Purrrfect Lessons for the Workplace!

On Easter Morning, I awoke to a surprise. A stray cat that lives in the neighborhood gave birth to seven tiny kittens on my back porch. As I have said in earlier blog posts, winter in New England can be long, cold, and full of snow. This past winter was not any exception. By the time the spring came, the snow remained. It was also long to the animals and I am not sure they knew how to handle a winter that would just not give up and where to go when the ground was nowhere to be seen. As a result, I was privy to watching the early days of cat motherhood daily and realized that humans can learn so much from our furry friends that we can apply to the workplace.
 
Teamwork makes the dream work! Clichés are cheesy, but raising kittens seems to take a team.  After the discovery of a mother cat nursing little ones, another female cat arrived to provide support and respite when the mother needed to find food or on the cold New England days and nights when extra warmth was needed.  In our working lives, there are times when we need assistance. Perhaps there are projects too big for one person or need the support of others to get it off the ground?  Sometimes the task is just too big for one person. Motherhood or working world; we all need assistance.

Everyone must have the same vision.  Once the litter of kittens arrived, my porch was visited by other cats. A couple of these cats had the same color patterns as the young kittens. Without a talk show and DNA test, I could not be 100% certain, but I assumed that they were the fathers of the babies. These visitors did not disturb or interrupt the family, they watch, often times standing guard for the mom, aunt, and the little ones. The fathers wanted the litter to be strong, grow, and successful, just like the mothers do. These stray cats all had the same vision. Although the male cats did not have an active role in the cat parenting project, they supported it.

In the world of work, there are those active in a project and those that support it and watch from a distance. It doesn’t matter what the role, everyone must have the same vision.   The vision may be strong adult cats, full time employment that leads to self-sufficiency, or the creation of a product. It does not matter if you are a workforce development professional, an entrepreneur, an employee of the widget hospital, or a cat, everyone must have the same vision for success to be outcome.
 
Only the strongest survive! At the beginning, there were seven kittens.  Unfortunately, three kittens died. From watching the little ones, I could clearly see that sitting back and waiting for mom to bring the food did not bring it. Those kittens not assertive enough to initiate feeding from their mother did not survive. 
 
At work, we may not be seeking mother’s milk, but there are times that not everyone that starts a project will finish it. Sometimes it is due to reassignment or restructuring, but it could be due to downsizing of the number of workers to make a project successful. In these instances, not every worker will be needed. Those that survived may have been more assertive in seeking projects, taking initiative in order to achieve goals, or may have been proactive in developing specialized skills. Workers in every industry, including workforce development, can learn from tiny kittens with the will to live.
 
One day, I came home from work and discovered the cat family was gone.  The snow had finally melted and the winter in New England vanished.  With the warm sunshine and 60 degree days, the cat family moved on.  The ultimate reality show that was right outside my window was over, but out there somewhere the kitten parenting project is alive.  As for the workplace, it moves on also, but we can take the lessons of nature and use them at work.

Note to readers: I will be at the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV in early May.   I will be releasing blog posts multiple times during the conference, so stay tuned. Additionally, if any readers are attending and would like to meet, please feel free to send me a message.

 
Again, thank you everyone for reading. There is wisdom for the workplace, that as workforce development professionals can be applied to both ourselves and our job seeking customers, if you have the vision to see it! ~ Karen Cirincione kcirincione@gmail.com