OP
wroughtn_harv
Super Member
Friday evening I took the client for a walk on the new stairs we have in so far. He was very impressed by the ease of climbing and descending the stairs. Using shorter rises and longer treads make it less work I believe.
I figured that we'd have about ten stones to do today. But my son and the engineering company's employees working with us dug in and got it done. I was just there for the ride.
It is amazing the attitude difference that happens when those working understand the project and know their input along with their labor is important to the process. I see it as empowering them but in reality it's more about getting out of their way once you're assured they understand your vision of the outcome.
If we'd done it just like I had in mind from the get go we'd be behind schedule instead of ahead of it at this time. Now some might feel that the worker's ideas would be about saving labor, their own only. But the fact is they also stepped up to the plate and took charge of the quality issues too.
I wanted to have the random feel so I insisted that we took each stone in turn based upon the way it came off the pile. So we might say the men loading the stones on the pallets in Oklahoma decided which stones went where. We had more than one discussion with the workers wanting to change out a stone or not use it because of a flaw or difference from the stones around it. They wanted perfection. I wanted reality. We settled on either turning the stone over or putting what we'd thought was the front to the back etc.
I laid out the criteria I had in mind for the face and leading edge of the first couple of stones. From then on they decided which side as the face and which edge was the leading edge on their own as the prepared it for the slide down the framework.
What is funny in it's own way is there already have been some comments about my rock selection and positioning. But isn't that the way work works everywhere? The person in charge gets the glory when in fact most of the time all they did was enable people to do their job.
I figured that we'd have about ten stones to do today. But my son and the engineering company's employees working with us dug in and got it done. I was just there for the ride.
It is amazing the attitude difference that happens when those working understand the project and know their input along with their labor is important to the process. I see it as empowering them but in reality it's more about getting out of their way once you're assured they understand your vision of the outcome.
If we'd done it just like I had in mind from the get go we'd be behind schedule instead of ahead of it at this time. Now some might feel that the worker's ideas would be about saving labor, their own only. But the fact is they also stepped up to the plate and took charge of the quality issues too.
I wanted to have the random feel so I insisted that we took each stone in turn based upon the way it came off the pile. So we might say the men loading the stones on the pallets in Oklahoma decided which stones went where. We had more than one discussion with the workers wanting to change out a stone or not use it because of a flaw or difference from the stones around it. They wanted perfection. I wanted reality. We settled on either turning the stone over or putting what we'd thought was the front to the back etc.
I laid out the criteria I had in mind for the face and leading edge of the first couple of stones. From then on they decided which side as the face and which edge was the leading edge on their own as the prepared it for the slide down the framework.
What is funny in it's own way is there already have been some comments about my rock selection and positioning. But isn't that the way work works everywhere? The person in charge gets the glory when in fact most of the time all they did was enable people to do their job.
