Most people approach career and business growth as a continuous improvement project.
“Let me first intern and see what they have for me”, Paul said. “ I am still 24 by the time I am 32 I would have figured out what exactly I want from my career. For now I will work whenever they place me”, said Martha.
Imagine that you’re boarding an aircraft. You take your seat and relax as the other passengers get on board and the doors are shut. You hear the captain’s voice say, “Thanks for boarding Flight 102 heading west.”
How would you feel about the “heading west” part? Would you be comfortable knowing that the plane is heading west, or would you be more comfortable knowing exactly where the plane was heading?
Even if the captain said, “This plane is heading west to Uganda,” Western Uganda is a big area. Wouldn’t you wonder exactly where the
plane was going and what its exact destination was?
When we( leaders) tell employees that continuous improvement is a never-ending journey, a journey without a destination, we are essentially telling them that their plane is heading west. And since the employees are along for the ride, they never ask questions such as:
- Where will all these improvements take us?
- Where will this journey take us?
- What is our destination?
- What does it look like?
- What route are we taking?
- How will we know if we are going in the right direction?
- What are the signposts along the way
- How will we know when we have arrived at the destination?
Without answers to these questions, we must seek to improve every day and learn new tools that help us do it better.
We read books, visit other companies, and perhaps hire consultants. We try to learn how to “head west” from many different sources instead of setting an exact destination for our operation.
As for your career, it’s important to know your destination instead of heading west.
