It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [76]
“See, first I stated my starting points: we agree to buy a boat together; you might want to get rid of your share; I don’t have enough money to buy a boat alone. Not that type of boat anyway. You see the conclusion?”
“Yes, it is quite obvious. You can’t afford to pay for Jimmy’s share.”
“Couple it with the fact that I am very picky about who my partner is, and you see the result. Jimmy might get rid of his share to a person I don’t approve of.
“Now you see? Whatever choice I made, we were bound to end up badly. I might not compromise, which meant that I would have to sell my share as well. Not a good option; at that point in time we could safely assume that I would be in love with the boat.”
“I see,” Dave concludes, “you wouldn’t like Jimmy too much for forcing you to sell.”
“That’s for sure,” I say.
“And the other possibility is not so good either. You might compromise and then you’d be stuck with a partner you didn’t like. Then you’d have an even bigger grudge against Jimmy.
“And as you know,” I summarize, “if there is one thing I don’t want, it’s to stand between your mother and her brother. So I took this page and read it to Jimmy, asking him to come up with a resolution.”
“And what happened?” he asks with interest. “You know what happened. We don’t have a boat and we have a great relationship with Uncle Jimmy.” “So what are you suggesting? That I don’t rebuild the car with Herbie?”
“Nothing of the sort. What I’m suggesting is that you write all the negatives, and connect to them with if-then logic. Don’t leave them just hanging there substantiated only by gut feel.”
“Why is it so important to do it?”
“For two reasons,” I say. “One is that once you detail the logic, you are much more able to really examine which actions you can take in order to trim the negatives.”
“And the other?”
“The other is even more important. If you don’t see how to trim a negative by actions depending entirely on yourself, if you need Herbie’s collaboration, don’t suggest any actions to Herbie. That might lead to unpleasant arguments. Instead, show him your logical derivations, exactly as I’ve done with you. Read it to him step by step. If there is a good solution, he will come up with it and you can both polish it. In that case, since there are no more negatives left to worry about, there is no reason you shouldn’t rebuild the car together.”
“And if he can’t?” Dave asks. “What happens when I show him why a negative effect is expected, and he can’t come up with a way to avoid it?”
“Then you will both have to make a choice. But it is no longer you against him due to the problem; it is you and he against the problem. In any event, your friendship is protected.”
“Good idea. Maybe I’ll try it. Dad, can I borrow these papers?”
“Only if you promise to put them back where they belong.”
“Sure,” he smiles at me. “At the very bottom of the drawer. I know.”
22
I’m preparing my presentation for Granby when Don enters my office.
“Congratulations,” I greet him. “Pete just called, praising you to the sky. What have you done to him? Put him under some type of spell, or just used your natural charm?”
He laughs, dearly pleased. “Did he tell you that this morning I got him a nice order?”
“Yes. He mentioned that as well.”
“It was a piece of cake.” Don drops into a chair. “It went by the book. No surprises, not even one.”
“What was it?” I ask. “Why did you play salesman? I thought that you went there to find out why Pete’s sales force is ineffective.”
“Oh, we did. Each of his four salespeople already has a sale under his belt. They love it. They think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. But, you see, after slaving on it for two weeks, I had to see if I could do it myself, not just teach it. So they arranged a meeting for me with a small prospect. Almost a cold call. And it worked like a charm. I really liked it.”
“Maybe you should switch to a career in sales,” I tease him. “Tell me, what was the problem? I’d like to hear it from you. In detail.”
“As you suspected,” he starts, “they simply didn’t know how to present