I Failed Miserably Today

I can't believe that I fell for it!

One of those emailed newsletters came to my box, today.  The subject line read:  Are Your Co-Workers Driving You Crazy?

Of course, I had to open the email, because my co-workers are driving me crazy.  I wanted to see if this newsletter had any useful hints to keep me sane in the midst of all this insanity.

And, of course, the newsletter had no helpful hints.  In fact, it had nothing to do with co-workers driving you crazy.  Instead, it was advertizing some accounting website promoting online seminars having to do with taxes — which is something else that would drive me insane.

So, I guess I should count myself among the lucky that I only have to deal with co-workers driving me crazy. 

Case in point:

I had an… encounter… with a co-worker this afternoon that I wished had gone better.  

It was my own fault.  I had forgotten the natural law that I cannot change another person;  I can only change myself. 

This co-worker, "Jack," is relatively new to our division, although not new to the company. 

In his previous position, he had worked on one project — actually, the same project…year after year after year.  As you can imagine, after he reworked that project to his heart’s content and made it “his own,” all the challenge was squeezed out of it.  He became bored and wanted to transfer out of that division and into ours.

That was a year ago.  Over that time, I’ve come to know him as a very conscientious and detailed-oriented employee. Coming from a military background, he is very regimental and unyielding in his opinions — and he is a perfectionist… a very regimental and unyielding perfectionist.

Now, unlike Jack’s previous division, our division — which is now his division — deals with more than 400 different projects and we’re adding more every period.  We don’t have the luxury of unlimited time and resources to work and rework each project to perfection.  We need to do the best we can to spread our limited time and resources over the 400 projects and release them within the deadlines assigned.  By focusing on what’s important — and eliminating what’s unimportant — we can produce high quality products, effectively and efficiently.

Jack is having a difficult time grasping this cost-benefit concept, which is ironic, since he is a CPA (i.e., an accountant). 

He’s not embracing the necessity for “balance” between quality and time/resource constraints.   When he is given a project, he feels it necessary to make it his own.  In doing so, he revamps every page, every line, and every period and semicolon — ignoring whatever was done before him.  Every minute detail — important and unimportant — is dissected.  He works and reworks the project to his heart’s content, taking more and more time and resources for his one project… leaving the rest of us juggling the other 399+ projects.

So, today, since our supervisor was out of the office, Jack came to me, asking for guidance and my opinion on the one new project he was assigned. 

The project he was given was one that just needed a quick review to be released.  It didn’t need anything more than that.  Our supervisor had explained all of this to him, but he didn’t agree with her assessment (even though she’s been doing this for more than 15 years).  He wanted to revamp the whole project… rework every page, every line, and every period and semicolon… to make it his own. 

He asked my opinion… and I gave it to him.  I had hoped that possibly… maybe… perhaps… hopefully… I could help Jack embrace the idea of increasing his productivity by embracing the idea of focusing on the important things instead of wasting valuable time and resources on striving for perfection on unimportant things.

There’s actually a principle at work here.  It’s called the 80/20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle or the Law of the Vital Few.

If Jack would relax his regimental and unyielding perfectionism, he can actually produce five high quality projects in the same amount of time he’s spending to revamp one project.

I tried explaining this to Jack, but I failed miserably. 

Although he admits that no matter how much time he spends on a project, he never feels that it’s “perfect.”  Even knowing this, he refuses to give up on that unattainable goal — no matter what it costs. 

Sadly, he doesn’t see the total cost of his behavior.  He doesn’t see how his individual actions affect the rest of the team… how the rest of us have to pick up the slack for his...well, his ego.

Yep... I tried my best today and failed miserably.

And I failed because I expected my co-worker to change...

Yet another reminder that:  We constantly overestimate our abilities to change others, just as much as we underestimate our abilities to change ourselves.

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