Dean_Dolph
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Okay, in another thread, I made reference to REASONS and said I had a story to tell about them. I had passed this story on in an email recently to several people including the PRA BOD. I've extracted the REASON part of the email and I'm pasting it here. After reading this, don't be too surprised if you start looking for REASONS when you don't understand something rather than saying I wonder what that is all about or why did that happen. There is always a REASON. Now on to Dean's story!
I worked for Shell Chemical for 40 years; the last 25+ years in a R&D facility here in Houston. Somewhere about 15 - 20 years ago the management of our particular part of the business thought it was a good idea for everyone to use the Franklin Daytimer. I suspect missed meetings, meeting and discussion details being lost or misunderstood and no formal means of scheduling individual work was the REASON for this. In other words everyone did their own thing. This came about during the time that corporate America was buying into doing the job the right way, every time, and meeting or exceeding customers mutually agreed to requirements.
So, we were all issued Franklin Daytimers by a Franklin sales rep. The rep distributed them at a day long class on how to use them.
The rep told a personal story about REASONS to reinforce the idea that time planning was important as individuals and to the company. He also mentioned that time was the only thing that we really own and the only thing that we can control. And giving our time to someone, or some task, is something that we needed to think about and decide if it was important to do so. He acknowledged that there was a risk involved and possible consequences if we didn't grant the boss some of our time! But it was our decision to make.
The story about REASONS he told goes like this and I'm going to attempt to tell it in his words as he told it. Remember this is a personal story!
"I was working as a sales rep for a fairly large mid west company and was sent to a Franklin seminar to learn how to use their daytimer.
The facilitator was almost through with his daily presentation when he told us that in order to get the most value out of the daytimer that we needed to remember the REASON why they were at the seminar. And to demonstrate how important REASONS are and how much they impact us, he called on me to join him on stage.
He said, 'I'm going to describe a scenario and I want you to give me your response. We have gone to the top of a 100 story building where there is a taunt line strung between it and the building across the street. I want you to walk across that line to the top of the next building. Will you do it?'
" I answered, no way!"
'Well, what if I offered you $10,000 dollars to do it, would you do it then?
"Not a chance!"
'What about $100,000?'
"There is no amount of money that would get me to walk across that line!"
'Not even a million dollars?'
"I just said there is no amount of money to get me to walk across that line!"
'Okay, then let me offer you something else. I know that you have a 7 year old daughter. What if I told you that if you didn't walk across that line that she would die?'
"That stunned me because I knew that he had our personal information but what he didn't know was that we had almost lost our daughter the previous year to an illness. It staggered me and I almost broke down. He could see that and said 'You see, if you have a reason to do something, you will'
End of story. The story teller went to work for Franklin shortly after that. Is the story true? I don't know but it certainly provides food for thought.
I've remembered the story and applied it from then on with the point being if you give people a reason to do something they will. There may be a common acceptance and knowledge of this among my friends and neighbors but it was a revelation that was so simple that I had never thought about it.
What the PRA leaders must do is find and promote a REASON for people to join and support the PRA. We need to eliminate, where possible, the REASONs people don't belong. Think about it; none of us do something or quit doing something if we don't have a REASON. I don't believe we can solve PRA issues without understanding what the REASONS for them are.
Thanks for reading!
I worked for Shell Chemical for 40 years; the last 25+ years in a R&D facility here in Houston. Somewhere about 15 - 20 years ago the management of our particular part of the business thought it was a good idea for everyone to use the Franklin Daytimer. I suspect missed meetings, meeting and discussion details being lost or misunderstood and no formal means of scheduling individual work was the REASON for this. In other words everyone did their own thing. This came about during the time that corporate America was buying into doing the job the right way, every time, and meeting or exceeding customers mutually agreed to requirements.
So, we were all issued Franklin Daytimers by a Franklin sales rep. The rep distributed them at a day long class on how to use them.
The rep told a personal story about REASONS to reinforce the idea that time planning was important as individuals and to the company. He also mentioned that time was the only thing that we really own and the only thing that we can control. And giving our time to someone, or some task, is something that we needed to think about and decide if it was important to do so. He acknowledged that there was a risk involved and possible consequences if we didn't grant the boss some of our time! But it was our decision to make.
The story about REASONS he told goes like this and I'm going to attempt to tell it in his words as he told it. Remember this is a personal story!
"I was working as a sales rep for a fairly large mid west company and was sent to a Franklin seminar to learn how to use their daytimer.
The facilitator was almost through with his daily presentation when he told us that in order to get the most value out of the daytimer that we needed to remember the REASON why they were at the seminar. And to demonstrate how important REASONS are and how much they impact us, he called on me to join him on stage.
He said, 'I'm going to describe a scenario and I want you to give me your response. We have gone to the top of a 100 story building where there is a taunt line strung between it and the building across the street. I want you to walk across that line to the top of the next building. Will you do it?'
" I answered, no way!"
'Well, what if I offered you $10,000 dollars to do it, would you do it then?
"Not a chance!"
'What about $100,000?'
"There is no amount of money that would get me to walk across that line!"
'Not even a million dollars?'
"I just said there is no amount of money to get me to walk across that line!"
'Okay, then let me offer you something else. I know that you have a 7 year old daughter. What if I told you that if you didn't walk across that line that she would die?'
"That stunned me because I knew that he had our personal information but what he didn't know was that we had almost lost our daughter the previous year to an illness. It staggered me and I almost broke down. He could see that and said 'You see, if you have a reason to do something, you will'
End of story. The story teller went to work for Franklin shortly after that. Is the story true? I don't know but it certainly provides food for thought.
I've remembered the story and applied it from then on with the point being if you give people a reason to do something they will. There may be a common acceptance and knowledge of this among my friends and neighbors but it was a revelation that was so simple that I had never thought about it.
What the PRA leaders must do is find and promote a REASON for people to join and support the PRA. We need to eliminate, where possible, the REASONs people don't belong. Think about it; none of us do something or quit doing something if we don't have a REASON. I don't believe we can solve PRA issues without understanding what the REASONS for them are.
Thanks for reading!