Are There Alligators In Your Foundry?
Some
years ago there was a cartoon that showed a man in water up to his waist, and
there were alligators swimming around him. The caption read, “Sometimes its hard to remember that the plan is to drain the swamp
when you’re up to your knees in
alligators.” (It didn’t really say knees,
but I like to keep things “G” rated.)
Needless
to say, the cartoon was very popular in foundries because of the “how true it
is” feeling for most foundrymen. It’s very hard to remember that we’re in a
program of employee empowerment when we’ve got a ladle of metal freezing. And
it’s easy to forget the policy of not making production runs until we’ve
received sample approval when our biggest customer’s buyer is pressuring us
even though his engineers haven’t given the approval yet. Of course, a lot of
good things aren’t remembered when the ink on the bottom line turns very red.
I’ve
lived for years believing the truth of this cartoon, and I still do to a
certain extent. When crises arrive, you sometimes have to do things that
normally you wouldn’t want to do. But, I recently got a new perspective on it.
I called a foundry owner friend to see how things were going. When I asked, he responded
that he was up to his knees in
alligators because of a personnel problem. That didn’t surprise me because he
was always fighting alligators. If he didn’t have personnel problems, he had
quality alligators. If it wasn’t either of those, it was production problems or
something else.
It
was during this latest phone call that I realized my friend’s plan for draining
the swamp was terrible, if he had a plan at all. In fact, I’d been trying to
get him to do some long term planning for some time. He’d always respond that
he had a plan, but just not down on paper. In reality, I don’t think he had a
plan. He had some dreams, and then reacted to the latest set of circumstances.
What’s
the difference between plans and dreams? Dreams are great, but far different
from plans. To me a plan is what you have when you figure out how you are going
to make your dreams come true. When I was a kid, I’d dream of dating Sophia
Loren or Debbie Reynolds (Guess that shows how old I am!), but I certainly
didn’t have a plan for dating them.
In
order to take any action towards a goal, there must be a plan - whether the
plan is just in someone’s head or an elaborately mapped out sequence on paper.
Since I didn’t take any action towards trying to date the stars, I only had
dreams. Was my friend taking action towards his dreams and, therefore, had a
plan? Or, was he merely reacting to situations as they presented themselves?
Only he can answer that question.
What
I can say is that if he had a plan, it wasn’t a good one. If my plan is to
drain a swamp, one of the first steps in the plan is to try to figure out where
the alligators are likely to be and get rid of them. There may be some rogues
left over, but I certainly shouldn’t be up to my knees all of the time. If I find myself spending all of my time
fighting the alligators, then I should know that my plan isn’t very good.
In
a way, being up to your knees can be
a blessing. It’s much easier to recognize that a plan is bad when in that
situation than in the other common circumstance with poor plans. The other
indicator of a poor plan is that it isn’t drawing you any closer to the goal.
This
is far more subtle than being up to your knees. You just keep working
away. There are no big problems. You can go for months, or even years, and not
realize that you aren’t any closer to the dream. If my planning to drain the
swamp was to start at the ocean with a bucket, I bet I could work for a long
time without being bothered by any alligators. On the other hand, I bet I
wouldn’t get much of the swamp drained either.
Okay,
that’s the problem, but what’s the remedy? If you think a remedy will lead to
the realization of all your dreams, you’re asking the wrong guy. I do have some
questions that you might ask yourself that I’ve found helpful.
1)
Perhaps the most important question you can ask is: What are
we trying to do? What is our dream? Are we trying to drain a swamp? Are we
trying to improve quality? Are we trying to increase profitability? Without
knowing where you want to go, it’s real hard to have a plan that works.
2)
After that the next most important question is: Do I have a
plan? Can you tell yourself why what you are doing is going to get you to your
goal? Do you know when it will be time to go to the next phase?
3)
If think you have a plan and you always seem to be up to
your knees, ask yourself: Are these
just a bunch of rogues, or do I need a better plan. Is what led to the problems
something that we couldn’t have foreseen? Are the problems coming from our not
following our plan?
2)
Even if you aren’t up to your knees, take the time periodically to ask yourself whether the plan
is working. Is the water in the swamp getting any lower? Are you getting closer
to your goal or are you just working away without really getting anywhere?
Yes,
answering these questions will take time, and if you’re up to your knees, you
most likely can’t afford it. But if you don’t take the time, may I suggest that
you start looking for books on how to make pets out of alligators.