The Checklist Syndrome!

As a child, I distinctly recall singing a double-dutch song with pride in playgrounds, stating, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage”. I also remember watching ‘A Different World' to gain insight into the lives of college students at an HBCU, which I saw as a pathway to promising careers and social status.

Interestingly enough, these songs and shows left an impression on what happiness and success looked like, and influenced a mental “checklist” that would validate perceived value in my life. Case in point, I attended an HBCU, joined a sorority and professional fellowship, have a successful career, became a homeowner, got married, had a dog, and then my son. Yet I found myself at an interesting point of self-discovery. Though these experiences brought both joy and challenges, I realized I was so caught up in social norms of achieving these experiences on the “checklist” to feel validated that I could not see my true value beyond this “list", nor could I identify what brought me happiness.

From this discovery, I shifted priorities and my outlook on life through unconventional ways that have allowed me to be 100% myself. Though I am still a work in progress, I’ve learned that strictly adhering to socio-cultural norms and conformity is not the pathway to authentic success if you cannot be yourself.

This life lesson has inspired how MK Consulting Group assesses “value” when it comes to hiring talented individuals and creating expansive work cultures for organizations to succeed. We understand the “why” behind the “checklist”, but we also know when and how to challenge perceived value that is influenced by criteria, comfort, and bias. We help organizations recognize and accept individual differences by addressing the limiting beliefs we’ve all learned and practiced, and by focusing on collective power.

It's time to step beyond the checklist and create an expansive work culture.