H of G, or the Compassion Principle

I was asked recently how I made my work unique to make it stand out from the work of other people.

It was a weird sort of question. Not because of the context it arose in, the work environment, but because it presupposes that you have a goal to make your work stand out, instead of a goal to do good work. Hopefully the two are not exclusive. Yet I think more about what I am doing, and how to make it better, rather than being conscious of how it will make me look good, how it will make me stand out.

I suppose it is necessary if one wants to advance, or be influential, that you have to be aware of how you work is perceived just as much as whether the work itself is good and worthy. One will have an image, and it is important to choose and cultivate the image, and make sure the content matches the image.

Going back to the  beginning, the question was asked in a context where an answer was expected, so I had to put some thought into it. My response was that I choose an intentional attitude of gratitude in everything I do.

It is a fact of habit that people don’t express appreciation for the things that they expect people to do for them. They only complain when they don’t get what is expected. So with the people I work with I intentionally say thank you for the regular assistance, in a way that the other party knows it isn’t a mere courtesy on my part.

I do not have an auto-salutation on my e-mails, no “thank you” that pops up with my signature.  Those become obvious and thus lose all sense of meaning. I usually type the same sets of salutations on my e-mails, but I think about it each time before I type it, to make sure the tone of the e-mail supports it, and that I am actually meaning and thinking what I am writing.

It is curious. My thankfulness makes the work of other people stand out. Yet because their work stands out, my work does to.

Another corollary to the attitude of gratitude is what for years I called my Compassion Principle. I told myself to also assume the best motivation I can think of for any action, especially if it might otherwise be construed in a negative light. We don’t know everything going on in another person’s life, so unless we know there is a reason to view an action negatively, assume there is a positive motive.

Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of PIH (Partners in Health), has another term for this principle — H of G — which is shorthand for Hermeneutic of Generosity. Since hermeneutic has to do with interpretation, what Farmer is talking about in interpreting the actions of others in a context of assumed generosity toward them and their motives. You don’t know everything, so why not start with the greatest portion assumed good will and motive possible.