Go-To People

“Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.”

–     Edsger Dijkstra ( 1930 – 2002), UT / Austin Professor, Dutch Computer Scientist and winner, 1972 Turing Award

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.

Holy cow, do I LOVE that!  Granted, ol’ Ed could use a couple extra vowels in his name, but who am I to criticize….?  And, yet again, I digress…where was I?  Ah, yes, difference makers.  Reliability.

Earlier this morning, I was on a call with two of my “go-to people,” people that I know will always, or dang near always, bake stuff down to the most important elements and focus on those elements relentlessly.  People who can look at a box of junk and bring the space shuttle home (veiled movie reference….if you haven’t seen Apollo 13 that is NOT my fault…)

What Thomas Shields has done for the last 18 months and what Pamela Lager has done off-and-on for more than a dozen years is make me better.

Every time I need them, I end up better off because they not only “get it,” but they are hard-wired to focus on the important stuff and how it relates to the outcome.

If we are struggling to make a difference, it may well be because we’re letting the perceived complexity overpower the real simplicity.

Go-to people are known for their reliability, and so are real difference makers.  And for both, simplicity is a key tool for success.