Reader reactions to Dan Oswald’s “Who Packs Your Parachutes” and Jason Fried’s “M&Ms” ranged from “Farfetched” to “Thank you for this wonderful story.”
Oswald’s story of parachute packing appeared in the April 15 issue of theHR Daily Advisor and; Fried’s comments about the time wasters “Managers and Meetings” in the April 8 issue. Here are the reader responses:
Re: Who Packs Your Parachutes?
“I’m a HR Trainer, and constantly seek life’s lessons. “Who Packs Your Parachutes” is a powerful life lesson, which clearly indicates that all jobs are important, and reminds leaders to acknowledge those whom they depend on. Thank you for this wonderful story … I will be using it to help hammer home the objectives of my classes.”
“This is totally true and essential, one of the best literature on management/associate relations and if I may add a company success is led by group effort led by management; if management acknowledge and appreciate the effort like Mr. Oswald said then the company success is underway.”
“Good story but REALLY far-fetched. I was a U.S. Navy Parachute Rigger during the Vietnam war. Do you know the odds of a parachute rigger meeting up with a pilot who used a chute that he packed? Especially AFTER the war! I met one while I was stationed stateside only because the pilot’s squadron was at the same base as the paraloft, and we packed that squadron’s chutes on a periodic basis. But to have a rigger meet a pilot in a restaurant AFTER the fact is just too good to be true. I would like to hear the WHOLE TRUE story. Sorry I just don’t believe it.”
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Editor’s Note: As we let this reader know, the story wasn’t as far-fetched as it might have appeared, as the parachute packer had served on the carrier Kitty Hawk with Plumb and knew him by sight.
“Great story! Also a good reminder that only the people at the top don’t a whole organization make!”
“Charlie Plumb is a terrific motivational speaker; his story of surviving 6 years in a POW prison is inspiring. You can also read his blog at http://www.charlieplumb.com/”
Re: Really Need to Get Work Done? Don’t Go to the Office!
“I think it’s important for employees to speak up (respectfully) when a meeting is either entirely superfluous, or occurring more frequently than needed. Some managers feel more “manager-y” when they get the whole team together on a regular basis, but oftentimes it’s not necessary—or, as Fried argues, actively harmful to productivity.”
“Active collaboration is a Catch 22; it’s one of the problems people have with totally online degrees. Sure, we can communicate via email and collaborative products in less time and with less distraction, but there is something dynamic about real-time meetings, especially for brainstorming or problem-solving.”
“One solution similar to his suggestion of ‘no talk Thursdays’ might be for companies to designate certain days of the week as “meeting free” days and (as a general rule) forbid them on specific days of the week. How nice would it be if you knew that you could guarantee you had no meetings every Tuesday and Thursday, for example? Imagine the peace the peace of mind that you could count on having 1 or 2 days per week that can’t get filled with meetings, so you could focus on getting things accomplished (other inevitable and occasional interruptions aside!).”
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“Meetings are sometimes necessary. And they don’t need to be just a necessary evil. The problem is choosing the appropriate method for communication/problem solving at any given time. Is a meeting really necessary when a simple phone call would work? Would one meeting with all the players avoid an endless chain of emails? Then of course, any meeting requires good facilitation—a skill many people lack.”
“I couldn’t agree more with your comments — we work literally anywhere — at home, in the car — in the car park — on the boat — on a mountain side — literally anywhere there is an internet access!
“And, most of our creative developments do happen out of the office. I must say that these are frequently after a face2face session with either ‘management’ or a client so don’t knock the F2F stuff too hard—it does have value.
I know that there are some downsides to working away from the collegial atmosphere of ‘the office’ and we sometimes go ‘stir crazy’ if we spend too much time away from centers of interest—but the interesting thing is that when I do interact on a F2F with others it seems more pertinent and productive — for me anyway!”
As always, readers, thanks for your comments! We love to hear from you.