Leaving a legacy

Boy, that title sounds foreboding, does it not?

I might have called this one something like “Building for the future” but that tastes even more ‘blech’ than the title I chose. So, mebbe I should just make a start and trust that the theme will work itself out.

I am a matrixed employee, meaning I work for more than one boss and in fairly different areas. One of my bosses is a colleague and friend of approximately my age and with somewhat similar medical misadventures in the not distant past.

She and I have both spent some significant alone time self-examining the fact that while we have some good productive years ahead (so we hope, anyway) the ones behind are by far in the majority. So for each of us, the concept of what we will leave behind looms large.

In his 70s, Ray Bolger did a stage routine in which he talked about this sort of thing and he ended the bit by tossing his hat behind him to sit on the stage in the narrowed circle of the follow spot while Bolger retired off stage right. It was this incredible mute statement of ‘leaving something on the stage’ that had even moi in tears. I guess there’s a bit of this feeling in my own current focus on the coming, finite professional years.

By the bye, this one isn’t going to build to any profound thematic point. I’m just sharing feelings with you today.

Anyway, my boss and I are working together to shape certain teaching / training activities, melding my regional approach to her overall national approach in an effort to make certain that the best possible content is made available in the most remote parts of the country. When, where and as needed.

We’re reviewing and learning from all sorts of media, delivery, lesson planning, channels, topics and sub-topics. We’ll be compiling, chunking and coordinating themes and pieces of themes. Stealing shamelessly from people smarter than us and gently fending off the determined contributions of some others.

It’s a big job and one that I enjoy immensely. In the next three weeks, I’m bringing some of the resulting work product to conference sessions, on-site teaching and training and in-person mentoring and I am scared as hell. If you care about this job, the worst possible outcome is that you fail to bring the participants something of value. They’ve trusted you with their time and attention and if you owe them anything, it’s to bring them something of value. And unless you’re entirely self-impressed, as you begin the teaching swing, it’s impossible not to harbor the occasional thought of “Who the hell am I to think I have something worthwhile to offer these people?”

Wish me luck.

(And stop whining – I told you there would not be a whiz-bang finish!)