Remember The Guidelines

I found myself today several times in a situation where I really didn't get what I was looking for from some other folks. Now, this is really not like me to feel this way because I'm usually pretty much a go-with-the-flow, tolerant, understanding person. But, on three different occasions (at least) people didn't respond as I would have liked.

Rather than go into the details aloud, I'm more interested in how I got left with this sensation. In one case, I don't think I asked the right questions and even though I did get good feedback, it was done in a somewhat distracted manner. In another case, there was a miscommunication. Plans had been made and broke down at the time of execution. It bothered me. In one case, the situation was out of everyone's control.

There was one other irritating event. Again, sparing the details, someone at work did something really irresponsible, and then sought to blame others. Ok, one detail. A response on a bid was due and the person responsible for delivering was one minute late. Since it was for a state agency, the timestamp at one minute past the deadline led to a dismissal of the response. One of the execs sent a note to me, which included the finger-pointing. The exec asked me about lessons learned. I said, "Leave the office earlier with the response so it can be delivered on time." It seemed an obvious enough lesson learned to me, but the exec responded that he didn't understand. There is no light at the end of this tunnel :)

Ok, my ten minutes of pissing and moaning are now officially over. I'm going to rest so I can find the opportunity that I'm certain will be in my path on Tuesday.

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