Day 66 - Just Do Your Work

Ingredients at a friend's crawfish boil: Crawfish. Crab. Spices. Keg. Enthusiastic guests. A teacher.

The teacher (as all teachers do) had the best stories. We started with subbing talk. I've explored that area before, but AISD was all "full up" for the year. (I'm trying not to take it personally and it's been successful.) Then she started with the the stories of K-8(th grade that is.)  

What really intrigued me were her stories about the differences in communicating (or authoritatin') between ages and classes. One class (we're talking elementary here) related well to deadlines without a threat of punishment. One class didn't respond until there was a deadline and a threat of punishment. And one all-As  ninja felt the pain because he couldn't produce all parts of his project in time. The teacher, knowing he was a good egg but also knowing she had to produce on her threat, phoned the assistant principal and bow-wowed to the voicemail so the student wouldn't have to go down for the count. (Hey if you don't follow through the children will never listen to you again.) Mission accomplished. 

Ah, but this does remind me of company projects I've been involved in. It's a fine art trying to figure out how to get someone to do their part of a project. Because, unlike the classroom, normally a blanket strategy doesn't work.  Some co-workers you have to cater to. Some you have to stalk. Some you have to ignore (they'll come to you! Rare, but they exist.) Some you listen to (because if you listen to everyone's advice you'll go gonzo.) Some need karaoke and a light show to get the point across. There are a million tunes I could tap dance to because, in the end, saying something like "Do your work by this date" should work. But, alas, nyet.