A system worth investing in
The lunch for our friends Travis and Tara
I marveled watching my visiting mother-in-law set up an assembly line on the kitchen counter to make sandwiches for our round of golf, tailored to each person’s desires. Because homemade sandwiches taste the best! When she returned home, this responsibility fell to me. I was quick to adopt her practice because I could see how well it worked.
What worked well? I could pull all of the necessary pieces together ahead of time and place them in the order I needed to make the sandwich: butter, mayonnaise, two kinds of mustard, cheese slices, meat options, sliced tomatoes and lettuce. Sandwich preference notes were nearby to ensure an individualized approach: this one was without mayo, that one didn’t have mustard, only turkey for this one... Then labels were made for each sandwich to make sure everyone got what they asked for.
As long as I stayed focused on the task at hand, success was pretty much guaranteed.
I started thinking about the sandwich assembly line as a system, one that worked well.
That moved me to think about systems in general, and how a well-built system allows for things to just work better. Plus it gave me time to pull together more snacks to complete the lunch (see the image above).
If there is too much system, it would become overbearing – if I couldn’t be interrupted or if a change request came in, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill that request. Not too little either – if the ingredients were scattered around the kitchen, it would take much longer to make the sandwiches as would making one sandwich at a time. Furthermore, I might forget an important ingredient (think out of sight, out of mind)! I think the sandwich assembly line was just the right amount of system.
Just the right amount. Hmmm. Let me think about that some more.
What is just the right amount for a system?
To answer that question, I found an interesting article about getting genomic medicines ready for prime time which provided this great analogy:
“Imagine mixing all the ingredients to bake the perfect cake but not having a pan, or even an oven, in your kitchen. Without a plan to finish the recipe from the start, the batter could end up in the trash. Your time and ingredients might be wasted. No one would get to enjoy that great cake.”
You could question why I would want to read such an article, but I really want to go back to my sandwich assembly line. My description of the system above was lacking. I needed a well thought-out plan to make these sandwiches. I also needed the kitchen, the knives, spoons and other tools, the cutting boards, the plates, the reusable sandwich bags, and so on.
Whoa! That is a much bigger system to consider, isn’t it?
We have to stand back to see the bigger system and all of its parts, until we know it exists and it becomes second nature to us.
My personal lifeboat is really a system, when I stop to think about it.
If I only focus on my physical health, I am ignoring my mental health. If I only focus on myself, I am ignoring the people I love in my life. If I only focus on the logical side of things, I am ignoring my spiritual and emotional sides. If I only focus on what I need to be at my best, I am ignoring the things which don’t contribute to my best.
Do you see where I am going with this?
When I have my lifeboat system, I will have everything I need.
Everything I need to set sail every day.
Everything I need to stay on course and keep my lifeboat afloat.
Everything I need to rebalance my lifeboat when I experience turbulence or face a giant wave.
Everything I need to work with other nearby lifeboats.
In other words, everything I need to be at my best.
That sounds like a system worth investing in, doesn’t it?
Image: Travis Beatty
