My high school (legendary) football coach, Roger Wrenn, would start every season the exact same way. At the first practice, he would say, "Hello everyone, my name is Roger Wrenn and I have been preparing my whole life to coach you!"
Short, simple, and definitely to the point. I understood the intentionality and presence in that moment. And I'm grateful for the example.
Channeling Coach's spirit, I'd like to say, "Hello everyone, my name is Joe Mechlinski and I have been preparing for this talk my whole life!"
In truth, I really have.
From growing up in inner-city Baltimore, to getting into Johns Hopkins University, to starting my first business at 19 (growing it to 150 people in just 3 years), to starting SHIFT when I was 23, to the last 20+ years of working with more than 600+ clients to help them all change the way they work to transform the way they live.
History is happening in the work world. The place where we spend the majority of our waking time. The place we all know can be better – but isn't.
Think about "work" before March 16, 2020. It would have been hard to fathom every organization telling its employees to work from home – but we pulled it off successfully.
How many other notions and norms are we still blindly accepting?
- 9-5 work schedule?
- Work is a place?
- Work has to suck?
Think about all the things you do just because everyone has always done it that way.
Who says it has to be that way?
As a society, we're conditioned by this kind of legacy thinking. We naturally resist change because it feels uncomfortable and scary.
The truth is that the world is full of uncertainty right now. The only way we can move forward is to stop looking back for the answers to today's questions.
Between legacy thinking and adult-to-child work relationships, the current state of work isn't working.
No "expert" holds the secrets.
It's up to each of us to start asking the tough questions.
In my TEDx Talk, I share how a subtle shift of agency can change everything about the way you view this thing we call work.
"The future of work can be more human, not less."
If you think the talk deserves a like, share or thumbs up... please help us spread the word and get to 500K views in the coming weeks!
And if you can't tell, this TEDx Talk sparked a fire in me to continue to share this message to the world of work.
Interested in having us facilitate a session for your team? From keynotes to workshops, we have 20+ years of experience uniting and energizing teams of all sizes.
