Saturday, October 20, 2007
get it done - Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007
today’s Musing written and published from south Calgary, near Fish Creek Park
4C/39F (high 8C), brilliant sunshine, warmer now than when we walked, when heavy frost coated every windshield, every roof – Gusta found an old white-haired retriever to bother by the park, quiet is everywhere
Saturday morning sleep-ins prove many things, among them that it was a wearying week from which downtime is the only cure; pouring coffee, pouring over papers, pouring through stories and lessons learned – I wonder how much of what goes off course in life, in society, in relationships, in the entire world is attributable to how we get things done
getting anything done – done right that is, does not happen by accident any more than it happens only because logic and reason was applied to a set of facts and a list of objectives; getting it right ought to be universal, measurable, felt and understood – getting it right ought to consider all values and value systems, not to pander to any or all of them, but to be considered in the light that any decision, reasoned or knee-jerk, will be felt in many ways for a long time
sober thought belongs in its place on a sunny autumn weekend – the frost is on the pumpkin, the devil is in the details and generations from now the history books will look on this coming week as a pivotal time or as a nothing; the choices are clear but the vision has not been articulated – the objectives are clear, but the route has not been chosen, the streets will be paved with good intentions mixed with political expediency and our
the time for arguing, lobbying and shouting is over now – somber choices, leadership bends to expediency as it so often does, long-term vision is sadly just a little longer than a news cycle, just a little shorter than the time till an election call;
a week from now – just seven days away – there will be a new way of life unfolding here; for some it will be because a key government policy announcement will foster the future – somewhere between unbridled unlimited prosperity and complete disaster; the acumen of a few will decide for the many, the resolve of the powerful will build or squander political capital and with it the fortunes of a very nervous populace
I see something happening that happens often, I believe, in businesses, clubs, groups, families and relationships of all kinds – so much pressure to get it done, too much cogitation to get it right; more than an analysis of ethics or professionalism, I wonder about the subtle differences between ‘getting it right’ and ‘getting it done’
these concepts can be so near, or so far - the defensible ways politicians change course with enormous impact on all of us, the defensible positions taken by parents and spouses and neighbors and bosses, the defensible positions taken by wise men and women – easily they/we can defend what we have done as justifiable, supported by reasoning, facts and research – but, is getting it done on such a basis any reason to conclude we got it right?
Mark Kolke
341,100
197.0
What do you think? Join the discussion - your comments are welcomed - please write.
To subscribe to Mark's Musings daily email distribution, write to musing@maxcomm.ca
©2007 MaxComm Communications, all rights reserved.
4C/39F (high 8C), brilliant sunshine, warmer now than when we walked, when heavy frost coated every windshield, every roof – Gusta found an old white-haired retriever to bother by the park, quiet is everywhere
Saturday morning sleep-ins prove many things, among them that it was a wearying week from which downtime is the only cure; pouring coffee, pouring over papers, pouring through stories and lessons learned – I wonder how much of what goes off course in life, in society, in relationships, in the entire world is attributable to how we get things done
getting anything done – done right that is, does not happen by accident any more than it happens only because logic and reason was applied to a set of facts and a list of objectives; getting it right ought to be universal, measurable, felt and understood – getting it right ought to consider all values and value systems, not to pander to any or all of them, but to be considered in the light that any decision, reasoned or knee-jerk, will be felt in many ways for a long time
sober thought belongs in its place on a sunny autumn weekend – the frost is on the pumpkin, the devil is in the details and generations from now the history books will look on this coming week as a pivotal time or as a nothing; the choices are clear but the vision has not been articulated – the objectives are clear, but the route has not been chosen, the streets will be paved with good intentions mixed with political expediency and our
the time for arguing, lobbying and shouting is over now – somber choices, leadership bends to expediency as it so often does, long-term vision is sadly just a little longer than a news cycle, just a little shorter than the time till an election call;
a week from now – just seven days away – there will be a new way of life unfolding here; for some it will be because a key government policy announcement will foster the future – somewhere between unbridled unlimited prosperity and complete disaster; the acumen of a few will decide for the many, the resolve of the powerful will build or squander political capital and with it the fortunes of a very nervous populace
I see something happening that happens often, I believe, in businesses, clubs, groups, families and relationships of all kinds – so much pressure to get it done, too much cogitation to get it right; more than an analysis of ethics or professionalism, I wonder about the subtle differences between ‘getting it right’ and ‘getting it done’
these concepts can be so near, or so far - the defensible ways politicians change course with enormous impact on all of us, the defensible positions taken by parents and spouses and neighbors and bosses, the defensible positions taken by wise men and women – easily they/we can defend what we have done as justifiable, supported by reasoning, facts and research – but, is getting it done on such a basis any reason to conclude we got it right?
Mark Kolke
341,100
197.0
What do you think? Join the discussion - your comments are welcomed - please write.
To subscribe to Mark's Musings daily email distribution, write to musing@maxcomm.ca
©2007 MaxComm Communications, all rights reserved.
