Good men…not apt to suffer fools gladly.
(This is an excerpt from my book Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less.)
Back in the mid-80′s, I was an inspector working with construction crews that build overhead transmission lines. Following detailed written designs and carefully surveyed routes, the crews use massive crane trucks to insert enormous seventy-eighty-foot wood poles in the ground. Then they go back to string heavy-gauge conductor (wire) between them.
The men on these crews are weather-beaten, hard-living, all-American power linemen. Good men, straight out of the union hall, they have the surly countenance of loggers and roughnecks and are not apt to “suffer fools gladly.”
I was working with such a crew in the hot, windswept backcountry of eastern Oregon when I found fault with the work they had just completed. In sighting down a half-mile-long line stretch of six poles, one was clearly two feet out of alignment with the others.
I pointed out the problem to the crusty foreman. To correct the error, he would have to order his men to go back with the heavy equipment, remove the poorly placed pole from the ground, fill in the old hole, re-drill a new hole, and then reset the pole in the proper alignment. The foreman was not pleased. Nobody likes to do the same job twice, especially when there is a degree of humiliation attached.
I will never forget his grizzled scowl and clear disdain for college-boy inspectors like me as he growled, “We’re building a !#*?*%! power line, not a !#*?*%! clock!”
Well, the pole was too far out of alignment and his crew did go back to reset it properly, but his power line/clock metaphor has stuck with me through the years. That cut-to-the-bone comment, however off-target in that particular circumstance, has been an enduring reminder that the quality of work must not exceed the required result.
Here’s a real-world question for you: When reconciling your personal checkbook, do you reconcile to the nearest cent? Why? Why not reconcile to the nearest dollar? In fact, why reconcile at all…just scan the pertenent deposits to make sure they appear and then scan quickly for withdrawls/checks that don’t seem right (see comment below from Jared Still). How about work? Are you manipulating useless detail that is costing time and money; time and money that could be better spent fixing seriously flawed systems that lie elsewhere?
Photo: Linemen of Arizona Public Service (Eastern Division), courtesy azlinework.com. Photographer unknown.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
In framing carpentry it was “We’re building a friggin piano here.”
Some people use that as an excuse for shoddy work. And that’s no good.
I use Quickbooks and take it to the penny. It’s just as easy.
Balance my checking account? Does anyone do that anymore? It’s been many years since I’ve even attempted that. Keeping the account in line is a matter of following a few simple steps.
1) Check the transactions for anything unexpected.
2) Make sure the deposits that you expect are appearing.
3) Scan the list to ensure any out of the norm checks have cleared.
4) Is the balance close to what you expect?
It’s been working well for awhile now.
When the system changes, the philosophy and thoughts about the system have to radically change, to match reality. I like where your going with system thinking, but are your changes revolutionary?
David. Great questions! You say, “When the system changes, the philosophy and thoughts about the system have to radically change, to match reality.” Really? How so? Why bog oneself down with ponderous “philosophy and thoughts”? Why complicate things? A system (waking up, eating breakfast, going to work for example) is just what it is and nothing more. It’s mechanical. It’s the same at work in a relationship or with any system. “It’s just mechanics.” This post illustrates just another thought about personal efficiency and as I think about the systems mindset in my own life, in fact, all of it boils down to simply increasing one’s efficiency. Are my “changes revolutionary”? No, not historically. Certainly, better people than me have made the same observations. However, not many of us live the systems mindset from moment to moment and it seems to me there is room to point that out. Here’s the crux: The systems mindset is more than a collection of observations about life. It’s a different way of viewing one’s existence. From this new perception, events of the day are handled more mechanically and, actually, LESS philosophically. If one’s daily life can become super efficient (embodied by making a lot of money and not spending much time doing it), then there is plenty of time to philosophize and think…or just hang out.