THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK

Sometimes the most skillful people are just experts at doing nothing.

They've got an unbelievable mix of talent and resources, but unlike many high achievers, when they combine those ingredients together in a pot of work, the only the dish the recipe produces for them is excuses, garnished with complaints.

Excuses...

I was running late... I had to be at work in a few minutes if I didn't want to face the wrath of my boss. But my little brother who doubled as my roommate, was is no such hurry. He was busy typing a mail that seemed awfully important to him, and just as I was about to race out of the room, he asked if I could read through his mail and make edits if need be.

With my feet unflinchingly focused on beating the traffic I had begun to picture in my mind, I told him I'd do it immediately I got to the office, just in time for him to send it to his boss.

Thank GOD I made it early enough, as I had completely underestimated the scale of the favour I promised my brother. I ended up virtually rewriting the whole mail!

Upon sending over the new draft to little bro, I got an immediate call from him, thanking me and telling the most eye-opening joke thereafter...

"Yinka, you know how to write O! If I knew how to write like you, I wouldn't do anything all day at the office. Then, a few minutes to closing, I'll write the most beautifully-worded email to my boss explicitly explaining why I was unable to do anything all day!"

In other words, instead of using his skill to work, he'd use it to avoid work and make excuses instead.

That was almost a decade ago and I have never stopped reflecting on that interesting phone call with my brother, especially since I have repeatedly encountered many employees, vendors and contractors who have tried to do exactly what he said he'd do.

Making excuses...

Is that all you do with your skill? Pause, look back and reflect on all those clashes with your supervisor or clients over the outcome of tasks assigned to you.

Many times, we take advantage of their ignorance of the deep technical jargons of our profession to make up the perfect excuse why work was either delayed or not done at all.

You hear things like "You see, the performance efficacy of the router was intermittently distorted by the sinusoidal locomotion of power supply and the attendant erratic signal implications which caused uncontrolled ones and zeros in the state of my outputs, thereby completely hindering my ability to deliver this task today."

By tomorrow, you'll need an advanced learner's dictionary to decide whether it's your fault or his, after he gives you another poetic reason why that same task still hasn't been completed yet.

I've seen artistic people with deadlines claim to be waiting for inspiration to do the creative tasks assigned to them, only for the deadline to pass them by, after which they majestically walk up to their boss and make the perpetually delayed arrival of inspiration the scapegoat and not them.

What's most common now however, is actually blaming others, or the lack of others for our inability to deliver.

For example, a Brand Manager who's been given six months to pitch a new brand identity to his company now says he's unable to do so because he doesn't have content and it's management's fault for not hiring a content writer.

It's a convenient excuse to give on the eve of the pitch, and surely if the content writer had been available, he'd have blamed his failure on the poor and uninspiring content produced by the content writer he hired and oversaw for six months!

Where then is accountability and ownership?

We thank GOD for the new methodologies and frameworks like agile and scrum respectively, that have helped us eliminate work processes and cultures that allowed these excuse-givers to thrive.

But there's still a long way to go. A long way from people not wanting their names to be associated with uncompleted tasks, half-baked work and nonchalance in general.

Oh! But I have a dream!?

That one day our workplaces would be filled with people who instead of actively seeking problems to use as excuses, they'd actively take them on as challenges and innovate their way through.

Yes! My brothers and sisters, I have a dream of a New Workplace Order, void of excuses and blame transfer, but overflowing with individual and collective accountability and ownership.

Where management plans properly and fully fulfils its responsibilities to the employees, instead of blaming the market or economy, and employees go the extra mile to exceed the expectations of their employers, regardless of the obstacles in front of them.

For us to be greater than the sum of our parts, we must all individually give more than our best. There is no room for excuse-givers, me must all be high performers. Otherwise, the organisation as a whole would not be at its best and cannot therefore, give us its best.

We need to bring back the era where people took pride in their work and ensured they didn't go to bed without overdelivering and honouring their fathers' names in the process.

To do this, I believe we must all individually commit to being more accountable, whilst promoting ownership, motivation and equity in our workplaces. Because if we do, I'm optimistic enough to believe that we can truly change the world we live in.

Dear entrepreneur, is this possible or am I just dreaming?

To your success,

Olayinka A. Williams?

______________________________

Copyright ? 2022 Olayinka A. Williams - All rights reserved.