Lawrence Don-Elysyn
Once upon a time, a group of people that we will call “the Company” obtained a contract to put up a house. This entailed a great deal of nailing. In the preplanning stages, someone figured out that 10,000 nails would have to be hammered in to build this house. This seemed like a frightening amount, and the Manager decided to do something about it.
He formed the Committee for the Improvement of the Hammer. This committee studied the basic construction of the hammer and decided that changes had to be made. They devised a new hammer, called the HX1, and tried it out. It proved satisfactory. Building began.
However, after a short while, one of the Supervisors decided that they could do even better. He presented the Manager with a proposal for the further improvement of the hammer. The Committee for the Further Improvement of the Hammer was formed. After a short while, it came up with the HX2, which proved to be lighter and stronger. Several workers even pointed out that this hammer worked so well that they could now declare that all previous hammering of nails had been badly done.
Consequently, the workers removed all the old nails and started building the house all over again. This time, they decided, it would be done right.
Well, they had hardly nailed in more than a dozen boards when the Manager read about another company that was using a power hammer, called the PH1. It fascinated him, and he ordered PH1s for everyone and called in all the HX2s. This time, the Manager insisted, they were going “big time” and “doing it the way they should have done it all along.”
Well, when the PH1s arrived, they proved to be so powerful that new and thicker wood was ordered and all previous work had to be, once more, redone. However, what else could they do? The PH1 was now king. Anybody who was anybody was using it. There was simply no choice.
Work went on. Then, the Manager’s assistant noted in a trade publication that the PH1 had been upgraded to the PH2. This was really the one everybody was using. The Manager felt honorbound to change again. However, PH2s required a special type of nail. The company bought the nails and, one more time, everything came down and construction started all over.
Finally, the Owner dropped in and asked why his house had not yet been built. He was given the above story.
“You’d have finished by now if you just used ordinary hammers,” he declared.
“Yes,” said the Manager, “but it would have been an ‘old-fashioned’ house.”
“Damn you,” said the Owner. “At least I would’ve had a house.” He sued the Company, and the Company lost its collective Shirt.
The moral of the story is: Things get done when you concentrate more on the work than on the tools.
Lawrence is the senior text editor at Bombardier Transportation in St. Bruno, Quebec, Canada. He has been with Bombardier 14 years. He is married (to a lady from Dallas) and has three grown children and two grandchildren. You can reach him at lawrence.don-elysyn@ca.transport.bombardier.com.