As I was wrapping a project management training session, I heard a comment during the closing from one of the learners. This learner said they understand the concepts of project management principles much better now and can contribute to their organization more effectively but can never excel as me. It is great to feel that people can take the learning and apply it in their personal and professional lives. The time people spend going through training and certifying themselves for professional certification tells me that there is a compelling underlying desire for people to be better. The question is if this 'better' version is against themselves or in comparison with others! The learner's comment about never excelling as another person (that is, me) made me bring one of the things that I always mentioned to the people that reported in my PMO organization. That is "Don't let the need for 'greater' impede the progress of 'good!'"
"Why try to be me? Why try to be anyone for that matter?" are some of the questions that I started asking this learner as that means the personal identity is taking a backstage. The only focus of continuous improvement (Kaizen) is to become a better version of themselves. As part of my training for younger high-school students in my PLOT (Projecting Leaders of Tomorrow) training, I emphasize, "If yesterday was your baseline for potential or performance, what are you doing today to improve for a better tomorrow?" Should that not be the focus for professional adults rather than benchmarking against someone else! If any training or certification does not fuel the fire for continuous improvement, then, they have not succeeded!
I recall thoughts in the research driven book, Build to Last (Collins & Porras, 1994), on how leaders should instill the message of comfort not being the objective and should not replace 'doing well as an end objective" over "endless pursuit of doing better for future." It is understandable that people want to strategically (competitive advantage) improve but is the goal of every company to kill the competition? We will be creating a monopoly in that case and that is not good for the overall society! The pursuit should be to learn from the competition and position themselves better to serve our customers in the targeted market. If companies as corporate citizens are to be a better version of themselves (McLeod, 2014), then, why are we trying to be competing with others instead of complementing each other through strategic partnerships?
As my son was expressing discontent about the assignments in online learning management system showing too many future assignments (The online environment for high school in the pandemic was not an easy transition, but that is another topic), I mentioned to him to "take good care of today and the tomorrows will care of itself!" I believe this logic of focusing on becoming good for today should not stop us from becoming greater in comparison to someone else. That is the focus of Kaizen (continuous improvement). There are several authors that also talk about focusing on the moment (Maxwell, 2012) and the power of now (Tolle, 1999) about improving oneself to grow.
I recall the star fish story I heard from one of the leadership classes from Academy Leadership that I attended a long time back (Jim Nalepa, personal communication, February, 2020). As a man was strolling the beach, he saw a boy dancing on the shore. As the man approached the boy, he saw the boy gently picking up throwing star fishes washed ashore. When the man responded to the boy that the boy can't make a difference as there were so many star fishes on the shore, the boy continued throwing one more star fish to the ocean and said, "Well, Sir, it made a difference to that one Star fish!"
So, focus on yourself every day. Instead of counting the days, make the days count! The more one can manage themselves, the more one can inspire others to manage themselves. This is why we say, "rising wave raises all ships." So, let us focus on self-growth for today and not let the comparison with others to be better demotivate from doing anything good.
Don't let the need for "greater" impede the progress of "good". Everybody can make a difference every day! In living their life as best as they can, they are impacting others!
References
Collins, J. & Porras, J.I. (1994). Built to Last. New York: Harper Collins Publications.
McLeod, L.E. (2014). Why killing the competition is not a noble purpose. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaearlemcleod/2014/06/18/why-killing-the-competition-is-not-a-noble-purpose/?sh=39a5469a4498
Maxwell, J. (2012). The 15 invaluable laws of growth. New York: Hachette Group.
Tolle, E. (1999). The Power of Now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment. Novato, CA: New World Library.
