Tag / dignity

by Nathan Coumbe

Respect must come before respect

You can’t treat children as less than human, then expect them to give you respect in return. 

Just because they aren’t yet adults doesn’t mean they don’t deserve dignity and respect. 

“Children should be seen but not heard…” That was the mantra many adults from my parents’ generation lived by (though, thankfully, not mine).

They have tiny, yet insightful opinions. They possess creativity and vivid imaginations you’d kill to reclaim. 

And their questions are incisive enough to make even the wisest philosophers question their views.

The Golden Rule applies to our kids as well as our peers… 

by Nathan Coumbe

The correct thing? Or the right thing?

Sometimes we have a choice between what is correct and what is right.

What’s “correct” is often bureaucratic or compliant with rules and regulations. Often those same rules and regulations fly in the face of common sense, decency, and the dignity we owe others.

When a customer’s computer catches fire with no fault on their part, obviously due to a manufacturer’s defect, we have a choice. We can do the correct thing: quote the manual and say there’s nothing we can do. Or worse yet, we can say:

“You should have bought the warranty.”

Or we can do the right thing: acknowledge the problem and take responsibility. We can help the person who put her faith in us and our product or service.

Correct or right—it’s a choice.

We must improve our ability to make the proper choice when the time comes.

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by Nathan Coumbe

A break with the Industrial Age

The COVID-19 pandemic has created rapid change in all areas of work. For those employees who showed up to an office location day after day, the lines between work and home have been blurred completely: work is now being done at home. School is now being done at home. And the amazing thing is that companies (and many schools) are realizing it works. Not only does it work, but it might also be better.

The Internet has made all this possible. Without it, this pandemic would have ground the world to a screeching halt rather than a frustrating slow-down. I believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the final straws in breaking the world out of the Industrial Age mindset and unleashing human potential by fully adopting the Knowledge Worker/Information Age mindset.

These changes – the ability to work from home; meetings that are now (and should have always been) emails; genuine collaboration (because it’s the only way to get things done now); dictating results and trusting employees with the methods – will last long after this crisis is over. Companies will realize that their people are more productive than ever when given freedom and flexibility. More importantly, those that feel like their companies cared about them as people during the crisis will come out the other side more loyal and productive than ever before.

Those companies that are trapped in the Industrial Age – where people are things and less important than the machines they operate and the numbers they generate – will fail. Command-and-control, micromanagement, treating people as things – none of this works anymore. The failures may not happen immediately, but it will happen. Employees who feel their companies have failed to treat them with dignity and care, who have felt their health and wellbeing was seen as unimportant, will leave.

The coronavirus is terrible: people are dying; people are losing their income and their livelihood. But as with all great challenges in history, forward thinking, adaptable, flexible, and generous individuals, groups, and companies will learn from it, survive, and thrive in the new world.

Say goodbye to the last vestiges of the old world. I hope you are working for and with people who care.

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