Ticket, please!

Often, people are hesitant to try new things. They think about the risks and dangers, and forget about what they might gain or learn. There is never stasis in the world of business. If you are not growing, you are dying.

Growing requires learning, which implies risks. Dying is much more comfortable. It often takes a very long time and the decline can be hardly noticeable. Learning can be just as dramatic, if not more so. And, it is certainly more rewarding.

To make the point I tell a story. People sometimes doubt how much they can learn from just doing something once. Actually, a lot is learned from the first doing. Maybe more than from the second. Or, the third. Perhaps the most. So, I encourage you to do something at least once, even in a little way, and not rejecting it out of hand.

As I tell the story I always ask the audience what groups they dislike inside their own organizations. It is often their legal or accounting departments. So, let's pick on lawyers today.

The story starts with a group of engineers or people like those in the audience. (I just ask.) There are three of them. For convenience lets say they are all female. They are to work with a team of three lawyers (males) from their legal department. The project will take them to another city along the Eastern Seaboard via a train.

After buying their outbound tickets in the station the group met in one of the train cars and made introductions all around. One of the lawyers noticed that not all the engineers had tickets. Upon asking for details an engineer admitted that they only had the one ticket between them. Pressing for an answer on how this could be only elicited the comment "You'll see!"

Soon enough the conductor was done collecting tickets in the next car. And, before the conductor came through the door then engineers all got up and went to the front of the car. They then squeezed into one of the two restrooms and closed the door. The conductor collected tickets from the lawyers and other people in the car and noticed the restroom was occupied.

He knocked on the door and said "Ticket, please." Promptly a ticket was pushed out from beneath the door. The conductor took it, punched it, pushed it back under the door and saw it disappear. He then proceeded to the next car forward.

"Fantastic!", said the lawyers afterwards. "We must try that on the return trip."

So, on the return trip the lawyers only bought one ticket. Laughing about the trick they were going to pull on the railroad, they noticed that the engineers did not have even one ticket. Pressing for an answer on how this could be only elicited the comment "You'll see!"

So, when the conductor was in sight, the lawyers all jumped up and squeezed into one of the restrooms. They were puzzled why the engineers were not doing the same. But, closed their door as they needed.

Immediately, the engineers moved forward and into the other restroom. But, not before the last one went to the other restroom and knocked on the door.

"Ticket, please.", she said.

Comments

[Hugh Campbell]

My understanding is China’s State-Capitalism is strategized primarily by engineers, given that The U.S.’s lack of a globalization strategy is the result of the indecisiveness of lawyers; this post speaks volumes both generally about the unwillingness to try new things and specifically about the shortcomings of single discipline thinking, especially by lawyers.

[Karen Wilhelm]

How about ethics?

[Rick Bollinger]

I had never really thought about the ethics implication of the story. Very good point. I cannot recommend the practice. However, I ask to be forgiven. I think the point of the story is important enough to outweigh the risk of social chaos. Thank you for forcing the issue.