3 things recently...

The Activist vs The Agent


I looked up the meaning of Activist and the meaning of Agent
Activist: an especially active vigorous advocate of a cause
vs
Agent: a person or thing that acts or has the power to act
Both kinds of individuals are great, they bring about change, more often desirable change, but I definitely prefer one.


The promised land

When the 12 spies were sent out to explore The Promised Land, it was not empty waiting for them to come and occupy it but for sure It was flowing with milk and honey.
This was what they found in Canaan...
"They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan." ...and it did take quite a while to conquer it, but it was still The Promised Land.


The Monkey Problem

I came across a site by ManagerZine article The Second Skill: Getting Rid Of Monkeys
This is a what took it home. "We received a call from a far-flung reader with a monkey problem. He had three direct reports who were managers themselves. Each had some heavy new responsibilities. Turns out, they were not shy about getting him involved with their work.“Can you please review this before I send it out?” was a typical request.“I’ve got a problem. Here’s what happens” was another. Pretty soon, his work became their work and his time was not his own.
What is happening here is a classic back and forth game of who has responsibility. The subordinate puts the monkey on the manager when she asks for a review or when the boss is asked to solve a problem. When a manager picks up the monkey from a direct report, he or she is literally working for the subordinate. The manager’s time is being taken up by a subordinate’s work. Something is wrong with this picture."... very entertaining and infuriating.