So What? Who Cares?

A few years ago, the company where I then worked was doing Lean training for all of the business groups. No, we weren’t manufacturers, but there is some of the approach and philosophy that’s useful for teams as well.

The main thing I took away from that was this pair of questions: So What? and Who Cares? It’s not flippant as much as it is a sassy way to remember to look at underlying causes. What happens if we do this? What happens if we don’t do it? Who will be impacted, and how? It’s kind of the work equivalent of “will this matter in a year?”

So what? Who cares?

I’m fairly well exhausted by the idea that anything I see requires me to form and then express an opinion. The world is bigger than it’s ever been, and we have access to more information than we ever have. We are all trying to get through *waves* all of this, preferably not only living but thriving.

If I don’t know you personally, and you’re not affecting me or someone I love? I probably don’t care. I have a diminishing attention span (hell, and lifespan, because that’s how it works) and I prefer to spend them on the people and things that bring me joy. Sure, I’m sad about the state of global politics and everything being on fire and the ongoing pandemic and just . . . everything. Gen X kid here, I grew up thinking that the Russians were gonna nuke us any day now, and if the Russians didn’t get us, AIDS would. A lot of this is way too close to childhood drama/trauma to be comfortable. I just don’t need to be seen by the world, and I don’t have the energy to perform my life on a grander scale. I don’t have a big enough platform to have any influence, and I’m quite pleased about that. I find it delightful to check in with my friends from time to time and see how we can support each other. I do the community things that make sense to me and that I can do. I support the causes that matter to me, in ways that make sense for me. I have my social media sites limited to an hour daily across all of them, and it’s glorious. I may trim that down even more once I stop hitting the hour bump quite so often. I’m taking more walks and fewer photos; making more clothes and fewer arguments. Turns out as much as I miss social things - and boy howdy am I looking forward to easing back into a social life - social media isn’t a great substitute for me. And any time I feel the anxiety of missing a thing somewhere in the world, I pause and I ask myself two questions.

So What?

Who Cares?