The Scary Truth

“Is there going to be a problem with putting that part in that location? The part has corners and it's being placed into a curved area of the assembly?”

I've learned to pose many of my comments as questions. But do so in legitimate ways. Not just make a strong comment, pretending I'm asking a question, but I'm really not. This approach tends to get better results. 

It was a new project with a new division of a customer facility. My teams and I had been promoted to a much higher level within a Tier 1 automotive supplier. We'd worked very hard to prove our worth too. I was the lead on all the projects with this Tier 1 supplier for my teams. I had created this new customer for the integrator I was working with at the time. 

My teams were designing and building two new custom assembly machines for this Tier 1 supplier. Machines using hydraulic movement. So the parts would have ended up being placed into the assembly by the machine, even if they didn't fit correctly. 

Making bad parts each and every time.

As a supplier, I'm not supposed to talk in such meetings. I'm not good enough to be allowed a voice. I'm just supposed to stay quiet, hoping no one sees the same mistakes I do until it's too late. 

Then pull the switch near the end of the project. Making everyone angry and more stressed out. All while adding additional time required to complete the project as well as add an enormous new price tag to cover the blunder. 

“Ha! Ha! I gotcha!”

But I don't do that. 

I'd prefer to make things smoother for everyone involved in the project instead.

Myself included.

Even if my efforts create additional, and unnecessary, negative results for me. Because those are usually short lived negative effects. They usually end up gaining me more respect in the larger picture too. 

When I'm working on projects, I don't see things from the point of view of sides in a war. 

We're all part of a team working on a project. It is, or at least should be, the goal of us all to make sure that project is successful.

No matter who signs our paychecks. 

So I asked my question. 

The reality is that I may not have been understanding the entire picture. It was the very first meeting to go over the part designs and assembly design. So maybe there was something I was missing.

Why be that asshole who strongly speaks his mind but is completely wrong?

My question was ignored in the meeting. The meeting continued on, and then it ended. 

For two weeks after that meeting, I was belittled and verbally abused by the people involved in that project. This abuse came from people who weren't even involved in that project. It also came from others within this Tier 1 automotive supplier who'd helped me and my teams get to this new level.

Angry words and actions for “screwing things up.”

Snickers and snide looks in my direction whenever I was in the facility. 

Talking and gossip going on behind my back about what a fool I’d been. How stupid I was.

I didn't like how I was treated. 

I hated it as a matter of fact.

But I never joined in the game.

The “Gotcha Game” as I call it. 

I did my best to ignore the abuse and move along in my life and in planning my teams’ aspects of the project.

The next meeting, after all that nastiness from those on “the customer side” had occurred against me…

The part design had been changed. 

Corrected actually.

And all based on the question I had posed in the last meeting.

A question that was completely ignored in that meeting. One which had created all kinds of hell and torment for me since.

When the change was discussed in this next meeting, the tension in the room heightened to extremely uncomfortable levels. Some people even looked over at me, as if waiting for me to explode. 

It had now become painfully obvious that I was right, and all of them were horribly wrong. 

But I said absolutely nothing at all. 

I just sat there quietly and calmly.

Not ever in the second meeting, or once ever after, did I bring up that I had been correct in questioning the part design. Not once did I ever remind anyone that I'd been right. That project was years ago. I never once discussed any of this until just recently. 

Nor did I ever try to correct anyone for how they treated me. Or see how I could get back at them for being so rotten and horrible to me. 

Because being right wasn't my goal in asking the question. I wasn't trying to make others look bad while making myself seem better than them.

Like I said.

I don't play the “Gotcha Game”.

It's a childish and stupid game to play.

Making sure that my teams’ machine worked, and that the rest of us involved in that project had a smoother and easier time while working on it…

Those were my goals.

I scared the shit out of a lot of people involved in that project with my silence too. I also gained a lot of respect from others. The people who are actually important and truly matter.

This is an example of how my intentions in working for the project, not people or groups, creates a much better environment for those working on projects with me. 

No matter which “side” they are on.

As for scaring the shit out of so many people with my actions. That wasn't my intention either. 

It just happened.

Because living a life of peace and calm requires that I don't want people to fear me. It requires that I don't seek out scaring people either.

So I don't.

If the purpose of going to work everyday in that industry was to build cars, not get back at others…

Well…

Cars would be a helluva lot cheaper.

They'd work a lot better too. 

And now you understand that my approach to projects is helpful to people far beyond just the projects I work on.

There is no real concept which is “inflation”.

It's a completely made up idea used to cover up the stupid behaviors of others.