The Parable of Warren

   Warren was the widget weigher for Whichway Widget Works Ltd. He'd been the widget weigher since the company began many years ago. Warren cheerfully sat on his stool near the end of the widget assembly line where he'd weigh each widget, and depending on the widget's weight, he'd decide which way the widget was to go, this way or that. When it came to weighing widgets, Warren was a wonder. In fact, Warren was so good that he could often tell a widget's weight before it was even weighed. There was a mechanical precision to the way Warren shunted widgets. This was Warren's work, hour after hour, day after day, week… month… year after year. No one paid much attention to Warren though they were certainly grateful for him. He was always simply .... there.

   Now you might be thinking that this Warren character must be a bit odd to cheerfully sit and weigh widgets all day, let alone year after year. Could there be a job more tedious or mind numbing? Some of Warren's co-workers wondered was he wanting in wit? In truth, Warren was just a simple soul of singular focus. He was a reliable, cheerful, and devoted Widget Works worker who never deviated in his weighing and was always correct.

   As time went on, the pressures of a changing market required changes to widgets and how they were constructed. Shifting demographics meant that now there was a want for widgets in different colors. Micro chips had made it possible to produce 'smart' widgets, or as they were commonly called, 'wise widgets'.

   One day, management called all the widget workers to a meeting and explained that in order for Whichway to continue to exist as a viable company, changes to both the widgets and the widget assembly line would have to be implemented. As it turned out, the change to Warren's work was a relatively small one. In addition to weighing the widgets, he now had to take into account whether a widget was of one color or another, and whether the widget was one of the brand new wise widgets or if it was an old witless one. Only then could Warren correctly judge which way the widget went.

   It was expected that there would be a certain amount of confusion and chaos as new procedures and routines were introduced. While most of the other widget workers managed to incorporate the new procedures with a minimum of difficulty and disruption, Warren was having a terrible time with the changes to his job. They confused and frightened him. He couldn't make any progress at all. Warren was reacting as many people might, and that's to focus even more intently on what's familiar and to hold on even tighter to what they know. Poor Warren could grasp only the widget's weight.

   It wasn't long before Warren's co-workers began to notice that widgets were going awry. They questioned who was throwing the wrench in the works. When they found out whom, some began to get a wee bit impatient with Warren. A few called him stupid and stubborn. One accused him of sabotage. Another reasoned that if Warren wasn't taking widget color, weight and intelligence into account, then his results were incorrect and, in effect, lies. The more he was pointed at and accused and attacked, the more desperate and intransigent Warren became. Management was in a wicked dilemma over what to do about Warren. He'd been a loyal and reliable employee for years. Was Warren wanting in wit? What would they do if he could only weigh widgets? They knew the union would never allow Warren to be fired. But what if he just couldn't handle the new criteria for determining which way a widget went? What if they couldn't find another to do the sort of work at which Warren had been so wonderful? Was there anyone who could ever do Warren's job nearly as well? And then, when it seemed as though there was no way to solve this problem, soft spoken, shy little Wendy stepped forward and said to management, "Warren isn't witless, and he isn't a saboteur, and he doesn't lie. In fact, he doesn't even know how to lie. The very attribute of his that's made him such an important member of the Widget Works team for all these years is the very attribute that now stands in the way of him doing the job you need him to do. And that attribute is his ability to focus so completely and exclusively on his job. It seems to me that the problem here is that you've 'told' him that he must change, but you haven't 'shown' him how to change. If you'll let me help Warren, I think we can have him up to speed very soon." Management, being desperate for a solution to the problem, agreed immediately.

   Wendy took Warren aside and started to talk with him. She acknowledged his years of perfect service. She complimented him on his remarkable abilities. She asked him questions about his job. She engaged his trust. Soon they were talking about widget weights and colors and wisdom. Wendy led Warren to the widget line and asked him to show her very slowly, so she could understand, how he did his job. When he hesitated with widget color, she helped him see that there were really only a few different colors and they were easy to name. With Wendy's help, Warren discovered that he could discern, without worry, if a widget was wise or witless. She listened and watched and helped him warm to directing which way widgets went according to color and weight and wit. Slowly, a bit hesitantly, Warren started to develop a rhythm of checking color then weight then wit. In a relatively short time, Warren was winging widgets this way and that with the same accuracy and consistency with which he'd previously only weighed widgets. All he had really needed was for someone to help him change, to 'show' him how to change.

   Normal day to day routines soon returned to the Widget Works. Management was thrilled that one of their very best people had made the transition and that they could continue to rely on Warren to handle the tedious, yet so very important, job of deciding where the widgets went. The workers at Whichway Widget Works LTD were once again happily cranking out widgets for an anxiously waiting world. And the heroes of our story? Well, one day a note on the lunch room board read that Warren and Wendy had wed.

Epilogue-
   Each of us is a Widget Works. Our smoking triggers are widgets that require weighing. Our beliefs are the criteria with which we'll weigh a widget. Which way a widget will wend once weighed is our response. Each of us has a higher brain which functions like Management making executive decisions, acting as co-workers who will either ridicule and reject or who, like Wendy, will help in the learning of new criteria for directing widgets. And finally, each of us has a Warren in the role of an autopilot who weighs our widgets, is incredibly vigilant, marginally aware, and will forever do only that which he's been trained to do. We can not fire him, we can not do his work, and we ignore him at our peril. But we can retrain our Warren. Once retrained and working with the new criteria, he will continue to be the Warren we've always depended on to smoothly, mechanically, and correctly direct our widgets.

 

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