A STORY WORTH TELLING
“We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.”
— Mary Catherine Bateson
“When I was 16, I was convinced my father was the dumbest human on the planet,” a regular at our weekly “coffee committee” recently confessed.
A few of us chuckled knowingly.
“But by the time I neared 30,” he continued, “I was astounded by how much the old man had learned in just a few years!”
We laughed. It was funny because it was true.
That anecdote triggered memories of an eye-opening corporate session years ago.
We affectionately referred to those meetings as “hostage situations with stale pastries.”
This one was at a gorgeous Arizona resort with thrilling agenda titles such as “Financial Reviews” and “Insurance Open Enrollment.” But tucked away near the bottom was a mysterious listing that piqued our curiosity: “The Key to Sure Success.”
“Brace yourselves for the motivational poster speech,” a cynical sales rep whispered.
I expected a slideshow with soaring eagles and Comic Sans type fonts. Instead, the CEO refrained from a PowerPoint presentation and instead summoned two people to the front.
The first was a fresh-faced university marketing graduate.
The second was a grizzled veteran sales rep.
Their assignment was deceptively simple.
“Tell me three things about the person at the other end of the table,” the CEO instructed.
“Specifically, what you hope they will contribute to our corporate success this year, wisdom you want to share with them and things you look forward to learning from them.”
The room came alive. We weren’t just witnessing a polite exchange of pleasantries, we watched a cross-generational bridge being engineered. You could feel and see a mutual understanding of the future.
I thought about my dad. He was never the type of parent to drop unsolicited “knowledge bombs” on me. Instead, he quietly dispensed his most profound wisdom in places such as the kitchen, usually over a bedtime snack.
I remembered one night pitching my need for a souped-up hot rod. I explained how this vehicle would improve my life and skyrocket my social standing.
He listened patiently, finished his cereal, then spoke.
“Spending your hard-earned money on that car is not a great idea,” he calmly said.
“But you’ll probably have to learn that lesson the same way I did — the hard way.”
And time proved him right, of course.
This exact same scenario is playing out across the modern corporate landscape today. Examples include the rise of “silent weedings” — early retirement buyouts offered to seasoned veterans while favoring younger, techie types; hiring cheaper managers while passing over employees with proven organizational wisdom and backgrounds; and creating workforce models where repeated, expensive mistakes occur rather than tapping into the knowledge of veteran workers.
“Say,” I whispered to the sales guy. “How about this for a motivational poster worth printing? ‘While the view is great from the mountaintop, it’s smart to make the climb with someone who knows where the loose rocks are.’” “Perfect,” he said.
“Hey, you think those blueberry muffins are still sitting back there?”
Contact Aldridge at leonaldridge@gmail. com. Other Aldridge columns are archived at leonaldridge.com.
