Thursday, April 07, 2011

Doers & Implementors

I'll admit it...I'm a Dilbert; one of those people who could do things--Wally's Implementor. If you are one of those yourself, then you're going to understand what I'm about to say....

Being an Implementor is a real life-long burden. Why? Because others quickly recognize those skills in you and seem amazingly adept at shifting their burdens to you, the Implementor. The real criminals in this equation are guys like Wally, who could do things himself but has discovered that life is much easier when you shift your work to Dilbert's stack. You see, guys like Dilbert cannot stand to let things drop, which is exactly what they should do in these cases.

Wife says I should feel flattered, but I just don't see upside. In fact, I admire Wally, the "Big Picture" guy in the comic strip above. Yes, the little bastard is a repugnant gnome; but guys like him seem to be able to skate through life free of responsibilities or the burden of having to do things. And at this end of life, aren't all we Wallys and Dilberts pretty much in the same buckets? So what was the payoff for the Dilberts?

Father-in-Law was a wonderful man and a very tall Wally. Every night before turning in he patrolled the house making sure all the doors were locked and secure. To assure himself further, he vigorously shook each door handle several times with his big hands. Mom (in-Law) took me aside once when we visited and asked if I could tighten the door handles...Dad had shaken them loose to the point they were about to fall out of the door and Dad, not being an Implementor, just didn't fix things.

Implementors know that most jobs like this one are 5 or 10-minutes of work that require 1-3 hours of preparation to find the tools, parts, and figure out how to do it. That's why we put these little jobs off until there are a number of them to do...it's the same 1-3 hours of prep time to do 1 or a half-dozen 5-minute jobs. Contractors call it Mob-DeMob.

Sorry, got to go. One of the pots is running, the shower drain is clogged with hair (again), one of the kitchen cabinet handles is loose, and the back door handle is about to fall off!


Adios





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