Story – A nuclear power plant was shut down and engineers could not figure out how to fix it. Exasperated and desperate, they called in an expert consultant. The consultant looked at the various dials and gauges for 20 minutes, and turned a valve. The powerplant sprung to life.
He sent his bill – $200,000. The power company thought it was too much money so they returned the bill asking him to itemize the bill. The consultant sent this back –
Turning valve – $5.
Knowing what valve to turn – $199,995
Total – $200,000
The power company paid the bill.
Many business owners struggle to make their business work and to make it profitable. Let’s face it, most all of us have never done this before. We’re all busy doing stuff all day long. But do you know WHAT to do?
How do you learn? Experience (but not doing the same thing over and over). Reading and studying others who have done it. Learn from others in your business who are doing it well. Join a network of some kind in your industry of companies you do NOT compete against – otherwise they will not share the really important ideas. Hire a consultant who knows what they are doing.
You’re the leader. It’s on you to know WHAT to do.
Spend 98% of your time learning, studying, and seeing things right, and 2% of your time deciding WHAT to do.
I have read this before. I always thought it was well stated. I am grateful for Jim, Brian and Larry also. They are three of the best!
Love this!! You pay for knowledge and expertise above all else.
Thanks for the reminder, Larry!
I know this story is anecdotal, but my first career was 22 years as a submarine nuclear power plant mechanical operator, of which, knowing what valves to turn and, when to turn them, was the very CORE of the job – as such, I can attest to the fact that this knowledge is CRUCIAL to safe (i.e., successful) plant operations.
I say that to say this: In this role, like in business, we had a sequential list of hard-learned, proven steps we had to follow to get it right (be successful). These were learned, passed on, and codified by those who had gone before us, and every operator HAD to know and be tested on them to get, and stay, qualified to operate valves in the plant.
So what’s the point? There were a lot of ‘administrative’ steps in that list, but the one that really showed that you knew what you were doing was, “Verify system response.” The reason I say this is that, verifying system response revealed so many things about the operator’s training, knowledge, and qualifications to operate the plant safely (successfully); it demonstrated:
– understanding of integrated systems operations
– understanding of what was happening in, or to, the plant right now (current state)
– understanding what actions, and to what degree, need to be taken to make, or keep, the plant safe (i.e. what actions cause the effects (future state) you desire in the integrated system; you don’t always just ‘open’ or ‘shut’ a valve, sometimes you just ‘throttle’ it; think of operating a car or motorcycle)
– understanding what response you should, or shouldn’t, get (both immediately and sustained) when you turn the valve, whether it did or didn’t happen, and what to do next based on this response
There’s a lot more involved, but that’s enough for now to illustrate the correlation to business, work, and/or life…
To get the future state you want, you have to:
– understand both current state and the desired / needed future state (vision)
– understand both the individual and integrated ways the systems involved function to sustain current state and/or create the future state
– understand what actions, influence, or adjustments need to be employed to transition from current state to future state
– understand what’s supposed to happen when you influence the system in a certain way and how to evaluate that response
– understand how and when to continue, or stop, adjustments based on your evaluation (sometimes the best thing you can do is to take your hands off ‘the valve’ and let the integrated system do what it was designed to do)
– understand when your arrived-at future state stabilizes into your new current state, and how you want / need to further influence that for desired results
There’s probably a lot more that folks can think of, but the moral of the story is this: all of this takes knowledge, training, practice, theory to practice, proficiency, and, most of all, the understanding of and experience on how the integrated system works.
In the nuclear operator world, we’re trained that if you weren’t QUALIFIED to operate the system, then watch, learn, and train until you are; but DON’T touch it until then! We’re also trained that, even if you were qualified, if you don’t understand what the plant’s doing right now, then either monitor it until you do before taking action, or take immediate action to put it in a condition you know is safe. Either way, KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING are KEY, because the plant MAY be doing exactly what it’s SUPPOSED to be doing, and you need to ensure you recognize current state before you can take the CORRECT actions to influence a new future state.
I am absolutely going to use this.