Monkey see, monkey do

We live near a pre school and an elementary school. Each morning when walking Triss we see kids and their parents on their way to drop off the little ones. And the majority of parents simply walk straight across the street. The Main Street of the town, not the most traffic, but still some traffic. And you'd think: Timo, why would that matter, you have to get across the street somehow. True, but 20 meters down the road is a crosswalk. It is right on the way, and you do not gain anything by not using it.

I might not be raising children, but I am fairly certain you want them to be safe when walking on their own one day. (If they are ever allowed to walk anywhere alone before they turn 18, but that is a different observation that confuses me a little bit, and helicopter parents are also not the point I'm trying to make here.)

And again, while I did not raise children, I spent a good amount of time with many of them training them in karate and taekwondo. As a coach / trainer / sensei you are expected to be a role model and teach them, not just the art but also how to behave in a dojo.

I also had sufficient opportunity to introduce junior engineers to our craft. Certainly not the same as herding literal children, but they often enter a world with limited understanding of the rules, the commonly agreed on behaviors, best practices and how to act in certain situations. At least that was the status quo “back in my day” when you hired junior engineers knowing they would have to gain experience first to one day be a productive and helpful part of your team, not when they already had to have 10 years of experience.

The most important lesson I had to learn during all of this was showcasing the behavior that is the most beneficial to people looking at you for orientation. Do I properly wash my feet and bow before entering the dojo? Do I respond at 11pm to irrelevant Slack threads that could wait till next day? Am I preaching taking time off but are around 365 days?

You can explain, educate and insist on a certain behavior all day long, but in the end it's simple: Monkey see, monkey do. And most importantly: be consistent.