While reflecting on my time in college, I recall that I used to take a number of philosophy classes because I loved it so much.
I found philosophy to be interesting in part because I had a professor who would have the class stand in a different corner of the room based on our particular beliefs or views on a topic.
Very often, I was standing on my own in one corner of the classroom.
This was for a number of reasons: maybe because the other students wanted to blend in with the largest crowd so they didn’t get called on to speak, or it could have been simply because others had a different opinion than I did about the topic at the time.
There were some points during a semester where the professor wouldn’t even ask me what I thought anymore and would say something instead like “we all know what Devin thinks about this…” and move on to pick someone to share from the large group who wasn’t making enough eye contact. (lol)
Fast forward as I reflect on my career over the past 25 years, and I realize that I’ve stood completely on my own a number of times when everyone else was going a different way or had a different view. While it was hard to stand strong at times, if you know me, you also know I’m very strong in my convictions and will do my best to stand up for what I believe in.
It’s funny because I would say that probably 90% of the time when I stood on my own and everyone else wanted to do the “other thing,” it ended up with someone saying to me later on “you were right, we should have gone with what you said.”
I don’t share this to be egotistical or say that I’m always right about everything (that’s far from the truth – I have much to learn). I share this because sometimes I feel like we’re missing opportunities in the workplace (or home, etc.) to stand strong for what we know is right. Perhaps this is because of fear of retribution or punishment for not going with the flow, or maybe sometimes it’s just harder to stand up for what we believe in.
I challenge everyone who has read this far to reflect on your day-to-day workplace (and/or life) decisions and see if there are times that you should have maybe stood up for your convictions about a topic, even if that would have meant you were standing all by yourself.
We need strong people on our teams who are not afraid to offer differing opinions and work together through those [possibly difficult] discussions to ensure an excellent outcome.
I’m so thankful to have people above me and below me at work who speak truth in our discussions, even when it’s hard to do. We work hard together as a team, argue, challenge each other, laugh a lot and discuss things genuinely to make education better for our students.
I encourage you all to do the same in whatever your line of work is.
It's Technically Possible 