Shootin' It Straight - Get It Done

I spent roughly sixteen years driving a semi truck for the largest corporation there is. While I don't have a laundry list of complaints, and I'm appreciative of the life it provided me, there are certain things you notice when working for a large company. Some of those same issues bleed over into everyday personal life for many of us.

One major takeaway for me is the declining ability to simply get things done. Corporations have become so bogged down in red tape, procedures, and lawyer-driven regulations that the art of getting things done has gone astray.

I grew up in a garage and on a farm without the means to simply hire certain things out. We innovated, designed, or poured enough stubbornness into a problem until we figured out how to resolve it. There wasn't an option to quit.

You can't simply stop hoisting a truss on a hay barn because somebody filed a human resources complaint about a coworker's attire. The survey wasn't checked to see how the group think tank felt about the color of the neutral-colored bathroom. We had a problem, and we figured out how to fix it.

I find it frustrating to no end when corporations lose sight of simply being productive because of procedural nonsense. Everything becomes a committee. Every decision is reverse-engineered to minimize risk. Tasks are made harder because nobody has the authority to call an audible and just get something done.

When the employee handbook has pages upon pages devoted to counseling over acceptable language and personal sensitivities, you've about reached the point where productivity is going to suffer. When safety procedures are driven more by preventing the possibility of a lawsuit than by logically preventing injury, man-hours are being wasted. Policies designed to make everything fluffy and palatable can cripple a productive workforce by bogging down the people who actually do things.

I gravitate toward places and people that allow good folks to do what needs to be done. Apply some common sense, be safe, but tackle the problem. Slip a breaker bar on the wrench. Use your legs and pick that thing up. Move the machine and carry on.

Awaiting approval from three people in an office while the world burns cures nothing.

The right thing is always the correct option. If you falter while earnestly trying to do the right thing, so be it. You can follow every guideline in the book and still be wrong.

The employees I've labored alongside who simply get the problem resolved are the kind of people I try to build a company around. They are the kind of employees who can make the difference in a small business. Those who put their shoulder to the boulder and push without needing to be told every step of the way are the backbone of the workforce, and they should be recognized as such.

Red tape in business, and the quagmire that follows it, is a recipe for failure. At the end of the day, somebody has to roll up their sleeves, grab the wrench, and get the job done.