Professional did you say? Project Managers, Programmers, Business analysts? The rest of the pack of running wolves that make up the IT Industry?Says who?
The late evening sunset chat
Professionals they are not, says Sarah. She has survived a greedy surgeons grasp, largely because her husband Tim insisted on a second opinion. And a third, who confirmed number 2's. Yes, says Keith. We nearly ended up paying for our attorney’s summer vacation. One by one the stories pop up, everyone has one, even if it is only second or third hand.
The Salesman
Several days later I am sitting in an office. A mid thirties man is giving me the Consultants con. Suited and tied, cuff linked and silver tongued. He’s from a big consulting firm, and they have just pitched for, and won, the outsourcing for entire IT department for the large firm my little one consult to. We are a professional company, he says. We won’t steal your staff, or terminate your contract. After all (and he gives a little chuckle) we are all in this together: not enough qualified people out there, after all: must work with folk like you.
He is lying through his gold plated teeth, of course. My ears prick up “We are a Professional organization” he’s saying, and before he can complete the sentence I butt in “what do you mean by that? Professional, that is. What does it mean, you’re ‘Professional’ ... ” I leave the dots hanging in the air. Last Sunday’s conversation has intervened between us, its there now, in the back of my head.
He’s nonplussed, but recovers himself quickly. Giving me a hard, careful look now, he repeats sections (no doubt memorized by heart) from the Corporate Brochure, while looking over my casual outfit, chinos and checked shirt. I can see that he does not rate me. I fleetingly regret not having come in more formally dressed, and I think to myself “We’re a damn sight more professional than your lot, Mr, with or without the fancy words.”
It’s the service that counts. After all, we sell “Professional Services” don’t we?
But while he didn't answer the question to my satisfaction, I didn’t have the answer myself. Well, not off pat, in any case. It needed some thinking.
That was some months ago: and having been on the mission, I think I might be able to answer the question. Its in part 2 of this mini series :) Part 3 is a manifesto to live by Of course, as in so many of these things, there is also a back story.
He is lying through his gold plated teeth, of course. My ears prick up “We are a Professional organization” he’s saying, and before he can complete the sentence I butt in “what do you mean by that? Professional, that is. What does it mean, you’re ‘Professional’ ... ” I leave the dots hanging in the air. Last Sunday’s conversation has intervened between us, its there now, in the back of my head.
He’s nonplussed, but recovers himself quickly. Giving me a hard, careful look now, he repeats sections (no doubt memorized by heart) from the Corporate Brochure, while looking over my casual outfit, chinos and checked shirt. I can see that he does not rate me. I fleetingly regret not having come in more formally dressed, and I think to myself “We’re a damn sight more professional than your lot, Mr, with or without the fancy words.”
It’s the service that counts. After all, we sell “Professional Services” don’t we?
But while he didn't answer the question to my satisfaction, I didn’t have the answer myself. Well, not off pat, in any case. It needed some thinking.
That was some months ago: and having been on the mission, I think I might be able to answer the question. Its in part 2 of this mini series :) Part 3 is a manifesto to live by Of course, as in so many of these things, there is also a back story.
The Back Story.
Back in the early noughties, two things were going on. Someone I knew well had started a home cell to help the people in her church whose relationships were collapsing (or had collapsed), and concurrently I had been challenged by an MBA undergrad to justify the title of “Professional” when applied to non-professional disciplines, and in particular the IT discipline.
To answer the students was one challenge, to find some literature to help my sister was another. As so often happens, these two things coalesced and gave me the answers that I was struggling to articulate.
I was able to have a conversation with the undergrad while at the same time providing some guidancee to the home cell leader.
Coupled to my own experiences in life and work, a number of things informed my determination of what it meant, in practice and in theory, to be taken to be a professional in those other disciplines. They are, or were, the unwritten background to it all.
Chief amongst them work I was doing on the Theory of Constraints, Dr Edward Deming’s work on Systemic improvement, process control and quality and a book - “Ethics and Spiritual Care: A Guide for Pastors and Spiritual Directors” by Karen Lebacqz, Joseph D. Driskill. In the work place you may well know much more about than I do; but the book is a mandatory read if you are interested/concerned about the role of ethics in daily life (or you know someone who works in the space of spiritual guidance/leadership). you can get the value you need by turning the words towards yourself, and not as it's intended, as a primer to help others.
To answer the students was one challenge, to find some literature to help my sister was another. As so often happens, these two things coalesced and gave me the answers that I was struggling to articulate.
I was able to have a conversation with the undergrad while at the same time providing some guidancee to the home cell leader.
Coupled to my own experiences in life and work, a number of things informed my determination of what it meant, in practice and in theory, to be taken to be a professional in those other disciplines. They are, or were, the unwritten background to it all.
Chief amongst them work I was doing on the Theory of Constraints, Dr Edward Deming’s work on Systemic improvement, process control and quality and a book - “Ethics and Spiritual Care: A Guide for Pastors and Spiritual Directors” by Karen Lebacqz, Joseph D. Driskill. In the work place you may well know much more about than I do; but the book is a mandatory read if you are interested/concerned about the role of ethics in daily life (or you know someone who works in the space of spiritual guidance/leadership). you can get the value you need by turning the words towards yourself, and not as it's intended, as a primer to help others.
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