By Peter Hiebert, CTR
Steadfastness is something that is often celebrated. Sticking to one’s guns, not yielding from principles, holding true to an unwavering vision, and remaining certain in beliefs without flip-flopping, being indecisive, or hopping on every bandwagon that comes along can show character and integrity.
However, with age comes wisdom, and I have learned it can be OK for me to change my mind on things. This is especially the case in the design/construction world, where sometimes we might find we are doing things a certain way simply because that is how we have always done them. There can be a thin line between ‘relying on proven success’ and ‘hesitating to think in new ways.’
Here is how I break it down:
- Knowledge comes from experience.
- Experience comes from making mistakes.
- Making mistakes comes from making decisions.
A quick story illustrates what I mean about the potential dangers of doing things the way we are used to doing them without really asking ourselves ‘why.’
A newly married couple want to put on a special Thanksgiving dinner for their families. The bride decides she is going to cook her first pot roast for the event, using a recipe passed down through the generations. However, her only real experience with it was from seeing her mother prepare roasts on many occasions.
One thing she always wondered about the preparation was why her mother would always cut the tip off the roast, and then throw it away before cooking the rest. How did cutting the tip off make a better roast? Was it for moisture and flavour? To speed up cooking? She called her mother.
Her mother revealed she did not really know why—she had always done it that way because it was how her own mother did it. So, the bride calls up her grandmother and asks about why you always have to cut the tip off the roast before cooking it. The grandmother laughed—the only reason she did that was because her pan was too small.
It is OK to re-evaluate why we do things, ask questions, and then use that information to make a revised decision. Circumstances, available information, technology, the industry, and even ourselves change over time. Sometimes, we make a decision based on one event and never circle back to see whether that way of doing things remains valid on different projects or through the years. It can be surprising how often a more traditional method turns out to be the most prudent one, but asking questions can help us rethink wise decisions in our work (and home life).
I am CSC.
