Start With Why: Car Doors and Rubber Mallets

There is a wonderful story of a group of American car executives who went to Japan to see a Japanese assembly line. At the end of the line, the doors were put on the hinges, the same as in America. But something was missing. In the United States, a line worker would take a rubber mallet and tap the edges of the door to ensure that it fit perfectly. In Japan, that job didn’t seem to exist. Confused, the American auto executives asked at what point they made sure the door fit perfectly. Their Japanese guide looked at them and smiled sheepishly. “We make sure it fits when we design it.” In the Japanese auto plant, they didn’t examine the problem and accumulate data to figure out the best solution—they engineered the outcome they wanted from the beginning. If they didn’t achieve their desired outcome, they understood it was because of a decision they made at the start of the process.

At the end of the day, the doors on the American-made and Japanese-made cars appeared to fit when each rolled off the assembly line. Except the Japanese didn’t need to employ someone to hammer doors, nor did they need to buy any mallets. More importantly, the Japanese doors are likely to last longer and maybe even be more structurally sound in an accident. All this for no other reason than they ensured the pieces fit from the start.

What the American automakers did with their rubber mallets is a metaphor for how so many people and organizations lead. When faced with a result that doesn’t go according to plan, a series of perfectly effective short-term tactics are used until the desired outcome is achieved. But how structurally sound are those solutions? So many organizations function in a world of tangible goals and the mallets to achieve them. The ones that achieve more, the ones that get more out of fewer people and fewer resources, the ones with an outsized amount of influence, however, build products and companies and even recruit people that all fit based on the original intention. Even though the outcome may look the same, great leaders understand the value in the things we cannot see.

excerpt from Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek, location 234

Anyone got thoughts on how to do this, on the personal level, as an adult?

I feel like I'm covered with psychic Band-Aids and starting over would be great but.... how?

Yes, great leaders are those who are not afraid to reexamine their entire process i something isn't working quite right.
Granted, there are a lot of factors that contribute to who is (and is not) a great leader.

I love this story though, because what is more American than using a mallet to make something fit? Haha.

@ReallyRiver:
Well, the best thing I can think of is, assuming there is time, to examine your thought process or way of handling different situations. Ask yourself "What is one thing I could have done to achieve a better outcome, or to have arrived at a better outcome more efficiently?" It is generally easier (and less overwhelming) to start with one thing than to say "I need to scrap everything and start from scratch." That said, the one thing you need to change might actually end up being a rather large thing (or at least seem like a large thing).

Then, once you're able to identify and fix/modify the one issue you found, continue to refine the process and find other flaws/inefficiencies in your processes. Generally speaking, how you handle one situation can be applied to many different and seemingly unrelated "problems" or challenges.

My favorite example of this is a company that I worked for briefly. It was the best job I ever had, but also the most challenging. That company created SOPs (standard operating procedures) for EVERYTHING. (And I do mean everything. They seriously had an SOP for brewing coffee in their particular coffee maker.) This way every employee who didn't know how to accomplish a particular task could refer to an easily accessible SOP so they didn't always have to ask someone else. But the important thing was that they were constantly refining their SOPs and any employee (regardless of seniority or experience) could modify an existing SOP or create a new SOP that didn't exist. I feel like this technique can be applied to real life. While most situations are dynamic and require a flexible approach, having a standard operating procedure as a framework can work wonders.

ReallyRiver wrote: Anyone got thoughts on how to do this, on the personal level, as an adult?

I feel like I'm covered with psychic Band-Aids and starting over would be great but.... how?

I know how you feel, I've gone through that and to be upfront with you, going back and facing the design stage of things is difficult, often painful, and exhausting. That being said, it's worth every bit of time invested into it.

You need to go back to the "why". In my case, most of what I wanted to change were deeply seated responses I called programming. I had to not only recognize I was DOING these things (which is surprisingly difficult), but I had to start tracing it back to WHY I was doing them. And sometimes that brings up old and painful memories, and all the emotions that come with them. Sometimes, when I sit back and realize the extent of things, I can become sullen and angry at the main person who did it to me. Sometimes I had to trace my responses back to the origins of man (so to speak). I had to understand that the reason I was reacting a way was helpful to the survival of mankind eons ago.

Much of this I did on my own. But I was taught a kind of step-by-step by my Mental Health provider called the "ABC's". I have the gist of it but I'll dig up and scan in the paperwork for you. The idea is to write down an Activating event, write down the Behavior that followed, and then look at the Cause. There's some cognitive behaviors that we often have, I'll get those scanned too for you. You can match up those cognitive behaviors with your reactions, and then understand better a more appropriate response.

Eventually you'll be able to notice when you do these things sooner and sooner. You'll be able to recognize triggers and either work to mitigate them or avoid them (whichever is appropriate at the time, although I would minimize most avoidance as you learn and grow). Then eventually you'll be able to rewrite your programming.

Again, this is a very very long process and it's not linear either. It's ok to rest and it's ok to slip up. It's also perfectly ok to seek outside help in friends and professionals. And it's also perfectly ok to get help in prescription medication.

hehe I love this image:

I'm such a silly person.

I did like 12 years of therapy. I'm *trained* in a form of therapy. It sounds a like like the ABC thing, but it's phrased Stimulus-Belief-Response. I need to therapize myself about some stuff.

It's funny how sometimes it takes an outside perspective to see even the simplest of things.

Thank you!

ReallyRiver wrote: I'm such a silly person.

I did like 12 years of therapy. I'm *trained* in a form of therapy. It sounds a like like the ABC thing, but it's phrased Stimulus-Belief-Response. I need to therapize myself about some stuff.

It's funny how sometimes it takes an outside perspective to see even the simplest of things.

Thank you!

Yay! Then you're a big step ahead of where I was That does sound like what I was taught!

You're welcome!!