“We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with emphasis on “good” rather than “time” and when you make that shift in emphasis the whole approach changes.”
-Rober M Persig ZEN and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence.
Speed is an aspiration. Given the option of taking monthly payments of $10,000 for the rest of our lives, or $1,000,000 right now, many of us opt for accepting less, now. If we have the choice of taking a 20-mile trip through scenic winding backroads or cutting the travel time in half on a straight 5-lane highway, we often opt for the latter.
Craftsmen who put themselves, quality and detail, into their work, take longer than others because good work takes longer than fast work.
Trust me, I just asked the Carpenter next to me at the Bar at Boulevard Bread Co.
“The secret is to not push people or rush work.” If a crew does quality work and sees that it won’t be done “right” in the window of time we have, we do something else that can be done well. It’s when you are trying to get done as fast as possible that things get overlooked, measurements are misread, and miscommunications increase.
The question for him is not “Can we do the job?” The answer is always yes. The more true question is of quality. “Can we do a good job.”
