Yesterday I learned that one of my recent blogs offended some of my colleagues. I truly did not mean for it to demoralize anyone or to minimize the efforts they put into a new operation. I support the change and the intent behind it; I was using just the implementation process as an example and should have chosen a different illustration. I sincerely do apologize.
The prayer at the beginning of the meeting where I heard about this was about taking risks. As the blogging guru Seth Godin writes, it takes a lot of risk to put your writing (i.e.: yourself) out there in the world. I have written 1000+ of these “dots” over the course of almost three years, and there are many nights when it would be easier to say nothing. But I’ve heard many examples of how people have learned from thoughts that I have shared, and hope that the good outweighs the bad.
I write because I learn from it too. I learned in this case — to be more attuned to how things can be perceived and to be more sensitive to the examples I use to illustrate my messages. It’s a peril of one-way communication; hard to know the writer’s intent or receiver’s interpretation.
So, again, to all my colleagues working hard to make changes, please trust that my observations as an author won’t impede my support of the implementation. Sorry if the two seemed intertwined.
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