Buck Stops Here

Buck Stops Here

The wife was cleaning out the refrigerator shelves but couldn’t figure out how to remove a retaining rack, so she called Super-Hurango for help!  [OK, it was probably a ploy to make retired SH feel useful!]  A 22-second assessment, including two “trial” but failed approaches, finally ended in a successful rack removal venture.  [She then wanted help reinstalling the rack!] 

The socio-psychic (psychosocial?) dynamics here are important.  What if SH had been MIA (like out riding his bike, working in the garden, mowing the lawn, at the library … or out to “Green Pastures”)?  There would have been no BACK-UP … no FALL-BACK … no HAND-OFF … Removal of the refrigerator rack would have had to have become a DIY project, which she would have had to figure out for herself. 

OK.  So she has a predisposed inclination to think every mechanical challenge requires macho brawn, and she simply reached out to the nearest facsimile.  However, this particular activity was not overly taxing.  A few moments reflection would have shown that she could have used a kitchen knife to facilitate the rack removal, if necessary.  All else failing, she could also have visited the store where we bought the refrigerator and had the salesman demonstrate rack removal and replacement.  But SH happened to be close enough by – in the “office” doing nothing of obvious intrinsic or extrinsic value – to haul into action.   

The first point here is that, given choices of any ilk, we will default to the easiest choice.  That’s probably as it should be: If you have an easy choice, why make a project more difficult?  Duh!

However, the greater point here is that, where there are NO choices, we can often figure things out for ourselves.  (I’m a “Slow Processor”, so sometimes I have to “sleep on it”!)  And “figuring things out” both increases problem-solving skills and enhances GETTING STUFF DONE. 

When I was involved in mainstream program development of a newly emerging center, many novel issues surfaced that required the undivided attention of the Center Director.  Lower level “novelties” and more routine stuff, which also begged the Director’s attention, tended to pile up – on MY desk!  As an organizational “sentinel” and presumptive “expediter”, I began to research, problem-solve and process increasing numbers of needs and requests, preparing them for the Director’s edit, final approval and sign-off – but often simply finishing them off to keep them from bothering him.  Operationally, the more “Bucks” I could stop before they hit the Director’s desk, the more effective he could be, overall.  It turned out to be an excellent Teamwork approach.  Best of all, the increasingly routine practice of “Stopping the Buck” at my desk led to promotions I didn’t even ask for.  Being proactively useful works wonders!  

Every time we “Buck UP”, both our navigation capacity and our negotiability within the universe increase.  See how far UP the ladder you can go to extract “pending” stuff and keep as many things as possible from “Bucking the System”.  Then look surprised when the dividends accrue!  Quartermaster