“Wake up Call.”

I woke up with an awful feeling of dread.

A foreboding of doom that was confirmed when I realized that I had become………..A PHARMA EMPLOYEE!

I had no idea how I had found myself in this predicament.

There was no recollection of a job application, round of interviews, induction training,…..nothing.

I was just there, trapped in a long cylindrical corridor of predictability.

The Pharma Pipeline.

All the surfaces were clinically, cynically white, and the micro-filtered air held the unmistakable aroma of greed.

My eye caught the muzzle flash of a high powered rifle. I realized that it was……..THE BULLET.

I ran.

That was many years ago, and I’m running still.

You have to run to stay ahead of the bullet.

I’m not proud of my behaviour, but I’ve got a wife, a mortgage and an expensive habit to maintain.

Expensive Habit

My expensive habit appears to be shared by mostly everyone at Pharma.

It’s a tendency to always do what we’ve always done.

Which is why: We always get what we’ve always got.

That’s what habit is.

Doing the same thing while the world around us changes.

It can become very expensive, but there’s a worse side to habit….

“If we always believe what we've always been taught,
we will always think what we've always thought.”

It’s just so easy to get stuck on the rails of the old Thoughtware.

I thought that I was cruising along nicely, maintaining my habit, keeping up good airspeed and ready for anything that came along….

 

Then I ran into the unexpected turbulence of Social Media.

Turbulence

Suddenly, all the rules had changed. 

Suddenly I was expected to engage in STRAIGHT talking.

In this instance, STRAIGHT stood for succinct, transparent, responsive, accepting, insightful, genuine, humorous and timely.

This is not something I’m accustomed to doing. It’s not my habit.

It’s not my thinking. It’s just not ME.

At work, I was more used to verbose, obscure, unresponsive, forbidding, superficial, artificial, humourless and late.

I’m a Pharma employee - remember.

New Thoughtware

Then, just as suddenly, I was struck with a new and challenging thought.

All that succinct, transparent, responsive, accepting, insightful, genuine, humorous and timely stuff……..that’s what I do at home.

That’s what I do when I’m not at work. That’s how I really see myself when I’m just being ME.

I already had most of the Thoughtware and most of the skills I’d need to handle the turbulent world of Social Media.

 I just wasn’t using them at work.

So, in order to prevent ‘the bullet’ catching up with me, I need to start running smart instead of fast.

To build flexibility into my ways of thinking and working.

To wake up to the opportunities and possibilities that the new communications technology can provide.

I’ve really no idea where the journey will take me, but….

 Would you like to come along for the ride?

 

(Tomorrow’s Post: “Thnik Diffrenetly.”)