“DON’T LEAN AGAINST THE WALLS; the paint might still be a little wet.”
I really don’t know where to start this story. Do I start with the American project leader giving instructions to the Polish painter, who could speak enough German to the wiring team so that the German leader, who spoke just enough Italian, could get the Italian to get the plumbing done? Of course, any corrections or disagreement had to be done in reverse through the same Berlitz language chain. That might be too confusing. I could start the story at the chairman of my board of directors, who gave me the task of opening a call center within four months in Luxembourg, where all permits (labor, building, telecommunications, outdoor shrubbery, and everything else) take six months. As we discussed this, I would explain, and he would smile and say, “Yes, in four months.” This repeated so often I felt like I was talking to a machine saying, “You lose.” That might be too easy. Maybe I could start at the board meeting at the Luxembourg estate of the chairman of all 400 companies that owned every subsidiary, including mine. The morning meeting started with a kir cocktail. Only beer and wine were served before lunch. Lunch was a mixture of stout, cocktails, and wine. The afternoon session started with the menu of drinks continuing until the champagne was served about the facility we were opening in Luxembourg in less than 8 weeks. I was being toasted by my boss’s boss’s boss in front of company heads representing about $50 billion who were going to tour the facility at that board meeting. It’s a little flashy for the
opening. It’s also difficult to believe, no matter the accuracy, that global companies run board meetings like this. I’m afraid to start with the Easter weekend party my project leader held without my knowledge a week before the opening. He was told by the leaders of one of the vendor companies that when the different sub-contractors went home for the Easter weekend, they would not be back for a couple weeks. All of the subcontractors came from different countries. When they left town and went home, for them, it was a holiday. My project leader needed them there to get the project finished for the Board Meeting. He had to figure out a way to keep them in town and get everything finished. He had an idea. A party! So, he took it upon himself to rent a bar with entertainment (including prostitutes) to keep all of the subcontractors in town to finish the work. Of course, the party was paid for by our company, including “security” provided by two local police. Possibly too hard to believe, or offensive to those of weak moral stomachs. I’ll start the story this way, with a short set of guiding beliefs that I make certain are taught to every new employee who works with me or in a company I run: Read A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard. The core lesson is about self-reliance and making necessary decisions and sacrifices to accomplish an objective. Read Rules of the Road by Tom Searcy. This is a list of how I expect people to work with me and for me to work with them. Hookers on Easter weekend is what happens when these two are read without some inherent understanding of what appropriate guidelines look like. This leaves a few dots to connect in “painting the tunnel.” The assignment was given. No excuses were acceptable. I confirmed that the goal was not a full call center—not a revenue generating call center. The goal was to show off the call center, not much different from showing of your new boat in a show room. The term we use is “paint the tunnel.” It means that everything that is going to be seen and touched is perfect. All things that are not, do not have to be. For us, that meant computers were on and wired in two sets of cubicles. Phones worked in the same. All walls
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were painted in every part of the tour areas that the Board would see. Staff would be sitting in all locations they would visit. Answers to questions would be discussed with staff and rehearsed to prepare them if they were quizzed. That which would be seen, felt and heard would be pristine. The remainder would be completed shortly thereafter as we brought on clients. Commitments kept in both worlds. There is a conversation that I have to own. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll refer to the other person as “PM” for my Project Manager: Tom: I need you to go to Luxembourg and get me a 100-station call center built within the next four months. PM: You need me to do what? Tom: A 100-station call center in Luxembourg in four months. We’re going to give a tour to the Board of Directors of the entire organization on that day. It has to be functional enough that they can see how it looks and how it will work. Their companies are going to put work there. Think of this as a huge sales call. Whether or not we get this will depend upon if you get this put together between now and then. PM: Well, how am I supposed to do that? Tom: What? PM: Where am I supposed to go? Who am I supposed to work with? How much money are we supposed to spend? Tom: What? PM: How often am I supposed to go over and back? Should I take anybody with me? Tom: You read Message to Garcia, right? PM: Yeah. Tom: Why are you still here? This is the very principle of “Message to Garcia.” You give someone an objective, clearly defined, and they make it happen. I love those people. I am one of those people. My PM truly did warn me about the wet paint. The tour went great. We never saw any of those leaders again, they just sent us work. They were Alway s Pai nt t he Tu nnel
happy because they saw what they wanted. I should say they saw what we wanted them to see, because we had “painted the tunnel” of where they would walk and what they would see. Having someone you can trust to be a Message to Garcia person is invaluable. There are very few of those people. The only way to be certain is to test them through assignments beyond their largest challenge to date. I took on a summer intern, Dylan, eighteen years old. He was part of our team going to Britain to film a series of speaking engagements. When we landed and got to our hotel, I handed him a 100-pound note and a list of five items: a Macintosh laptop charger, protein powder, batteries for the camera, a set of t-shirts, and a Paddington bear. I knew he had never been in London or ridden the Tube. That didn’t matter. I told him I wanted him back at my door in 6 hours with the items. He asked, “Where do I get all of this stuff?” I said, “You understand Message to Garcia. You’ll figure it out. I’m going to take a nap.” Sure enough, just short of 6pm, he showed up with all the items and a small amount of change. It was a curriculum. A final test and an understanding for him that he could do almost anything. Worth the assignment. I believe in this type of test, and it is almost never given. However, it is how people of real strength, creativity, and independence are proven and developed. TRADE #1 Impossible vs. very, very difficult. I am a miserable provider of
exchange rates for this trade. I find the stated “impossible” to be an excuse for bad strategy and planning. The trade evaluation that I have adopted is one from the cliché, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” It accepts that all things are possible, but are they worth the resources, creativity and risk they will take to accomplish? This mindset has helped me evaluate for benefit not taking every obstacle as a personal performance challenge. TRADE #2 How much initiative? Hookers on Easter weekend is a demon-
stration of exceeding an initiative threshold. I have added that all things are allowed unless they are illegal, immoral, or will put the company at risk of going out of business. This requires that you, as the person
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giving the Message to Garcia assignment, have confidence that the person understands the second and third in that list. I think my PM might have been a bit unclear on those. TRADE #3 Too much of a good thing. You have to be very, very careful
of high initiative people. I love those people. I am one of those people. I am drawn to those people. Time to check your organizational balance. If you send them to fix something, once it is fixed, if you don’t send them on another mission, they will set the first objective on fire, just for the challenge of rebuilding it. In every work group or goal, there has to be a leader. That is at an end point, singular. You can usually only have a finite number of those, unless you have an infinite number of projects.
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