A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

144 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
Peter and his class. Fletcher had just graduated from engineering school
prior to World War II and was immediately hired by the Boeing Aircraft
Company in Seattle, Washington. He was one of five brand-new engineers
to show up at work that day. They were all assigned to one particular chief
engineer for duties. The chief engineer gave each of them a job to be completed
by the end of the day.
One of John’s fellow new hires was given a number of large aluminum
sheets, which were dirty <strong>with</strong> black ink and from much use. These were
“blueprints” of the B-17, which was being manufactured for the Army Air
Force by Boeing. However, instead of the blueprints being made of paper,
these were sheets of aluminum on which the lines of the drawings were
permanently etched. “I want you to clean these sheets completely and so
well that I can use any one of them as a mirror by this afternoon,” the chief
engineer said, and handed them to the neophyte engineer. “I don’t want to
see one mark or smudge on any of them.”
That afternoon, the five engineers met <strong>with</strong> the chief engineer again to
present their completed projects to him. The new hire <strong>with</strong> the aluminum
sheets proudly handed them to the chief engineer. They were bright and
spotless. Anyone could have used one as a mirror. The new engineer had
scrubbed each <strong>with</strong> steel wool before polishing it to a bright shine.
Unfortunately, there was a problem. The ink smudges and grime were
gone, but so were the etchings. The engineer had scrubbed them off to
make the aluminum sheets spotless, just as he was instructed. John said
that the chief engineer had instantly fired the new graduate.
John told me that he had never forgotten this experience, and he
always remembered it when giving instructions to subordinates. “It
wasn’t the new hire’s fault,” he said. “It was the chief engineer’s. The
new hire had done exactly as he was told. The new engineer was too
inexperienced to understand that the etchings were important and were
to have been protected and not scrubbed off. I would have probably
done exactly the same thing; any of us would have, given the chief engineer’s
instructions.”
Peter agreed that this was exactly the sort of thing he was talking
about. But he went further. “There is,” he said, “something that can prevent
just this sort of occurrence, and I recommend it to all of you whenever
you change employment, or receive a new job assignment. It is in
your interests, as well as those of your boss, to have a signed charter or
performance contract.”