Can't. I absolutely hate that word. It drives me up a WALL! It's a word that shows you're defeated before you ever even try.
"Can't do that", "Won't work", "Not here" and all the other siblings of "can't" that people use to get out of actually having to TRY.
I bring this up because of something that happened to me today. I was talking with someone at work about the processes that exist there and their detriments to our daily work. She said the same thing everyone else says; "yeah", "yeah", "yeah" which is all I ever hear from people, agreeing with me on all the issues that I see. They know these problems are there and need to be fixed.
In this conversation, I identified one major process issue I can fix that will help get us on track. The best part of my plan is that I don't need to change the culture to get it fixed, only process.
As I'm walking through each step of the fix, I get nods of agreement, she gives me ideas on how I can implement and she even brought up some new information that will help me. So at each step this woman is agreeing that each of these steps seem doable.
I get to the end, and I essentially say "...so, it'll take a while because we have to take baby steps, but that's basically how I can fix the situation for all of us."
Her response? "Yeah, but you can't do that here." Without missing a beat she said that the thing she just said COULD be done, CAN'T be done.
How does that logic work?
Every single step she said it sounded feasible and even doable, but when it came time to look on the plan and possibly implement, she ran and hid!
Now, I've heard "can't do that here" a hundred times at a hundred companies and almost every single time I proved them wrong, so lucky for her and everyone else at that place, I'm not giving up. It just gets on my nerves to have people run for the hills every time something difficult shows up.
*deep breath* WOOOO-sah!!!
"Can't do that", "Won't work", "Not here" and all the other siblings of "can't" that people use to get out of actually having to TRY.
I bring this up because of something that happened to me today. I was talking with someone at work about the processes that exist there and their detriments to our daily work. She said the same thing everyone else says; "yeah", "yeah", "yeah" which is all I ever hear from people, agreeing with me on all the issues that I see. They know these problems are there and need to be fixed.
In this conversation, I identified one major process issue I can fix that will help get us on track. The best part of my plan is that I don't need to change the culture to get it fixed, only process.
As I'm walking through each step of the fix, I get nods of agreement, she gives me ideas on how I can implement and she even brought up some new information that will help me. So at each step this woman is agreeing that each of these steps seem doable.
I get to the end, and I essentially say "...so, it'll take a while because we have to take baby steps, but that's basically how I can fix the situation for all of us."
Her response? "Yeah, but you can't do that here." Without missing a beat she said that the thing she just said COULD be done, CAN'T be done.
How does that logic work?
Every single step she said it sounded feasible and even doable, but when it came time to look on the plan and possibly implement, she ran and hid!
Now, I've heard "can't do that here" a hundred times at a hundred companies and almost every single time I proved them wrong, so lucky for her and everyone else at that place, I'm not giving up. It just gets on my nerves to have people run for the hills every time something difficult shows up.
*deep breath* WOOOO-sah!!!
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