TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE

A very recent LinkedIn post by Michael Walters Young described "Taking Care of Your People" as the first rule of management. That is a lesson I first learned back in the mid-1970's while working as an assistant to the district silviculturist. In that position, I took on a job that was much-hated by the rank and file, especially by the seasonal firefighters who wanted to get back to work early before fire season started again after having been laid off all winter. The job was tree-planting, grueling stoop labor that went on for about three months, following the snow-melt up the mountains. It had to be done while there was sufficient soil moisture to give the seedlings a chance to get their roots established before the soil dried out. The seedlings were planted on a certain spacing that required the tree planters to move in formation, in unison. The crew followed a boundary such as a road, rock outcrop, or the edge of an area of brush-field that had been cleared with a tractor-mounted brush-rake, ready for planting. There was an appointed lead planter who started first and set the pace, following the boundaries of what might be an entire mountainside. The remainder of the 25-man crew keyed off of the the lead planter, maintaining the specified spacing and moving at the pace set by the lead planter. It was not a popular job. We worked in the rain, the mud, the snow - our hands cracked by the the water and the anti-transpirant in which the seedlings' roots had to be kept until they were put into the ground. The crew members who took the lead position were rotated around until it finally was settled on by two young men who liked to move quickly when they set the pace for the other planters, season after season. They became loyal to me as their supervisor despite the fact that I was very demanding - when seeing someone leaning on their tool to talk to another crew person, I would say to them "If you can't talk and work at the same time, don't talk!" My favorite was "Asses and elbows, gentlemen, asses and elbows!" (When engaged in stoop labor that is what you saw - asses and elbows.) We planted more forest acreage than any previous crews had ever done. Late in the season one spring I caught wind of the news that our district resource management officer had been given a $1,000 performance award for having written a 10-year resource management plan for the district which was not adopted but was considered worthy of recognition. I decided that my two young lead planters deserved as much recognition and so I put in for performance awards for both of them, something which hitherto had never happened for plebeian tree planters/firefighters. They were each awarded $150 with a letter of recognition going into their personnel files. I think some of the management on the district thought that I was overstepping my bounds but I felt that it was legitimate and needed. That was my first lesson in a teaching that was to become more and more important to me. And now I come to my final point. Life is filled with these opportunities - take advantage of them when you see them, not just for subordinates or colleagues, or friends and relations, but for everyone with whom you come into contact in your life. Have you ever thought about what might be called your "circle of compassion"? Who does it include? There is always room for more. Think of it as widening your circle of compassion, not in some pollyanna way, but as a means to reinforce behavior that is worthy of recognition. When enough of us choose to live our lives that way, imagine what the world will become. So I look beyond a rule of management to a more universal law. I need it, you need it, they need it - the world needs it. It is part of what used to be called among the indigenous peoples of North America the "Original Instructions".