Flying under the radar

The train Saturday was standing room only and most everyone was wearing green. Some were going to their first and others go every year. Many have heard of it, but the event flies under the radar.

Saturday was 17 March and the event was the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. 2012 was the 251st celebration of the oldest, largest and most attended parade in New York City. We all know about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and probably assumed this event held these honors. It is a celebration for the Irish and those who want to be Irish for the day. There are no outside influences, advertisers or national TV coverage. It is just fun for those that attend.

There is definitely something to be said for flying under the radar on occasion. I’ve seen many teams accomplish amazing results only to be benchmarked and told there are better ways. I’ve seen teams achieve outstanding employee engagement scores only to be questioned about how hard they work. Sometimes good results should be allowed to be just what they are. No more.

Have you seen a good deed go punished? Are there situations where you think it is ok for a team to not advertise amazing results?

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Take a minute, please!

You have to draft a written response to one of the following scenarios:

Scenario 1: The new proposal was drafted by a team of people that do not fully understand the technical situation and have a goal of creating issues for your progress.

Scenario 2: The new proposal was drafted by well a intentioned team wanting to be transparent, but they just don’t know what they don’t know.

It is easy to see how each scenario would create a very different written response on your part. What if I told you there is almost always someone that can tell you exactly which situation is the most accurate. I had a recent situation similar to this and almost selected the wrong choice. This would have hurt feelings and likely caused my objectives more harm. I asked an unlikely source and found the truth. I changed the nature and tone of my response and was very successful.

How often do you take that extra time to learn the context of the messages you receive? How often when you don’t, do you get it wrong and create more harm than good?

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