Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

An old lesson holds true today: getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

Twenty-five years ago, I was involved in a fence-building project. Members of the community gathered to start from scratch and erect a 50-meter-long fence. I was one of the first people there and was talking to one of the organizers. I don’t recall what triggered what he said, but I remember it to this day,

Getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

There is much to gathering the tools and materials to build a fence. There is much to having people show at the job site. Truly, getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

This past week, I was involved in a project at work. This was the kind of work you do sitting in chairs in front of computers with your hands on the keyboard. We were doing this work at an offsite building. I was one of the first people to arrive on Monday morning – punctuality seems to be one of my traits, perhaps it isn’t a good trait.

• There were a few problems getting people into a locked building.
• There were a few problems with the custom computer network we were to use.
• We took an hour to create accounts on the machines
• Several people arrived an hour or two late

Yes, that man was right years ago. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of work you are doing. Still,

Getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.