"Anything such a man asks will be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town, and village - in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such; he is needed, and needed badly—the man who can carry a message to Garcia."[Elbert Hubbard - 1899]
Motivation:
At least once a year, I have some staple things I go back to that get the adrenaline flowing. I think everyone finds these things in their life. Whether it be movie, song, book, place, friend, or other; we all have something that reminds us why we love doing the things we do in life. As an Engineer and Technical Project Manager (TPM), my things are tied to making the impossible happen. Along with watching Apollo 13, Elbert Hubbard's "A Message to Garcia" is one of my favorites. I'm sure some past co-workers already rolled their eyes when they saw the title of this post.
I have made many people read this story through the years. Anyone who has ever been tasked with managing people knows the acute frustration faced when a team member requires "baby sitting". Very few TPMs are blessed with a project where all they have to do is assign tasks and track progress. Most TPMs are hired for the position because they also possess the relevant skills and background to step in and get work done along with the rest of the team. No one wants to schedule slack to deal with "slower" employees, but we have all had to do it.
Read A Message to Garcia
The Point:
Before past co-workers get too worked up, I am not claiming to be "Rowan". We all have bad days, moments of weakness, and occasionally legitimate reasons to push back on a task. The story comes across as pretty negative towards employees in general and implies a level of military obedience should be observed in the civilian world. Don't let that distract you from the core message. If you didn't click the link above, please do so now. The story is only a few pages. The point of this post is to talk about what the "Message to Garcia" means in today's world and why I will continue making people read this for the rest of my life.
First let's make some basic observations. The task given to Rowan was pretty basic in the realm of scope. As an officer in the military, Rowan would already know who Garcia was and where he was at. I would compare the discovery portion of this to being tasked by the CEO to ship a large item to a remote office in a 3rd world country. You still need to figure out exactly where the office is and what avenues are available to get stuff over there. In war, haste on anything the President asks you to do is implied. I would argue the CEO has that same level of gravity in business. So there really is nothing else you need to ask him.
What makes this comparison slightly off is we have so many things available to us today as information tools. Even the laziest of employees can tap a few words into Google and figure out most of the steps on executing this task. But now ask yourself, how many people do you actually know that would pull this off in a timely manner if the internet went down? How many people would pick up the phone and start calling FedEx and corporate HQ to start asking questions? If you had VOIP phone service that was also down, how many people would get out of their cube and drive to FedEx or HQ? We all know the answer to those questions is not many. We've all seen progress screech to a halt when the power goes out, or when a certain tool is offline for maintenance.
The sad part is that we also know people who wouldn't pull this off even if they had every resource available to them. Never mind that they are smart enough. Never mind that you don't have anything else important tasked to them. They will just sit in their cube staring blankly at the monitor wondering why this wasn't assigned to someone else. They may make a single query in Google or a single call to FedEx and then give up when they don't find the answer right away. They will never carry the message to Garcia.
Real Problems:
TPM tasks are rarely as simple in scope as the task Rowan had. But they are also rarely as difficult in lack of support or presence of danger. Whether it's fixing a bug, building a new feature, or taking over someone else's project, the process is always the same:
- Identify needed skills
- Identify needed supplies
- Identify key stakeholders
- Get approval for skills and supplies with stakeholders
- Build your plan based on what you are given
- Win!
Today we have Google and Amazon. There is basically no skill required in the technical world today that you can't teach yourself with proper tradeoff of sleep and caffeine. And sourcing supplies is faster and cheaper than it has ever been in the history of history. The only thing that keeps anyone from succeeding today is themselves.
But that's impossible!:
I'm not going to dwell on this much. Yes, sometimes the task that comes down is factually impossible. 99.999% of the time that word is thrown out prematurely. Don't let yourself get set up to fail. If scope needs to be addressed, then address it. Use your risk register for what it is for. But treat the word "impossible" like the most foul word on the planet and only use it when you know beyond all doubt that there is no other option.
As a freshman at the US Naval Academy, you are only allowed to give five responses to a superior:
- Yes Sir
- No Sir
- Aye Aye Sir (means I'll do what you just told me to do)
- I'll find out Sir
- No excuse Sir
There is something to be said about trying to approach your job with that limited vocabulary. No excuses, no giving up, no deflecting blame. Whether you agree with everything in the story or even my take on it, I've never met anyone who didn't desire to work with someone who just gets stuff done, no matter what.
Why this rant?:
As I said above, I'm not claiming to be perfect. I'm not always just like Rowan, but I strive to be. This week I am starting a new job with Northrop Grumman. I am the TPM responsible for moving all of the systems that support New York City's 9-1-1 Response to a new facility. This has never been done before. There is no instruction manual. No senior employee to show me how. And there is zero margin for failure. But I've been preparing nonetheless. I've been getting myself motivated. And I am ready to take the message to Garcia!
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