Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

It seems like it has been a long time since I participated in Carnival of HR, so I thought I would jump in on this one.  Trish McFarlane is hosting and she is interested in the turning points, the things that have changed our path.

I think there have been a number of pivotal moments in my life, but I think that the first big one was probably enlisting in the United States Marine Corps.  That was a long, long time ago and I probably would not survive a single day in the Marines now, but it was an incredibly valuable four years of my life.  I learned a lot of things about a lot of things.  There are a few specific things that I think have proven to be very important to me professionally:

1. I need work that I believe in. In some ways the Marine Corps spoiled me.  I was really lit on fire having the opportunity to do work and to be a part of something that I truly believed in. I was proud to be a Marine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Since then, it has never really been a valid option for me to have a “job.”  Some people can do that…they can go do a job, pay the bills and they can go home at the end of the day and leave it all behind.  I respect that, and at times have even longed for that, but it just does not work for me.  I have to be a part of something that is a natural and real extension of who I am…learning that and accepting that has helped me to find my place in the world.
2. I am not a good judge of what I am capable of. I had an interesting enlistment.  I was in for four years and spent two of those years overseas.  I was in the infantry, and in addition to going through infantry training attended security forces school, assault climber school, rappel master school, Army Ranger school and I got to spend about 9 months as an instructor in Okinawa, Japan.  I learned how to find my way around and stay alive in a lot of different terrains and environments, Iceland, Thailand, Kuwait, etc.  The Marine Corps made me learn that stuff. I learned it and did it because I had to.  I think we have a very real tendency to underestimate ourselves (and maybe those around us as well?).   I know that it is important for my professional growth to occasionally force myself to try something that I am not sure I can actually do.
3. Drama can be optional. I did not see a lot of drama in the Marine Corps.  If you were involved in drama (regardless of your role) it was not viewed favorably.  We had a very specific mission and if you were involved in anything that made that mission harder to accomplish it cost everyone.  One of the things that the Marine Corps does really well is provide clarity of purpose.  Everyone knows what the mission is; everyone knows what their role is…and that leaves a whole lot less room for drama.  I think we work really hard in a lot of our organizations to manage and respond to drama when a lot of it could be avoided.
4. Difference matters. The people that I worked and lived with while in the Marine Corps were different from me in many ways.  Different races, different religions, different family life, they were from different parts of the country, and some of them were from different countries altogether.  Coming from a family farm in Iowa, that was a lot of difference.  It was amazing to me what we had to learn from each other, simply because of that difference.  It was also amazing to me that regardless of how different someone seemed to be, there was always something that we had in common as well.  The Marine Corps is where I first started to appreciate the power of diversity and inclusion.  The Marine Corps does some things around diversity and inclusion really well without even talking about it…they are crystal clear on shared purpose, and within that context they expect everyone to make their unique contributions when needed (improvise, adapt, overcome).
5. Decisions and actions have consequences. I also had to become a grown up in the Marine Corps.  Well okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.  I might still not qualify as a grown up, but the world became a more serious place for me during that time.  Operation Desert Storm was pretty quick and pretty simple, nothing like what Marines and others are involved in today.  But it still involved real bullets and real bombs and there were a number of guys in my unit injured and two of them did not come home.  One of those Marines I knew well enough to have shared a few beers with, the other I did not know at all.  Being a Marine is a unique job and combat is clearly a unique work situation, but it really changed the way that I view decisions and actions.  What we do matters.  We do not have to be grim and morose about it, but what we do matters and how we interact with others matters.  We should not be wasteful with or take for granted any human potential or talent in us or in others.  It is precious stuff.

Be good to each other.