Cost of actions that we don't take

All of us make choices, many of these relate to taking an action or not taking an action. Many of us even have an strategy to not to act! We then rationalize the choices that we made.

But have we ever analyzed the cost of actions we did not take?

• While walking on the road, we see a person walking with air pods completely oblivious to traffic. Do we stop and ask her to be careful or just walk by. What if the person is hit by a speedy car?
• Person working at height, without hooking up the life lines. We walk by, thinking to talk to contract supervisor about this. What if in the meantime, the man fall from height and injures himself?
• A small leak from a gas connection, we rationalize its a small leak, what if a small fire , goes unnoticed and burns down the whole facility?
• Performance issue with a colleague and we don't initiate a feedback dialogue, because its a difficult job. What about opportunities which are lost because of this?

Most of us don’t actively promote inefficiency, or aim to keep others down, or purposefully contribute to a less hospitable workplace or harm others. But we do strap on blinders. We rationalize, deflect, and deny. We follow the easier path. And we own every choice we make. The greater our power, the greater the weight each choice carries.

We can choose not to engage in improving the world. We can seize on every advantage available to us and our companies without thought to the consequences. We can act as if the planet and the global economy are not among our most critical stakeholders. We can join the crush of others who are just hoping to play out the string: keep our heads down, meet our numbers and abdicate long-term responsibility to someone else.

But when we make these choices, we leave out a crucial impact we can have on building a better workplace.

The alternative is to have the courage to accept a more difficult reality: The only way we can protect what we love is by actively pursuing a can make a change attitude. Every action has a consequence. Every inaction perhaps even more so.

Buckle up, move out and make a change. You matter a lot more than you think....