marginalia

s2e7 — painful phone calls.

Dispatch ✦ Season 2 ✦ Episode 7

Good morning my dear readers. Return again, we do, with another blog from DC. This post is, I am despondent to report, the last before I jet on back to the greater (geographically speaking) Washington state. Being the penultimate week, everything—and everyone—exists in a constant state of turmoil and hubbub. My coursework has doubled, my workload has trebled, and my social obligations remain as steadily booked as ever.

The National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia.
I spent this Friday at the Career Connections DC event, hosted by the State Department at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. This is an annual networking and informational event hosted for State Department Exchange Alumni. Ordinarily I am too far to attend, but I was lucky enough to be in the area this year. Thanks to Capital Scholars, of course!
Attendees gathered at the Career Connections event at the Foreign Service Institute.
This week, we write about conformity. Good conformity looks like many things. Milkman describes it in the setting of a workspace or an internship, where the good variety means adopting norms quickly and with little effort. This is an incredibly useful skill to have. It might look like matching the energy or hustle of coworkers, it could look like copying the hours and turnaround of successful associates, or it might manifest as logging customer information in the same way as everyone else. A specific type of conformity that Milkman mentions is the concept of “copy and paste”. I ordinarily attribute this concept to blandness and staleness, but the way she describes it is something I find quite useful. By “copying” a coworker's skill and “pasting” it onto yourself, you can skip years of hard work in trial and error. One way I have used this skill is when I worked at Home Depot. Calling customers mortified me when I began my position, but the first couple of weeks, I just listened to what my coworkers had to say and then repeated it on my calls. Of course, I still had to improvise when people picked up and asked further questions, but it let me begin with a baseline of tone and energy.

Asking a coworker for advice is not always easy, and asking for permission to copy them is even harder. This might be because we worry that we will bother them, it may be because we are afraid they will think less of us for it, or it could be that we simply don't consider the possibility. I think that's why this chapter is especially important, not only does it remind us that our coworkers are resources (and this could be extended to friends or other connections), but also that everyone needs to ask for support and resources.

A good way to identify opportunities for this is to reflect on whom you have a very specific admiration for. An example from my life is public speaking. There is a specific person in my briefing group who brings no cards, no device, and no notebook to the podium when he speaks. This chapter has convinced me to ask him what he does to prepare when I see him brief tomorrow. Although I have no more briefings yet at this job, perhaps his methods will help me in the future.

There is, of course, such a thing as bad conformity, and it is always good to be aware of it. Copying bad habits is one example, “groupthink” could be another. Oftentimes, especially in a bubble of similar individuals, it is easy to become the sum of the other bubble-dwellers. While this can be a good thing, it also means accumulating their worst aspects, something that can be mitigated by conscious participation and conformity. A good rule of thumb; if conforming harms one of your positive traits, or your fresh perspective, fight against it.

A view from the Career Connections DC event.
As always, I appreciate your reading, look forward to your thoughts, and will see you in the next—and final—blog post.

With anticipation,

— Blaise.

#dispatch #s2