I was rather amused by this sign on Waterloo bridge: i had not considered it an ‘asset’, but i suppose that it is.
The things stretches several hundred metres across the river, carrying several railway lines and must weight thousands of tonnes. I don’t think anyone is going to steal the asset, although i guess they may try to draw on it.
It made me think back to last weeks conversation about words: the word ‘asset’ is an extremely broad one, covering anything from the office printer to (apparently) the office itself.
I wonder, are people assets? We certainly talk about them as if they are: you are an ‘asset’ to the company, or team. Does this mean we do not want you to be graffitied?
Use your sixty seconds today to consider how your Organisation views people: as people, or as things.
A failing of the Industrial Age was the latter - we treated people as things an hence commoditised our humanity and then lost it. We ceased to care for people above all else, falling instead to care about money. And failing because of it.
Not failing financially, but socially, morally.
Considering the words we use to talk about people is a start of rectifying this.
Day #197