Canary

Adam Grant and Brené Brown identified in a podcast I recently listened to that there are people who identify a problem, but those aren't necessarily always the people who are well-suited to fix it.  They described that person as a canary. 

When I heard it, I thought, "A canary?" 

Canaries sat in cages in mines. If the canary died, then there was toxic gas in the mine. This would alert the miners to get out of the mine.

No one looked at the canary and said, "You died, why didn't you fix it?"

That wasn’t their job, that wasn’t their purpose, that wasn’t their responsibility.

So when we get upset with a canary for the problem, we have to stop and realize, "Oh, it's not their problem to fix."

Maybe that's just their gift and ability to point it out. Appreciate that.