The other is the company.
Two fishes meet another that is swimming in the opposite direction:
— “Good morning,” says the fish.
— “Good morning,” the two fishes reply.
— “The water is beautiful today, isn’t it?” the fish asks.
— “Yes, it is,” the fishes reply and keeps swimming their way.
As they swim away, one says to the other: “What is water?”.
I’ve first read this incredible dialogue in David Foster Wallace's book “This is water,” a transcription of a speech by the same author.
As these two fishes, it’s tough for us to realize what’s around us.
The driver who honks at the first car of a long line when the traffic lights go green doesn’t realize three cars between them. He thinks that communication is happening inside a void between him and his target. He doesn’t realize the woman talking over the phone in the car next to him nor the boy that is sending a voice message, or the couple eating and talking in a restaurant on the sidewalk; he’s not thinking about the newly born in the first floor of the big building above the restaurant nor the old man tacking a nap in the apartment next door. He doesn’t know that the dog that just crossed the street is scared of loud noises nor the candy seller walking by his car. He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t care because if he knew, he’d care.
The same thing happens in companies. We think in a pre-determined, standard way, never thinking about the water. We keep following processes and doing things as their as supposed to be done, hardly thinking if there is a better way. There’s where we can consciously visualize what’s around us, start swimming, knowing that there’s water.
Forget everything we know about the right way to work and replace that belief with the following: the other is the company. If the other is fine, I’m going to be fine, and if everybody is fine, then also the company.
How can we make the other fine? By doing everything in our power to make her or his work easier.
Add that reference that the designer is going to find useful.
Attach that file that the accountant is surely going to need.
Write down that link that the media planner is probably going to have to look for.
Think about the needs that the other has to do his or her job and find a way to get ahead and help resolve it.
It is not doing her or his job; it is extending our’s reach. Making ourselves responsible for what we can do, not just what we have to do.
This article was first posted in Spanish in my blog; go there if you want more content in that language and, please, subscribe to my newsletter and YouTube channel if you like what I do.
