Shoulda

The Husqvarna Group’s 2013 Global Green Space Report shows up in e-mail, courtesy of Kirt Reider from Hargreaves.  It’s an interesting read if you’re fond of quality of life, tax base growth or … you know … oxygen.  They survey some 4,676 people across the globe and come up with all manner of charts and graphs.  One table is particularly interesting.  They ask people what profession they would choose if they could “start over”.  The results?

Landscape architect / designer 21%

Medical Doctor 17%

Lawyer 16%

Engineer 14%

Gardener 14%

Teacher 13%

Business Person 12%

Chef 11%

Journalist 11%

Park Ranger 10%

Pilot 10%

Police Officer 8%

Accountant 8%

Park Maintenance 7%

Stock Broker 6%

Firefighter 4%

Lumberjack 2%

There’s a lot to chew on, here.  How Lumberjack can only garner 2%, what with the all the leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia . . . The giant redwood, the larch, the fir, the mighty scots pine . . .  The smell of fresh-cut timber! . . . The crash of mighty trees!   How does that only get 2%?  Kirt suggests it may be related to a hot buttered scones shortage.

Pythonery aside, if you’re working 80,000 – 100,000 hours in a lifetime, don’t spend too many tens of thousands of hours wishing you were doing something else.  It’s not fair to your employer, your co-workers, your family, or … you.  We’ve all had jobs we were happy to move on from, and even in our favorite jobs there are rough patches.  Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  It’s right there, in the document that unshackled the world from tyranny.  So, have at it.

From the chair in the third floor turrent, the organizational development thought on the survey ties to a question Barb from the Times asked last week – does the City support innovation from our employees?  It made us all smile that her e-mail question popped up on the I-pad as we were working through learning how to navigate the knobs and levers of this very website.  Innovate, she asked?  Absolutely, I tapped back on behalf of us, and got back to the trial and error of the content management system.  I later followed up with a short list from memory of some of the innovations Team Davenport has set forth in recent years.

Here’s the thing (or, at least, a thing).  This organization, and this community, will only survive and thrive if innovation is at our core.  That is both an understatement of the magnitude of challenge we face and, far easier said than done.  Things, and people, get fixed in place.  When they step out of place, there’s no shortage of forces trying to snap them back into the fit we’re all comfortable with.

Resist it.  Experiment.  Fail.  Learn.  Try again.  Bring the best of what you’ve already done, and the best of what we can be, to the team every day.  Shoulda, woulda, coulda is no way to live a life.