Men in White Clothes May Not Be Painters

Posted June 27th, 2009

Jack Brooks of Pipeline Controls and Services told me a funny story.  A contractor needed some painters to paint the outside of a large building.   Men who wanted day work congregated in an area of town.  The contractor saw four or five Hispanic men dressed in white pants and shirts, and they wanted to work.  The contractor did not speak Spanish, and the men in white did not speak English.

But they were dressed in white; painters dress in white; the contractor was looking for painters.  They agreed on pay by sign language, and the men got in the contractor’s truck.  When they got to the building, he got all the paint and equipment out of the truck and pointed to the front of the building and said, “Paint the building!”    The contractor left for a few hours.  He was surprised and upset when he returned.  The painters had only painted a small portion of the building, and they were working in the same area where he left them.

When the contractor found an interpreter, the interpreter informed him that the men were cooks, not painters.   Both cooks and painters may dress in white, but the skills and abilities are different. What lessons could be learned from this story?

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 11:06 am and is filed under Leadership, Observations.