Too many bricks, not enough mortar.
A couple of years ago I was going to set up my own business. I got my website sorted out, business cards printed, but then… nothing happened. I’d concentrated on style over substance.
It’s not bricks that hold a house together, it’s the mortar.* Otherwise, it’s a pile of bricks. There seems to be an assumption that if you’re given a bunch of money or are part of a new organization, then you need to create something from scratch. Instead of focusing on connecting people and adding value, there’s thrashing about creating a new community, a new website, new artefacts. Let’s create more bricks!
Right now, more than ever, it’s mortar time. It’s time to stick the bricks together to build something.
Get busy!
Image CC BY-NC-SA lovestruck.
* Granted, there’s lots of examples of dry stone walls in Northumberland (where I live). But that takes a lot of organization, co-ordination and centralised re-shaping of existing organizations. Work with me… :-p
I'm with you Doug. Since becoming a GCT I've had fleeting temptations to leave school and become some kind of conference speaker or visiting expert – I've already spoken at a couple of conferences and it went really well. Or maybe to develop some funky online tool.
But the thing is I'm already building something good at my school.
And the job isn't finished yet. I know that long term I need to improve in being what I am, not forcing myself into something I see in other people. And I can't leave the job half built at school either. I suppose the job is (to extend the metaphor slightly further) to identify which is the best mortar for sticking together the bricks.
Yes, every time I think of doing that I end up getting cut on Occam’s Razor… ;-)