Risk-Taking and Forgiveness

Going into the second week of class, we were asked to build on our questions and discussions from the previous week.  Remember that our texts for the first two weeks are:

 

Before I get into the thoughts I shared with my fellow students, I need to pause and reflect on the events of this week.

I’ve recently moved into a new role as a Product Quality Program Manager (PQPM).  Essentially, it will be my responsibility to be the “Voice of the Customer” – their advocate for issues that they run into with our products and services.  There are a number of PQPM’s, and we each focus on a specific product or area of technology.  Since I’m still ramping up, the exact product(s) that I will be responsible for haven’t been fully determined.

This week, we’ve had a number of PQPM’s in town for a three-day brainstorming session as a precursor to our global offsite next month.  Of course, I’m new to the group, so while I can’t dive into specific pain points, or issues related to our group, I do have the opportunity to take a few steps back, and analyze what’s going on from a more detached view, and try to identify appropriate themes in the discussions.  Hopefully, my contributions have been valuable!  OK, getting on with this week’s post …

We’re all familiar with the old adage, "it is better to seek forgiveness than ask permission". That was certainly my mantra during my childhood (which explains a lot!). On p. 140 of Greenleaf, the opening paragraph in the "Helping Others to Take Risks" section struck me as somewhat telling:

There are many reasons that people are reluctant to take risks, including fear of failure or loss … no one likes criticism, and everyone hates looking stupid, or losing self-esteem and the good opinion of others. Some may even fear that if they do something well they will then be under pressure to do it again.

A quick disclaimer – since I’ve always been a bit of a rebel (sometimes without a clue), judicious risk-taking is second nature for me. In other words, I can’t always relate to the statement above. However – I have noticed that in previous organizations in which I have worked (my current company is all about smart risk-taking, so what follows doesn’t really apply), there has always been lip service to risk-taking, and a thin veneer of management approval of smart risk-taking, but when it comes down to it, managers and other leaders are quick to distance themselves from the person whose idea didn’t succeed.

My question to the group is twofold: first – are you a risk-taker (smart or not) and second – what has been your experience when things haven’t gone quite as well has planned?


January 21, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Gonzaga

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