Photo by Ed.ward

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” - Yogi Berra

Many of us were stuck last week awaiting further clarification on a hot assignment that was due later in the day.  The assignment could be interpreted in two different ways.  Most of my coworkers literally stopped in their tracks;  they were paralyzed by not having complete instructions for carrying out the task, and didn’t want to proceed, lest they waste their efforts.  I, on the other hand, took a novel approach:  I did the assignment twice, covering each possible outcome, while they contemplated The Road Not Taken.

Woof, woof

We’re used to following instructions.  Do Step 1 before proceeding to Step 2.  We’ve been conditioned throughout our childhood so that we can become good workers when we graduate college.  We’re not taught to question authority; that would be counterproductive in a corporate setting.  But this leads to a dependence upon management, the Alpha Males and Females in the wolf pack called Corporate America.  We’re kept in a suppressed state of puppyhood, always following, never leading, waiting for the next order to be barked at us.

Lone wolf

So when one of my coworkers asked for my opinion on how to proceed, my answer shocked her.  “You’re going to do it both ways?  Isn’t that a waste of time?”  Well, it’s also a waste of time to sit around and do nothing while you wait for an answer.  I figured that if I finished one part of the assignment before receiving the instructions, I had a 50-50 chance of being right, and of having the assignment completed.  If I guessed wrong, and “wasted” my effort, I would still be in the same boat as everyone else, so no harm, no foul.  It can be summarized on the following crude flow chart.  Click on the thumbnail for a larger view:

If you follow the timeline on the left side of the flow chart, you can see that I saved myself about 4 hours because I decided to forge ahead with my assumptions.  My coworkers, who waited for precise instructions before even starting the assignment, finished 4 hours later.  While I was diving headlong into the exercise, they were carping about lack of communication, et cetera, et cetera ad nauseum.

“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” - Theodore Roosevelt

So, unlike the protagonist in the Robert Frost poem, I didn’t have to wonder about the road not taken, because I took ‘em both.  I chose the wisdom of a New York Yankee over that of a New England Yankee.

And THAT has made all the difference.

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