"Boiling the Ocean"

I once worked with a man who had been a Senior Vice President at IBM, during IBM’s zenith. He was at the end of his career and took to mentoring me, the “new kid” from the small IBM acquisition. He was full of stories and quotes. The best was:

“Don’t Boil the Ocean.”

He was a person who understood his position and how people reacted to him. If a high level Executive makes a comment (or even a gesture), some people will go off on a tangent gathering information to demonstrate their competence, at times out of fear or just to “show off”. We have all seen it and experienced it.

One time I remember asking a simple question during a meeting. At the next meeting I had a ten page report, with detailed statistics and analysis, and did not even know what it was regarding. Someone on staff took the question personally and spent a great deal of time and money on a report that was not needed. Don’t boil the ocean.

Once while walking through a manufacturing department, I notice 2 file cabinets that were full, and they needed another one. It turns out that they were storing quality reports on a particular Printed Circuit Board, and Engineering had made the request some time ago. Further checking showed that no engineer had ever looked at the reports nor had ever even asked for the reports. Digging deeper I found one engineer who had made a comment two years earlier and that triggered this “quality tracking”. The ocean was boiled, and reports were plentiful (and never used).

When you are in a leadership position, be it real or perceived, be careful about what you say and how you say it. Make sure that people understand what you are asking for, and your expectations. And be careful about the people who like to boil the ocean, they will do it when you least expect it (and more often then you care to admit). It is a waste of time and valuable resources.

Build trust, be specific when needed, but whatever you do, Don’t Boil the Ocean….