Beech Tree News Network

LIKE A WELL OILED MACHINE- Have you ever asked someone “how are things going?” and gotten the response, “things are running like a well oiled machine”? A machine that has been well maintained and “well oiled” means that is has been supplied amply with a product designed to spare any damage that heat and friction can inflict upon machines, when deprived of lubrication, so instead of breaking down from wear and tear, they are operating at the “peak efficiency” of how they were originally designed and when in pristine condition.

So, if things are “running like a well oiled machine” it means there a no problems to deal with, it is “smooth sailing,” efficient and productive, not chaotic or haphazard. Around the Kinkade household the last couple of weeks, things were NOT running like a well-oiled machine. My wife was the first to get sick this time, taking quite a while to recover from some super virus making its rounds. I also eventually succumbed, what with my compromised immune system, and as it always seems to happen with me, it settled deep in my chest, making breathing difficult and my fever bounced up fairly high for a couple of days too. Even our son ,who rarely gets sick, got a touch of it but his immune system fought it off without things getting too severe. During that time, wouldn't you know it, a major snowstorm hits our area and our vehicle takes this particular time to malfunction. Instead of running like that proverbial well oiled machine, our family resembled a machine that was being held together by swift ties and duct tape.

When you are running any kind of operation or organization, from a large industry, to a small mom and pop business, to a hospital or even just your family, you would want it to run like that well-oiled machine rather than like that one held together by swift ties and duct tape, wouldn't you? The answer seems obvious, no one wants to deal with too much friction and heat wreaking all kinds of damage, you want things running smoothly, efficiently, with no problems or worries. Even one of the synonyms for efficient is-Business-like. So running things “like a business” is a good thing right? Ahh well; actually it is a little more complicated than that. As we discovered this past week when a bunch of snow was dumped on us making things very slippery, you need a little bit of friction to be able to move at all and to steer things in the right direction or else you are just sitting still, spinning your wheels or stuck in a ditch somewhere.

We humans are machines in a way, we have to be well maintained or else we break down well before we were designed to, at somewhere right around 100 years. If we break down before then it is because something went wrong , some kind of trauma or illness interfered with the design. Humans are not really machines though, we are not inanimate objects, we have brains and hearts, spirits and souls, which makes us very complicated and intricate. Whenever dealing with humans you have to take all that into account and things are going to get a bit chaotic. The trick is to see things with a creative eye rather than an engineers cold logic and turn the chaos into a masterpiece work of art, instead of a product of prescribed science.

Everything can't be “run like a business.” I personally have heard this said about a myriad of things and while it sounds logical, it just doesn't work when humans; with all their faults and weaknesses and all there marvelous potential and their wonderful indomitable spirits, enter the picture.

At the last place I worked they had a saying that the process to produce the product we were making was, “ more like a work of art, than a science.” I don't know if any of those fellows who worked with me actually read this column but if you do guys, that reasoning was just crap, it was flat out wrong. We were making a product with specific design parameters. The trick was to use an engineers cold logic, for if you replicated the exact same process, you would end up with the exact same product. If something changed, you needed to figure out what, not act like you were creating a new sculpture every time you changed over for a different model.

There are situations though where it is more like creating a piece of art than trying to replicate an exact process or formula. I have heard that government “needs to be run like a business!” While sounding logical, that sentiment is also just flat out wrong. I assume that they mean that they would like to get rid of all the waste and inefficiency associated with government and that certainly is a worthwhile goal. Business and government have two different goals however and while some of the purposes of their existence might intermingle,one simply can't be run like the other.

A business, simply put, exists to make a profit. A business needs to be as efficient and as productive as possible, to be able to meet that goal. A government on the other hand, exists to enrich the lives of its citizens, it has a mission more akin to a non-profit organization. It exists solely to help people, to keep them safe and secure, to help its citizens lead rich and fulfilling lives, to give them the opportunity for “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Things like making access to healthcare available, so potential of the human spirit is not cut short. Access to a quality education, so that a mind never is wasted, falls through the cracks or gives up. You are dealing with human beings when you talk about government and that process is always a little chaotic and messy, quite a bit more like running a family, than running a business but if done right, you end up with something you can be proud of at the end. Putting business people in charge of government is a surefire recipe for disaster, you are better off with people with experience running successful non-profits.

I have also personally heard, “the Church needs to run like a business,” here too, you run in to all sorts of problems, when trying to run church “like a business.” They have different purposes. The churches' business is the human spirit and soul; to feed the belly of the hungry, to comfort the pain of the hurting and grieving, to uplift the spirit until it sees the face of God! These are the things it is meant to be a good steward of, finances are only a concern in being able to do those other things first, or else you have just become a social club, not really fulfilling any valuable purpose in the kingdom.

Now, if we take this other tactic, treating humans as potential art pieces, with all the chaos and messiness that entails, then perhaps we can reverse the saying and try “business needs to be run like a family!” After all, businesses are made up of human beings. (although corporations are not people, the court that came up with that logic has no business making decisions over anything!) There are some influential and powerful business executives, one in particular whom I could name but I would rather you do the research yourself, whose paradigm for doing business goes something like this, “You take care of your employees first and they will take care of you!”

If an employee feels valued, feels respected and feels like they are doing something worthwhile, then you are going to get the very best that employee has to give, your “profit” will take care of itself. If on the other hand, you treat people like a commodity, like “machines” with no soul or spirit and their only value to you is the money they can make you and you feel that they are easily replaceable, then your “business,” has no real value in terms of uplifting the soul or in leaving this place better than how you found it, in my humble estimation your running a worthless enterprise.

Whenever I ask one of my children to do a certain task or complete some endeavor, often they have a certain response, especially our youngest, nine times out of ten, they will respond with “After I eat!” Now, I know this is usually just a delay tactic but the underlying logic is valid. No one can really focus on anything when you are actually suffering from hunger. To be of use in this world, we don't need to be worried about where our next meal is coming from, or if we are going to have a warm place to sleep, or if we can afford to go to the doctor when we are ill.

Perhaps our “business” needs to become more messy and chaotic and focused on the hearts and spirits of human beings; wonderful, marvelous, awe-inspiring, imperfect, human beings. Perhaps instead of things “running like a well oiled machine” we can change that phrase to, “running like a well-fed child.”