Wednesday, November 2, 2011

the new guy

It's a well know fact that we are creatures of habit. In every thing we do from getting ready for work in the morning to the way we sleep are routines that mostly don't change. I believe we find comfort in our routines, and in the people and places we are familiar with, and with good reason. When we try to add something new in our life, for what ever reason, we are forced to move out of the comfort zones that we so carefully created for our self.  While breaking out of our box is a very tough thing to do, the results are almost always a benefit. It has been said that nothing worth doing is easy. That being said, there are few things in life that are as as hard and uncomfortable as being the "new guy" in a group.

In my professional life I have watched many of my peers come and go, and watched new folks struggle to find their way. While I'm certainly not the most experienced team member on the pay roll, I have been around long enough long enough to know the system. My personal life is much the same; I have not made any signification changes in quit some time. Today, though, I walked in to a room of folks and was the new guy. It does not seem to matter how welcoming and gracious a group of people are, trying to become a member of an established group of people is an awkward proposition. This not a derogatory comment against a group of people; its just the nature of the situation. There is no way the new guy in a group can understand the existing dynamics with in the group. Who gets along with who, who are the dominate people, who are the weakest.

Don't miss understand what I'm trying to say, no matter how difficult it might be (for me anyway) to become an accepted member of a group, the end result is worth the pain of being the new guy. It has been my experience that in every group of people there will be a least one person that winds up becoming a friend or a great influence. In that there is an extreme value.

So, all in all I guess I'm looking forward to the challenge

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