One of the things that gets me into trouble sometimes is how I think.

There is a scene in Saving Private Ryan where Barry Peppper's character is looking for a sniper that shot one of the guys. He looks up and sees a church bell tower and says, "That's where I'd be."

I tend to try and solve things by asking myself what I'd do if I was in the person's shoes. On the other hand, looking at Barry Pepper's part I would have expected the sniper to be in the bell tower but you can bet your ass I would not have parked myself there. It's too obvious.

About fifteen years ago one of the guys told me he wanted to tear down a long unused barn and we brainstormed. I suggested he go up on the roof and tear it down top to bottom but was told the building was far too rickety for that. I suggested having the fire department burn it down as a training aid. He told me he had asked but they refused.

I had him draw out the basic plan of the building and he did. It was supported by several uprights. I suggested getting a couple of friends with heavy trucks and straps to simply pull the uprights out from under it and let the building collapse and self destruct under its own weight.

"That's what I'd do," I said. "Then again, you could get hurt that way, too."

He decided to go with that and reported some pretty good success. The building came down and pretty much destroyed itself in the process. What was left could be safely dismantled and he told me that they made a bonfire and over the course of a few days reduced the entire thing to ashes.

I don't know why he followed my advice except to say it made sense to him to go that route. Still, from what I had gathered from his description and the drawings he showed me I probably would have done it that way.

I guess it worked.

Many years ago I worked at a place where there was a very antagonistic attitude between much of management and labor. It was terrible. 

There were good people working there in management, but the jerks made life miserable. One day one of my supporters asked me what I thought of company security and I decided to tell the truth. It sucked.

This was right after a highly publicized work place violence incident and I suppose he was somewhat worried. I walked through the property with him and pointed out any number of things and places where someone hell bent on destruction could use to great advantage. There were a lot of them.

He looked at me and asked me how I could think of such things. I simply told him it's like being a cop. To catch a criminal one has to think like a criminal. I admit that prior military service helped.

A few minutes later he was pointing things out to me and asking me what I thought. Clearly he was thinking like a criminal now. 

Then he asked me what the best thing was to avoid workplace violence.

I told him that the best thing I could think of was to simply not run an antagonistic workplace.

He looked at me and shook his head sadly. He knew that wasn't going to happen. 

Afterwards from time to time he would consult with me on any number of job related things. He never did mention that he had consulted me to anyone else which I was grateful for. It would have led to false accusations of wanting to cause trouble when I was trying to simply avoid it. People have a bad habit of killing the messenger.

Still, I have to keep my ideas and thoughts to myself because they get taken out of context and it leads to false accusations.














To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY