How many times have you sat through a training session or read a study
and thought, “Well, duh – I already knew that.
It’s just common sense?” How many
times have you been assigned to do something that you know is doomed to failure
because it just doesn’t make sense…yet no one speaks up. Too often, we ignore one of our greatest
assets – the ability to apply plain ol’ common sense to solving a problem or
implementing a new idea or averting a disaster.
And that’s just a shame.
About the middle of my federal career, I was in line for a promotion. I had one competitor. I was with my boss in a top management
meeting; and when I leaned over to him to suggest that something just didn’t
make sense, he said, “speak up!” I
didn’t because I didn’t trust my instincts.
My competitor did – and he said exactly what I’d thought. Everyone lauded his brilliance because he’d
pointed out something that would have led to failure. And he got the promotion. Lesson learned.
vigorous discussions about what we were doing and how we were doing it. But at some point, I’d stop them and ask, “OK
– what’s the right thing to do for the American people?” Nine times out of ten, the answer was right
there; and we all knew it. We just had
to use our common sense to get through the weeds.
You’ve got the Digital Government Strategy to implement. You have the Plain Writing Act to
implement. You have Customer Service legislation winding its way through Congress (it passed in the House last week
– woot!). And no matter who wins the election
in November, you’ll have new initiatives and probably some new leaders,
requiring even more actions. With so
many demands, you can’t help feeling overwhelmed.
back, take a breath, look at the big picture, and ask yourself, “Which of these
tasks can make the most difference for my customers? Which of these tasks can do the most for my
agency? What can I do well,
realistically? What is the best use of
my time and resources? What is the right
thing to do?” Instead of trying to do 20
things at once (and probably not doing any of them well), use your common sense
to pick 5 of the most important things; and do those well. Then move on to others. If something you’re being asked to do just
doesn’t make sense, point it out. Give alternatives
that would make sense.
it. Your customers will thank you. Your agency will thank you. You’ll feel better.
Sometimes the answer is so simple, but we make it way more complicated…which is easy to do with all the data points we bring into decision making these days.