"Why can't our team be like their team?"

I was listening to someone who was lamenting how their organization wasn't like "someone else's" organization.  "They do ____ ... I wish we could do _______."  They cataloged all these cool things "that organization" did and how uncool their organization was.  After listening for a while, I couldn't help but think this thought...

If you are in a group and wonder, "why aren't we more like that organization over there?  Why can't we be like them?", more than likely the answer is that people in that organization aren't sitting around complaining about why they aren't like some other organization.  They don't have the time or energy to do that...they are too busy investing themselves in the place they are and making it the way it is.

Most of the time, people who are so frustrated with their organization are the ones most unwilling to put themselves into the organization to make it better...it's easier to just complain about it, and that's a big drain on the teams where they are.  They back out of assignments, they don't go the extra mile, and they always blame failures on some straw man out there that "doesn't let them be _______".  (When the truth is they could do a lot, but they've created an excuse not to do it...and they like it.)

"Bloom where you are planted" may be an old saying, but in all honesty, sayings get overused because there is truth in them...just saying.  Here's a couple more...

"Stop making complaints and make a difference."
"Stop pointing fingers at something and and put your fingers to work DOING something."


People in great organizations are not "wannabelikes" or "wannabees", they just are.  They are positive people, because they know that consistent negativity impedes productivity, it doesn't enhance it.  Even their criticism is ultimately positive and life-giving, because their criticism is designed to get better than what they are, not just be bitter about what they aren't.  When they find a problem, they rarely stop there.  They don't find pride in discovering a problem, they find pride in discovering a solution to the problem and then being a big part of that...that's life-growing achievement, not life-sucking mediocrity.

People in great organizations don't waste time finding reasons not to do something, there are always plenty of those to go around.  They don't waste time and energy finding reasons never to start the journey, they save their energy to overcome barriers to success along the way.

I always am tempted to say to those people "You want to know why your team can't be like their team?  That's easy.  Because, right now, you are on it."