Build a bulletproof bridge, a completely enclosed bridge, in your shop
. . . and it better be perfect . . . because $50,000/day rented cranes will swing
it over the top and gently lower it around a 3’ live jet fuel transport
pipeline, completely enclosing the pipeline, where before, the pipeline ran
naked to the world across a pristine creek valley, which by the way, spanned one
of the most environmentally sensitive areas around.
Would you like to be King of this project? Does that thought give your ego a
thrill?
Remember, you have one chance for success. Fail and all hell will break loose. Oh, and did I mention the Media on the hill
tops, Activists on the shore, and enough sheriffs patrolling to take on Jesse
James.
Unique, one of a kind projects require a special kind of team. We call it the “Wear Well” team. It’s a team that can’t be built quickly.
There are often two approaches taken to this type of project. The most common, because we have become quite
a short sighted, crisis to crisis economy, is to quickly bring in experts,
throw them together in a series of weekly meetings, and hope their collective
brilliance creates success. If there is
no other option then, ok, have a go. But
oddly enough too often we end up discovering our geniuses are really expert at
blaming each other. An underlying reason is that
brilliance tends to be over-arching, grand and panoramic, while success and
failure on this type of project reside almost completely in the “relationship”
between tiny, inconspicuous details.
Big Bill, the larger than life oil man running the project made it
clear from the beginning that, “Specs be damned, there will be no excuses, it
better fit. Don’t whine to me about incomplete
design drawing, full of conflicts and unbuildable structures, just getter done.” Sound scary?
Maybe, but here’s a secret: we really like working for “getter done”
people, rough tough, yes, but they often possess large quantities of common
sense. So I asked Big Bill which approach
he though would work best for this project: experts or a “Wear Well” team. Big Bill looked at me like he couldn’t decide
if I’d been born this stupid or it was a learned trait . . . "Mister, get your “Wear
Well” team all over it, and getter done!!"
So the “Wear Well” team took it on.
As I was the only team member who had the taint of college smell on me, the
team was unsure if they even wanting me around, but decided I could stay as a
good source of kicks and giggles, as they say.
Doc, whose idea of retirement was to some morning just tip over in his
eggs, and who was a Harley running Gypsy Joker, and one of the toughest,
kindest, craziest, smartest, meanest, most caring people I’ve known. But in his brain Doc was a brilliant metallurgist
with a vast practical knowledge of how metals behaved in real world conditions. Then there Wes, aka, Ben Franklin. Wes will invent you out of any problem . . . and
occasionally invent you into a few. He’s
the designer/builder of a three time world champion pumpkin throwing medieval war
machine called a Trebuchet, which slings the hapless pumpkin, at speeds
surpassing several hundred miles per hour, distances that are quite unbelievable
until you witness the event. Wes has enough industry certifications and practical
experience to fill up a whole section of Wikipedia. He is the only person I’ve ever known who had
a full suite of Knights Armor, hand crafted by himself, standing guard at his
desk. One day Wes showed up for a meeting
in my office clad in full body medieval chain mail . . . Ah, O.K Wes, gee, golly,
where’s your tie?
I’m out of time this week, so you’ll meet the rest of the “Wear Well”
team next time . . .
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