Sean Wallbridge
Good afternoon friends and peers.
I’m pissed off. Normally I schedule these videos with my video accountability coach Chris … but today I’m going off script because if I don’t share this now, I’m going to lose it. (Sorry Chris ? … Ps. Chris is amazing – you should work with him and his team @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisweiher).
Okay squirrel … back to it.
I’m a simple dude and I live by but two commandments … Be Cool and Don’t be an Asshole. And it doesn’t matter that these are challenging times, or that decisions and motivations may be driven by fear … one can still be kind, fair and accomplish a great deal without being narcissistic, mean or deceptive.
In our world here at #Regroove, our mission is to “relentlessly modernize organizations and our community with tools and expertise”. But boy oh boy, is it ever difficult right now when it comes to trying to help IT departments transform as they lift their organizations out of their ‘technology debt’. There is an old guard right now that are being incredibly difficult, sometimes lazy, often elusive, abrasive or sneaky … but the part that really pisses me off … is they are being mean, cruel, condescending and unable to recognize that their behaviour is the problem.
In my experience, these dudes come in two shapes and sizes:
- The first group (let’s call them “Group A”) are the guys entrenched in their jobs for years (previously comfortable, but now rattled), doing everything they can (knowingly or unknowingly) to undermine all efforts for organizational change because they are losing control (control over decisions, control over access, control over information … “you used to fear me!” is what I can see them screaming inside their heads). To this first group I say … suck it up. You got into technology (I hope) initially because of a desire to always be learning something new. At some point you lost your way. I get it. You’re tired, maybe a little bit broken. But make a decision. Get back into it, or tap out … for your own good and for the good of the organization. If you are making decisions based on having a few years left before retirement and you can’t be bothered to grow … or because your ego is bruised, you are holding yourself and your organization back.
- The second group (hereto which shall be referred to as “Group B”) are the know-it-alls that are shifting careers right now because they can. Silly money is being thrown around at those with a fat resume and/or inflated self-confidence and they are arriving on the scene, pounding their chests and dumping on all of the hard and thankless work done by those before them under extremely difficult conditions … the last 18 months have been a time of great uncertainty – restricted budgets, rushed decisions, constant turnover never mind all the folks in Group A mucking up everything along the way.
Still with me? Great. Now here’s my ask (no, wait – Demand). Be nice to my team. I don’t care if you are nice to me or even like me. But my team is amazing and you’re lucky to have them working with you. I’m incredibly grateful and proud of the diversity of our group and I suspect we are still a bit of a unicorn as an office of predominantly women. These folks are on the front lines trying to help organizations clean up their shit and taking it on the chin every day. They are having to duck and weave around bullshit, misogyny, miscommunications, misinformation and agendas … but the biggest problem is having to navigate around a bunch of dudes in IT fearful of losing their power.
My promise. If I hear of anyone that is being uncool … You can count on me to make their lives as difficult and uncomfortable as they are to those on my team. Clean it up my dudes. Or get out of (your own) way. Thank you.
#Victoria #YYJ #bethechange #cloudfirst #benice