Resisting the urge to be average

It’s really easy when we get comfortable in our jobs to start to do the same things. That one bold thing that seemed radical when you first did it, eventually turns into routine. It makes sense. You feel the need to prove yourself when you first begin and want to endear yourself to coworkers. Many of us want to be seen as smart, knowledgeable and the folks you seek out when you want things done. At some point, this turns into the Silo King mentality. Where you are the gatekeeper of information, processes or the ways to business within the institution. While there might be a certain kind of rush associated with people saying, “Go see Mikey,” when it’s a task this doesn’t provide the mechanics for the institution to operate at its best.

My mindset is to provide people with the tools to do the best work they can. Even if it’s not something that’s in my area, if I know how to do it, I’ll do it for them if it easier and then tell them how so the next time they know. One of the things that I even myself susceptible to at times is the need to resist the urge to “know what you know.” Continuing education is easier these days, but reading books and arming yourself with knowledge doesn’t always come with the sort of benefits that you’d think. Institutions move slower than people, even though they’re comprised of people. You don’t always have the tools you need to jolt things into place and just because you feel like you’re right doesn’t mean you always are.

I think the best way to resist being average is to understand what your role is and to demonstrate it at a high level every day. Not just the camera is on and when people are watching, but when you’re alone. When you can take shortcuts and ‘no one will notice’ but you will. It’s that kind of commitment that ensures your own personal integrity, while demonstrating the values you want to promulgate; especially in a situation where you don’t feel adaption is happening. There are big picture issues that affect all of our roles and the key to staying on top of things is mastering your own domain rather than being frustrated with what we can’t change.

Even if that’s difficult sometimes.

Foreign Policy says you ought to eschew the US, send your kids overseas to college

An interesting story in Foreign Policy re: US colleges, cost and competitiveness:

Want to combine a quality education with language immersion? Peking University — No. 49 on the Times criteria, above Penn State — charges between $4,000 and $6,000 in tuition a year. For those wanting to brush up their Spanish, the Catholic University of Chile ranks considerably above Wake Forest, but the fees are 80 percent lower.

But junior won’t just learn language there. The even-better news is that many developing country universities score better on the teaching environment than they do on overall rankings. For example, the Times scores suggests that Peking University’s ranking on teaching is better than all but 15 of the 49 universities above it on the list. That may be why a growing number of foreign students are flocking to universities in middle income countries. In 2009, three developing economies — Russia, China, and South Africa — attracted nearly 250,000 overseas students between them, according to the OECD.

It’s an interesting thought and surely not for everyone. I think the big question for many would be whether or not doing so would hurt their ability to compete in the U.S. when they returned, though you’d have to think it’d say something to a potential employer that a kid had moxie enough to go to undergraduate (and beyond?) overseas. Will cost lower tuition? Will we see droves of U.S. kids going overseas to study in the future? It’d be good to see, but I doubt it on both counts.