Brass & Barnacles

I'd like to share a story with you that a previous boss told me many years ago that has stayed with me ever since. It's a story that I have referred back to many times and have found to be true in both business and personal lives!

As a boss, one of his (many) strengths was that he used very visual examples to make a point - and this is one fantastic example!

Let me start first with a little history.

From the moment we took to the oceans, our wooden bottomed ships were plagued by barnacles that attached themselves to the hull. These barnacles weaken the ships structure and made them much slower and more difficult to steer.

These barnacles had to be scraped off the hull and this typically took several weeks and needed to be done every 2 to 3 months.

There were only 2 ways to do this.

Either bring the ship into a dry dock or beach it in shallow water at high tide - this was known as heeling and the hull could then be scraped or careened.

Alternatively, with the ship in deep water, the crew would move the ships load (canons, supplies etc) to one side, which would tilt the ship to allow access to the side of the hull at a time - this 'parliamentary heeling' process was quicker but extremely dangerous and many ships were lost as a result of a misjudgment.

This process of scraping was physically demanding - and the crew hated it!

A much more pleasant task was to stay on deck and polish the brass. Whilst it was important to make the ship look shiny and well cared for (as this suggested a disciplined and well-organised) it did absolutely nothing for the performance of the ship.

And this brings us neatly to the point that my old boss was demonstrating.

We often choose to polish the brass rather than remove the barnacles.

In life and business, we can very easily fill our time with tasks and activities that make us look good, but actually do nothing to improve our business. This is because these are usually easier and more enjoyable. We often find ourselves sacrificing the important as a result of the need to deal with the urgent!

But we need to ask what are the issues and challenges that are slowing down our business growth?

What exactly is it that makes us inflexible, cumbersome or slow to respond?

Or from a different perspective, what could we do to make us faster, more agile and ultimately more effective?

This is the point of the story:

Make sure you remove the barnacles - only then should you polish that brass!

Steve

The Imora Marketing Academy