What we put in, is what we get out...

But is it?

I remember being about ten years old and having to do a project for school, I don't remember what the requirements were, but I know I did my project on the Rhino. At the time my parents and I were staying on my aunt and uncle's smallholding while they were away.

I wanted to go and ride a horse, but I had to do my homework first. So I grabbed an encyclopaedia (the glorious friend of the pre-internet people) and a piece of paper and scribbled down a few lines. I think I needed it to be a particular number of words, so I wrote a piece of bad poetry to take up space. As I bolted out the door I was stopped by my father who asked to see my homework. I handed it to him. I still remember standing in the door way as if they were the starting blocks in a 100m sprint. There was no "ready..steady...go", there was only "NO!" Naturally I had to do it again. (The horseriding had to wait until the next day.)

My dad was trying to teach me some important lessons, and I did learn what he was trying to teach- clear thinking, planning, being focused and creating something that you are proud of. The lessons stuck- I am now 42, and I still think about that darn Rhino project at least once a month. What my dad was not able to teach me is that sometimes, no matter how good the input, the result isn't what you want it to be. There are factors out of your control, and people are one of the factors.

Let me tell you about Paul (a fake name for a real person). Paul has been having a very frustrating time of late. He is in a role that he is qualified to do, he has the requisite experience and has been enthusiastic about not just doing his job, but doing it well. (My dad and his Rhino-project lessons would be proud). However, no matter how well Paul holds up his end of the employment bargain, he is not able to achieve in a way that he would like to; even more frustrating is the fact that the person he reports to feels that Paul doesn't measure up either. Luckily Paul has been approached by another company, and has handed in his notice. He and I are feeling very proud about the work he put in to finding a new space to grow and feeling positive about the move. This morning he was called into his monthly KPI meeting, and his boss wanted to know why on earth he was leaving. Paul was honest. He explained how he had motivated for changes to X, Y and Z, spoke about the research he had done to drive these improvements. He shared about how he believed that he, and his department, were critical to strategic planning for the business. He expressed that he had never been given a seat at the table to offer or drive strategy, even after more than a year of asking. (Yes - he was at a level and in a position that made that a more than reasonable request.) The manager's response was to say "Thank you for your honesty. When we look for your replacement we need to look for someone who is able to research proposed changes really well and develop and drive strategy. I think it's really important that the new person sit in on the appropriate meetings. Paul, you haven't been able to do any of these things, and that's something we need in the business."

Is your jaw on the floor? Mine still is.

The call to action is not to those of you who need to further advocate for yourselves, but please do that.

The call to action is also not to those of you who have to seek out places where you are appreciated, please do that too.

The call to action is to leaders. If you want good outputs, and you want particular deliverables then you need to create the culture where people's work can be seen for what it is. That the created product (work or service or idea) is not impeded from achieving excellence by the environment in which it lands.

In simple terms, don't ask your people to throw seeds on cement and then be angry at them when flowers don't grow.