I subscribe to a newsletter from the speaker and consultant Boaz Rauchwerger at BoazPower.com. He sent a story a few weeks ago that has stuck with me. The story is quoted in many places, and was originally written by David J. Pollay. You can read the entire story in Boaz’s newsletter here.

The story is entitle "The Law of the Garbage Truck." Pollay tells the story of how he witnessed a New York cab driver making the best out of somebody else’s bad behavior. Instead of taking on someone else’s garbage, this cab driver smiled and waved at a driver who almost caused an accident. Here’s a key excerpt:

Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they’ll dump it on you.

When someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You’ll be happy you did. So this was it: The "Law of the Garbage Truck." I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said; "I’m not going to do it anymore."

Project workforce managers can learn a lot from the "Law of the Garbage Truck." We see bad behavior, poor performance, and negative attitudes as we manage people and tasks. We have a choice: we can let garbage infect our projects and teams, or we can keep the garbage "in the truck," so to speak, and not dump it on ourselves or others. We can, in effect, smile and wave, and encourage our project workforce to continue to do its best.

How do you avoid garbage trucks? In a previous Blog I described some of the lessons we have learned: http://www.tenrox.com/blogs/talentontarget/index.php/2008/02/patterns-of-success-for-project-workforce-managers/.