Let's Put the Professionalism back in Gracious Professionalism

[Fred Sayre]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

It's not the complaints about the "not quite right" 1% that bother me. Even if they aren't presented in a "professional" manner, they usually prompt reasonably lucid debate about appropriate changes. No, what gets me is complaints about the 20% of the things that cannot possibly satisfy everyone because of conflicting goals. A small bit of critical thinking ought to determine that to be the real cause of the problem. Rather than whining that this or that goal isn't being met, it would help to focus attention on getting the goals to more closely align instead.


Being professional means doing things right. Being gracious means doing the right thing. They complement each other perfectly. But I think we should remember to use GP as a guide for our own behavior, not as a yardstick to measure others' shortcomings.

Thank you! This is a very important point to be made, and one that I think everyone should keep in mind in this discussion.

I think something also to consider, is if that 1% can cause such a powerful response from any number of people to overshadow the 99% of the good that FIRST is doing (even if only temporarily) then it is worth taking a look at. Do I blame FIRST for its shortcomings? Absolutely not - but people claiming how good the program is as an excuse why we should not want it to be better drives me up the wall.

If someone is whining, there is a reason. Differentiating what Alan is talking about is important, but otherwise we have to look at these discussions as a possibility to make things better, and not look down on people who are not 100% satisfied. Some changes maybe impossible, but my intuition says that if we all put our minds to it, I think great progress can be made