new flow.  That can be scary.