Who’s to Blame?

Here is one of the few times that I will use real company names and the names of real people in this blog.  If you are wondering who should take the blame on where I get my perspective on the workplace and how it should be, blame Manpower Automotive (no longer exists) and General Motors.  I worked at GM as a contractor for about a year in the Strategic Facilities Planning (SFP) department in 1993.  The SFP group was an experiment at the time, some of the Architects at GM’s Worldwide Facilities Group (WFG) got together and thought that Strategic Planning could be used by the Facilities organization to design buildings and workspaces that were more efficient, easily adaptable for the future automotive industry, and they could save General Motors money in the long run.  These Architects presented a proposal and management decided to let them create there department and assemble a team.  I ended up being hired because none of the Word Processing Specialists or Administrative Assistants wanted to work in the department.  They assumed that the project was going to fail, and after it failed, the Architects would go back to their former jobs, but they would become unemployed because someone else would have taken their former position.  So, the team had to hire an outsider.  When I started working there, I used to here all the time, “Oh, you are working for the guys with their heads in the clouds.”  I used to just smile and walk away. 

One of the great things about my job was that my boss was patient.  Ron S., did his best to explain what they were going to be doing in this department, during the interview.  And, I didn’t get it.  I thought that I did, but it was clear that I didn’t.  He hired me anyway. I think that his reasoning was that I just had to be good at Microsoft Office, Desktop Publishing, running an office, following directions.  And, I was pretty good at those things.  Also, I had the opportunity to sit in on important meetings with important people, as long as I kept quiet.  The pay was bad, but I got the opportunity to see how business works, business politics and how successful teams functions.  Because the team was looking at how people were going to work in the future, they had to understand how the past and the present as well.  You can’t figure out where you are going if you don’t know where you have been.  I had the opportunity to learn the importance of knowing a business’ history, their politics, culture and understanding your client and their needs, because GM was WFG’s client.  We even had a small library shelf that had reference books and materials for research.  Do not get me wrong, the group was not perfect, it was far from it.  Also, the chances of me becoming a GM employee were not that great either.  But, there was an opportunity to learn about the Automotive Industry, software, business culture, politics, and Architecture.  The whole project was one intensive learning experience and I loved every minute of it.  Also, I learned what could be accomplished with good teamwork.  And I learned about it through experience as opposed to in a book.  You would be surprised about how many people read about teams in grad school, but have never experienced what it is like to be confident in your strengths as well as your coworkers.

I also learned about the importance of having a managers that support you.  Ron was like that and so was one of his bosses Dave Skivens.  Dave and Ron did not have the same type of personality but they both had vision.  Working in this type of environment affected the way I approached my career.  I don’t think that they realized it but they taught me how to embrace change and to never stop learning.  And, they also let me know that even though I was the lowest man on the totem pole, I had value, and they protected me when it was needed.  When I left that contract, Dave told me that I was never going to find another department like that, and I never have.  GM like most companies is not a perfect place, and I was blessed to be placed in that spot at that moment in time.  There were many areas, that could not, or did not know how to embrace change, and there were no visionaries, they were either scared to speak or they were run out of the company.  However, this company at this point in time, taught about how things can with the right support and attitude, and how you can accomplish things when everyone says that it can’t be done. 

My title says “Who’s to Blame?” for two reasons.  The first is that it was my experience at General Motors that made my federal contract supervisor interested in my resume.  And, it was the reason that when I was given problems to resolve that others said can’t be done.  Working at GM taught me to take the challenges and complete tasks.  That attitude is not common in the government environment.  And because these experiences happened early in my career, they affected my perspective of work life and what it should be.  It also allows me to see and understand the craziness that occurs on government contracts.  

#teamwork