1. You start talking in tongues with phrases like "stewardship" and "servant leadership."
2. You begin to number all steps in all processes.
3. Your phone stops ringing.
4. You´re asked to facilitate meetings but never contribute content.
5. There isn´t anyone outside of your department at vice presidential level who recognizes you.
6. You find yourself quite often putting on coffee and ordering refreshments.
7. You receive a ton of advertising every week from the Society for Human Resource Management.
8. Training firm representatives make up the bulk of your external voice mail messages.
9. No one holds career development or performance evaluation meetings with you.
10. You find yourself telling people why they can´t do something much more often than how they can do something.
11. People around you quote Peter Senge and have never heard of Peter Drucker.
13. Not one external consultant hired wants to collaborate with you.
14. You think it´s important to get published in Training Magazine.
15. The only professional development the company will subsidize for you is the national ASTD conference.
16. You work in a cubicle.
17. Management is seen as the enemy.
18. You believe the sales force is vastly over-rated and grossly over-paid.
19. Instead of a raise, the company grants you a title such as Senior OD Transformational Consultant.
20. Your friends from college are driving better cars.
21. You are distressed to realize that you can´t name one human resources executive who has become CEO of a major company.
22. You find yourself in debates as to the merits of classroom vs. theater seating.
23. You think that Don Kirkpatrick´s four levels of measurement are the state of the art in terms of metrics.
24. You have certifications and requisite initials after your name from four different training vendors, having gone through their train-the-trainer programs.
25. You have books such as Games Trainers Play and Training Icebreakers on your shelf.
26. You gently inquire among vendor representatives about job opportunities and what it´s like to be "on the outside."
27. You have no budget, or at least none that you can control.
28. No one has ever asked your opinion about a corporate strategic initiative.
29. You are bored at least once a day.
30. At least twice a month you peruse the "help wanted" ads.
Alan Weiss is an OD consultant for Fortune 500 organizations, a very popular keynote speaker, and the author of 25 books published in 7 languages. He serves on several boards, including The Harvard University Center for Mental Health and the Media. You can reach him via his web site, http://www.summitconsulting.com. His newest book, The Million Dollar ConsultingTM Toolkit, was released by John Wiley in October. He is a contributing author among an all-star list for the new book Practicing Organization Development (Pfeiffer: 2005).
