Organization Effectiveness

I got ruined a month or two ago. More specifically, my attitude toward my manager got ruined. A colleague whom I very much respect asked me what I thought of her. I was honest and said that I didn't think much about it, but that I basically liked her. He was surprised because he had heard that others in my team didn't think much of her because she is so disorganized. I started paying attention after that.

I did a system upgrade Monday night that I thought went quite well. It turns out that it generated a lot of tickets because there were a lot of broken web links. I think that the application architecture changed and then changed the way the URLs are formed. I was frustrated because we did everything right with the change control process, but several groups still got caught flat-footed. I ranted to my manager about this a little bit with the hope that she could get some things changed.

She was very sympathetic and agreeable. There is a standing meeting at 8:30 where all the technology managers gather to discuss upcoming changes, tickets, etc. My manager thought that she should bring this issue up at the 8:30 meeting. Then she said, "You get in early, right?"

"Yes," I replied, "though I'm working from home tomorrow. Why do you ask?"

"Could you send me an email tomorrow morning before the 8:30 meeting to remind me to talk about this?"

This is the person who set up the Franklin Planner training for all of us. She carries one around. However, she uses her "own system". I kind of wonder about how effective that all is.

Isn't this our nature? How many people reject core biblical truth because it is just too inconvenient to change? Who wants to be told that they need to change?

I wonder sometimes what it is about my personality that makes me embrace change when it is something I deem worthwhile. I'm pretty good about starting new Bible reading plans, for example. I let the Franklin Planner stuff change my life. I like to think that I'm open to new ways of going about my classes, etc. As my wife would point out, I tend to be quite rigid with things that seem like they're not broken though.

So maybe that's it. We need to see how broken we are before we'll change. This of course very much corresponds to the nature of true repentance. How can we ever approach a holy God and His unsearchable ways unless we first see just how broken we are?