I know, it’s old. It’s everywhere. It’s cliche. It’s the “knowing where to tap” story, a consultants’ favorite to justify high fees.
But my post is a new twist. So let’s start with a version of the story, then reveal the twist.
Years ago a Pennsylvania steel mill had a desperate problem. Within the maze of pipes, gears, and boilers in the factory, something broke down. Production screeched to a halt.
Precious hours slipped by as workers scoured the mill to fix the problem. Every hour cost tens of thousands of dollars as workers idled around.
The manager phoned a specialist who arrived within the hour, holding a small bag of tools, his frail appearance concealing fifty years of expertise in steel mill engineering. The manager hurried the feeble mechanic into the factory and told him the problem.
The mechanic listened for a moment, then went to the corner of the factory. Listening still further, he spotted a set of gauges and adjusted the dials. Then he told the foreman to power things back up. The factory came to life.
The manager was overjoyed. “Feel free to double your usual price,” he said.
“That’s not necessary,” the elderly man replied. “I’ll mail you my regular bill.”
A week passed and the bill arrived. For ten thousand dollars.
The manager jumped from his chair in disbelief. “Since when does a fifteen minute service call cost ten thousand dollars? Who does this guy think he is?” He wrote the mechanic requesting a breakdown of costs.
A week later, a revised bill came in the mail. It read:
15 minutes of adjusting: $20
Knowing what to adjust: $9,980
Grand Total: $10,000
So there’s the story.
Now, my twist. We are the factory in the story. The mental machinery of human nature is a menagerie of moving parts. And when things go wrong, we often don’t know why. Why do we procrastinate? Why do we fly off the handle? Why aren’t we firing on all cylinders? What’s wrong, and how to we fix it? We scour around for solutions, often without success. It costs precious time, money, and opportunity.
We only have one life to live. We should be up and running, at our best. But we often aren’t.
Where’s our old guy with the bag of tools? Who is the expert on human nature we can call to keep the factory running? To make sure career stays on track? Or the marriage stays strong? Or the business continues to flourish? Who knows what and where to adjust? And what happens if we don’t learn how to diagnose and fix?
Human tragedy is what happens. Because we aren’t talking factories. This is life. Precious life. A one-shot-at-it situation. Billions of lives are breaking down in big ways and small.
There’s an urgency. For myself, sure. For others, definitely. We must find and fix problems at the root level. We need expertise in human nature to get to the heart of our issues before time runs out.
