I know that in my business there will be peaks and there will be troughs. Even though the troughs may at times feel like the deepest of trenches, it is these peaks that keep me going and reaffirm for me that my message is right, my message is strong, people want to hear my message and the giving back to the community pays itself forward, back to me in the long run.
On the third of July 1987, I am sworn in a police officer in the Queensland Police Force. On the very same day, the Queensland government announces that it is launching the biggest royal commission into police and government corruption in Queensland and perhaps Australia’s history.
Organisations fool themselves into believing that they want to be transformative, innovative and adaptive. They also fool themselves into believing that by changing the top-down message, the mandate from the executive, that innovation will flow like the ancient Saharan rivers of gold. Unfortunately, corporate culture is focused on operational excellence and efficiency.
The sun has set. Your room has grown dark and is dimly lit by the bedside lamp as you crawl in under the covers and pull them up to your chin. You are five years old and your mum or dad sits beside you on the bed and opens your favourite book. The part of the day you waited for the most. It’s time for a story.
Fear is only ever a concept. It is a concept coined by humans to pigeon-hole feelings of loss of control, of strength, of purpose. But fear is the antithesis to security. When you feel secure you are secure. When you feel afraid you are afraid.
Any change that is forced, that is foisted is fraught with danger, both for the employer and more so for the employee. If an organisation cannot clearly outline the benefits for the change for the individual the organisation could find itself hoist upon its own petard in venturing down the change path purely for financial and economical gain.
Every day, the drafting of legislation, policy and procedure seeks to obfuscate simplicity in such new and eventful ways (almost at times it would seem with potentially sinister or class divisional intent) to explain things that simple, logical phrases already do. Our language is full of ‘sayings’. Sayings that have stood the test of time because they never lose relevance and are always logical, fundamental and unequivocal. It’s simple. When you cheat, you lose.