If organizations want to tackle their big issues they shouldn't major on minors.

What color should the chairs  be and how office layout should look?

What summer staff events should look and to have this year?

What flowers and vases to choose from for the milestone celebration?

What pronouns to use in an airline where safety rules and attention to customer service are more paramount?

What venue and comforts can we provide at a planning retreat? 

So on and so forth.

They can contribute to a successful team spirit, positive work environment, and overall good hospitality and welcoming, but to put so much debate, consultation, and energy on picking the right color, theme, and decorations is an overkill and misguided.

As in many weddings, the bride and groom and families of both spend way more time with the wedding event, than the actual relationship-building elements such as building trust and loyalty, communication skills, handling conflict and disagreements, finances, decisions about children, and so on and so forth. The list by the way is not exhaustive.

Take the same way you treat virtual signalling these days. No amount of bust throwing of Queen Victoria or other queens could help disappear bigotry, discrimination, and racism, it could even fuel more hate from those fence-sitters and observers. Hatred has become a go-to feeling nowadays without a deep reason or justification for it.

Minor issues in the organization tend to attract those who wanted to get fame, popularity, a certain kind of reputation for sticking their noses out for anything, and other low performers. It's because they lack power to engage in serious but more important conversations about employee engagement, releasing recognition and employee freedom, right compensation and promotions, and getting heard. They have to be in control of the small things at their level to feel a certain kind of power. For example, the front liners who are mean to customers do so because they can't shout and scream at their bosses/supervisors for the lousy conditions they are under. They vent it out through their jobs by doing little sabotages, insubordination, and petty quarrels with their peers, etc. 

You can't focus on the major issues if you're constantly battling minor league problems in your turf. An event is an event, but most organizational vitality issues are processes. So then focus on the process or processes and then you won't ever feel that you have squandered your precious time, energy, and resources on a good-to-have rabbit holes. 

Honestly, I was one of those irate customers you see often that are ready to explode.

I purchased a basic plan for an app to a Gmail functionality.

I started using it as soon as possible. 

I just couldn't see why it didn't work or failed to work.

My work and goal for that week was wrecked. 

The technology that would have helped me be more productive turned out to be a false promise.

I tried emailing them but no response for a few days, until I hit the 'refund' email.

This particular email was very angry and it shouldn't been that way if the service provider was prompt enough to respond to emails of 'help/assistance/clarifications."

Nada.

So what can an ordinary customer do if they can't call the office of this company, no response whatsoever after a few emails, and nothing seemed to work.

Refund. 

Lo and behold, they don't offer a refund for a basic plan.

Well, if their customer service is flawless and on the mark, that should not have been the case.

I bet my hundred Canadian dollars that customers wouldn't be thinking of refund if the service was top-notch, the customer assistance was there every step of the way, and they make it everything easy since it's an SAAP (software as a product) by the way. 

Customer service is a given. If you're company's not interested in customer service, don't try to create products or services. No matter how great these are, they're worthless if you can't really help a customer navigate the intricacies of the product/service, they bought from you and have an overall pleasant experience. There are other competition out there who would be happy to take on new customers for their products and deliver great value at a fraction of a cost.

The last thing the customer would like to receive is: Sorry, we don't refund this purchase plan.

That to me is pure and simple theft.

Who can't be irate with that? 

I have just subscribed to a news agency that purportedly says that it's just pure news, no slanted opinions or twists on a news story.

If you really think about it, the social media and traditional media are feeding us with a constant barrage of one-sided opinions based on their political inclinations and predispositions.

Confirmation bias and more polarization based on entrenched positions are already creating enough havoc on our democracy.

There is too much consumption and very less on discernment. 

A few of my students used AI for an essay assignment. Some took the whole paragraph and pasted into their essays without understanding what they actually copied. I traced one paragraph to a Chat-GPT issued statement about "American Indians." They didn't know that a lot of ChatGPT-produced content is unusable. It wasn't coherent, accurate, and specific enough for many inquiries. 

Discernment is extra-rare these days. I would champion that everyone be more discerning, to critically analyze what they're getting from ChatGPT, do fact-checking, and use it with a grain of salt. 

Any human with a thinking brain should not only question the sources of any information but ensure that it is based on unassailable facts.

If you care enough about your impact and the legacy that you're creating, it's better to be silent than to spread more misinformation around, unknowingly.

Instead of having an auto-pilot on consumption, have it on discernment.