at Sparrow Hospital in the use of the new Model 570 instruments had gotten stuck in a snow storm in Chicago on December 17 and had chosen to travel all night by car to arrive at the hospital on time the next morning.
At 7:30 A.M., on December 18, IVAC unveiled the Model 570 in- struments at Sparrow Hospital and commenced with its service and training operations.
Unlike the people at Cin-Made and IVAC, many in other organiza- tions do not ask the question, “What else can we do to rise above our circumstances and achieve the results we desire?” and ultimately fail to solve their problems.
Yes, the department store chain was making progress, and, thankfully, people were attempting to stay Above The Line with a strong problem- solving attitude, but it wasn’t easy, particularly for the store managers, who battled in the trenches for retail sales each and every day.
Late one night, in a hotel at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Michael Gilbert met with his five regional managers, each one of whom supervised 15 to 18 stores, for a brief meeting. All six of them were on their way somewhere else and had arranged to meet for a few hours on this particular evening. As they gathered in a small conference room for their meeting, each person wanted to appear accountable, willing to own their circumstances and commit to oper- ating Above The Line, but all of them were feeling the pain of their difficult circumstances (e.g., the high expectations of senior manage- ment for continued improvements in performance, the diminishing effect of the latest merchandising program, and the delay of promised incentive compensation plans).
Before the meeting officially started, one of the regional managers asked somewhat hesitantly, “Before we begin, can we drop Below The Line for just a few minutes? Let’s talk about what’s going on.”
Everyone laughed but then unleashed a lot of pent-up anxieties by blurting out their thoughts about what was going wrong in the com- pany, who was at fault, and why the situation was terribly unfair.
After about 15 minutes and Michael’s final salvo, he said, “Okay, now that we’ve gotten that off our chests, let’s get back Above The Line so we can determine what else we can do to achieve the results we want.” Having aired their frustrations, the regional managers could finally move forward with a productive discussion of what they could do to solve the problems and remove the obstacles that confronted them. They all knew that remaining Below The Line would get them nowhere, but they had consciously dropped into the victim cycle for a brief moment to vent their frustrations and recite their discourage- ment with their current circumstances. Without their increased awareness of the fruitlessness of remaining Below The Line, Michael Gilbert and his five regional managers may have unwittingly preven- ted themselves from rising Above The Line to solve their problems.
Without such awareness, it’s awfully easy to succumb to the urge to stay Below The Line. In fact, Michael and his regional managers commented on how productive their session had been. Ordinarily,
they would have remained Below The Line and carried their victim attitudes back to their store managers.
When people give up asking the Solve It question, as Michael Gilbert and his five regional managers felt tempted to do, they drop back Below The Line into the victim cycle and do not seek out creative and proactive ways they can achieve the results they want. In a recent Fortune magazine article by Brian Dumaine, “Leaving the Rat Race Early,” the author cites a recent Roper survey in which a mere 18 percent of those polled (1296 people) felt that their “careers were personally and financially rewarding.” According to the Fortune art- icle, the dissatisfaction with full-time work is growing as more and more Americans find themselves overworked and overstressed. The article makes an intriguing and revealing point but fails to make an- other more important one: that 82 percent of those surveyed are stuck Below The Line, victimized by their circumstances, and could, in fact, make their jobs more personally and financially rewarding if they would only accept accountability for that result. The Fortune article makes the point that you can gain greater personal and financial satisfaction by retiring early, but it never explores the possibility of making the workplace itself more personally and financially reward- ing. Instead, the article reflects the general attitude that people in organizations have no control or influence over their circumstances;
they are simply pawns and victims, helpless to do anything but take what they can get. People at all levels of an organization who recog- nize the realities and own the circumstances of their job dissatisfaction can remove the obstacles encumbering their paths to greater satisfac- tion by developing the wisdom to Solve It.
Anyone who chooses, as the Fortune article urges, the early retire- ment path will run into plenty of obstacles there, too. It claims that
“dropping out (i.e. early retirement) requires foresight and discipline but isn’t as difficult as you might have feared.” Perhaps so, but that doesn’t mean you’ll stroll down an obstacle-free path. You’ll still need the wisdom to Solve It. Whether you stay employed full time or “drop out,” you can always sink Below The Line. To its credit, the Fortune article does spell out what someone must look out for if he or she drops out of the rat race early: “Sounds great, but how on earth can you leave your job with no pension or social security and hope to survive? Financial planners recommend a three-pronged approach.
First, expect to cut back on your lifestyle. You might have to buy a
smaller house in a less expensive part of the country, tell your kids they can’t count on Ivy League tuition and buy used cars rather than new ones. Second, you’ll probably have to work a few months a year or hours a week, either for your old employer or for a new one (in- cluding yourself). Third, you’ll have to save enough money to supple- ment your newly reduced income.” In other words, even when you retire early, you must go on asking yourself what else you will need to do to attain your goals. Retiring early changes the landscape, but not the journey. You must still learn to rise Above The Line as you encounter the new challenges and obstacles you will face. If it sounds like the process of moving Above The Line to solve your problems requires some personal risk, that’s good, because it does. But to think that residing Below The Line does not have its own risks is folly. The risk in getting stuck Below The Line is never obtaining the results you most earnestly seek.
Regardless of whether you’re trying to keep, revolutionize, or retire from your current job, you’ll never do it successfully unless you overcome the temptation to fall Below The Line. Indeed, you must focus your efforts on removing the obstacles standing between you and the outcomes you desire. As always, unhappy consequences await those who fail to do so.