The pot roast story

During a presentation, which was going very well, I was stopped by an engineer who had 39 years experience. His words were “safety over a network! That will never happen while I’m working here.” This engineer served the industry with dedication and nobody can dispute that. I was not concerned about his reaction what I was concerned about was the reaction from the young technicians. He definitely had a huge impact on their development. This engineer’s obstinate approach to technology is giving their competitors, who are embracing technology, an advantage. I let him vent and eventually when I was given the nod to continue I took a huge gamble by sharing this story:
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A young lady was preparing a pot roast while her friend looked on sipping a glass of wine. The friend noticed that the young lady cut off both ends of the roast before applying seasoning. “Why do you cut off the ends?”. “My mom taught me how to prepare this dish. She always did it that way.” She had not thought about the method of preparing pot roast until her friend questioned her. She called her mother and after exchanging pleasantries she asked, “How do you cook a pot roast?” Her mother explained the steps “you cut off both ends, prepare it, put it in the pot and then into the oven”. “I got that mom. Tell me why do you cut the ends off?” There was a long pause indicating that the mother was thinking before replying “I learned from my mother and that’s how granny did it!” When the mother visited granny, she asked, “mom, how do you cook a pot roast?” “Didn’t I teach you that my dear? granny asked. “Yes you did but I just wanted to confirm your method.” Granny explained, “well, you prepare the roast with your choice of seasoning, put it in the roasting pot and then into the oven”. The young lady’s mother asked, “But I remember you taught me to cut off the ends. Why did you do that?” The grandmother smiled while replying, “ahhh, back in my day the roasts were always bigger than the pot. I had to cut off the ends to make it fit into the pot my dear”.
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Needless to say the engineer did not like my story but he got the message. How often, do we do things without questioning why we do it the way we do? Our habits, behavior and character traits that we display may no longer be relevant because they were formed years ago. Here’s a suggestion when faced with tasks that have been done for a long time ask this question of yourself and others, “is there a better way to do this?”