Fear of Perfection

Every day has its highlights. You come across people, ideas and concepts that make you go further in who you wish to become. Well, yesterday was no different. Having a conversation over a cup of coffee with a new friend, I told her about my experience as a worker, what I felt like on the factories floor level, and some of the things that I observe.

It was a strange topic to approach with a woman. Rarely are they that perceptive or inclined over such subjects, but it felt natural, so it was right. Talking to her, and then reviewing some of her questions, I started wondering about it a bit more.

In the beginning of my professional life, I couldn't care less about the company I worked for, if things went right or wrong, if my contribution was good or bad. I just tried to learn a bit about the whole deal with the elder co-workers. And it puzzled me that many times they didn't want to work better. Sure they all talked about quality, that if it's for the better, then we should change, but they only talked the talk. I could picture no one walking the walk. Heck, for a 20-year-old guy, that's not the end of the world. Life is so filled with better things to do than to wonder about the boss’s issues. All I wanted was my money in the bank every payday. Like most people, right?

Well, my bridge had a lot of troubled water going under, and sometimes even over it. I hopped from one company to the next, mostly having bad examples and learning how not to do things. Another strange thing... Shouldn't people simply tell you what to do and how to do it? It seems to be much more efficient and logic.

That's all fine and dandy when you think of machines, but here we are dealing with humans and all of their unpredictability. We have emotions rushing thru, and they are seldom logic. So what is it that makes people chose not to work in the best possible way? Why do they deliberately sabotage their work? Here's a hint. Perfection of procedures can be a bit frightening. People actually don't fear changes. What they fear is its consequences.

We like to have everything nice and tidy in our minds. That's why we label people and put them on a shelf like little jam jars. We stick in our heads that we know people we come across, label them and stack them up. It's easier this way. We can then turn them into numbers and account them. “In my lot of acquaintances I have 3 nerds, 1 fat stupid kid, that old crone of a mother in law, a fabulous wife, a chief who's head looks like a watermelon...” and so on.

Rarely do we see a person for all that he/she is. I would risk that we never do that, because we can't. It's too much to get to know on the first time we meet someone. Yet, the label is applied anyway. It's reassuring. And who doesn't like having a guaranty? Even if it's placebo, in our minds we can rest at ease, everything is in its “proper” place.

Of corse this solution has it's problems. As I said in the previous post, the world turned out to be dynamic. So everything is constantly changing at every instant. The time we took to shove the people we labeled into our shelves was enough for other people and the surrounding environment to influence him or her. So, the information we think we gathered is dated already. Sure it's a small change, but it was still produced. And it keeps happening even as you read this. Think about it, every second that passes, everyone you know and will meet in your life is changing.

The problem I was referring to is that when we label people, we don't allow them the right to change, to evolve. They still do, right before our very eyes. The best example I can give you is at everyone's houses. Family. Kids want their parents to always be there.

Parents don't want their kids to grow up. Men don't want their spouses to change. Women hope that their husbands will (women are the exception to the rule). And the reason is the same. Fear of the consequences of that change. We basically fear the unknown. “Will it be good? It will most likely be bad.” Most of us are pessimistic about changes. It seems as if we all have a little Murphy dictating his laws inside our heads. Not surprisingly, we feel and act the same in all aspects of life. Even if we don't panic, we usually always act suspicious about changes. Well, that brings us back to the original topic. Quality at work.

When things go wrong at work, you have to overcompensate in order to keep your goals. Dimensions, robustness, smoothness, deadlines... whatever the client demands and that gets you paid.

Most people don't feel fulfilled at work. If you ask around, most will complain about their bosses, colleagues, working conditions, wages, etc, etc. Some might tell you that they don't mind doing it, and probably very few of them will actually tell you that they love their jobs. Now don't ask this in a research center, people there will most likely love what they do. Ask the average Joe.

Emotionally, we all tend to compensate our flaws. So if we don't feel fulfilled with our jobs, maybe we can feel needed. When things go wrong, the chief or boss will ask me to put out the fire. And I can say that in a proud tone of voice at the bar, at the end of the day when the boys gather for a couple of beers. I said earlier that parents don't want their kids to grow up. Exactly the same reason. To feel needed. Then one day they will rebel, sick and tired of being treated like children, and we suddenly realize that they are taking driving lessons. Or maybe when they ask for the car keys for a night out. The emotional downfall is the equivalent to a car crash going 200 km/h. You go from being the most important thing in a person’s world, to complete uselessness.

Of corse people over react. No one goes from great to shit. But with hurt self-esteem, that's what humans do. They punish themselves for not being able to be number one for another day. For not being your kids hero anymore. And we all want things to stay still, sometimes accepting changes in our lives, but expecting them to be at a pace that we can easily digest. Guess what, no such luck.

The world, even the universe has it's own dynamics, it's own pace. The amount of energy required to alter that would be close to infinite. We are very little, and actually powerless to tip the scales.

Back to the working context, people don't like changes when they feel they are needed. If they already feel they are not an important part of the team, they don't give a rat's ass. Me at the age of 20 :)

Talking about quality doesn't bother them. However, it bothers the ones that are usually called to put out the fires, even if they started it themselves with procedures that they already know are wrong. But it keeps them on their toes, they earn more money doing overtime, and they can brag about it at the bar. It's like watching Homer Simpson at Moe's.

When these people hear a whisper about changes or quality, they usually turn on the panic button. "What will happen next? Will I still be needed? Will I still be called to put out the fire? Will I still be the hero? If the work process gets better, will I still make money doing over time? And what will I tell next at Moe's bar? Life will probably be dull. I won't have any complaints of my own when I get home. I will just have to put up with the crap other people will throw at me, and have none to throw back. People will think I have an easy life. And what if they decide that they don't need me at the factory anymore? If everything is predicted, there will be no emergencies, no fires to put out. I will get sacked”.

You can see here how panic mode works. Besides, people hate changes. If you have never read the book “Who moved my cheese?”, do it. It's a must believe me. Now for the news flash. Jobs aren't steady. For a few dozen years we created the artificial illusion that they are, and that you can land on a company and sit there your entire life, without doing much, demanding as much as possible and no one will ever kick you out. That happened in the post WWII period. This artificial illusion is fading, as we enter a new social concept. Service providers. Entrepreneurs. People that specialize in an area, have small companies and compete with each other for costumers that knows how to seek for the better offer. So quality is here to stay, weather we like it or not. As long as there is someone else providing the same service we do, the costumer will be free to choose. And if you want to stay in business, you better stay on your toes.

You take the same person and put him in two different scenarios. One, in which he works for someone else, and Two, he has it's own small company. You tell me in which situation he will work the hardest, and in which will he embrace quality. In Portugal we have a feeble way of using resources. We are a bit like the Americans, like to use the big guns. Having no patience will eventually do that; you start using a cannon to kill a mosquito. And what is the Portuguese biggest weapon? The jewel of the crown that makes every other foreign corporation envy and seek in Portuguese workers. Resourcefulness. What we call “desenrascanso”. Basically, it means, when you get deep into shit, figure out a way to clean your own ass. And we do, we have that skill.

Most Portuguese are almost like a McGuiver. We are very creative in tough situations, we get the job done with no apparent resources and we get out of tight spots. Trouble is, that might be effective, but it sure as hell aint efficient. To do so, we use tools in a way they were not designed for.

Give a German a nail and ask him to put it on a wall, and he will refuse to do it without the proper hammer. Do the same with the Portuguese guy, say it's an emergency and he will take off his shoe and bang the nail with the shoe's heel. He will ruin the shoe, but the nail will be in place. I think you get the picture. So, resourcefulness doesn't seem like much, does it? If you ruin something that costs 20 times more than the proper tool to do the job, it doesn’t seem like the logic thing to do. That is why I said that we are effective, but not efficient. We tend to call for the artillery to kill that mosquito. How? By using resourcefulness in every situation.

Resourcefulness is great for prototyping, but not for a process that aims to be steady. It's for emergencies only. That is why German teams will usually beat the crap out of ours in such conditions, but one element versus the other in an isolated case, they don't stand a chance. If we could only conquer that need to call for the artillery every time we have a situation that repeats itself, we wouldn't be in this economic shit hole.

All it takes is to forget that the panic button exists, think clearly and study the processes. Keep implementing improvements. There's quality for you. As for the question of not being needed, that's just lack of vision on the part of people. If you improve whatever project you embrace, if you evolve and get better as a person and a professional, even if that company eventually doesn't require your services anymore, others will.

Good professionals are hard to come by, and often well paid. Companies aren't eternal, either way. We see a lot of them going bankrupt, and people that sat tight in their asses thinking that no one would move their cheese, will one day find that nothing lasts forever. Not having evolved, they are the ones that will have a hard time finding another job. So why fear perfection?