Measure Twice, Cut Once

My grandfather (on my Dad's side) was a master carpenter and cabinet maker. When he retired, if you can call it that, he still worked a number of renovations and remodels, and he taught cabinet making at the local community college. I remember watching him in his wood shop in the garage when I was young, and helping him on projects as I got older.

One of the things that my grandfather did really well was planning his projects thoroughly in advance. One of his (many) favorite sayings was, "Measure twice, cut once." He had a funny related saying: "I've cut this board twice and it's still too short!" One of the truly legendary sayings was, "If if's and and's were pots and pans, we'd have a lot of cooking vessels!"

Before his "retirement", he was known as a master estimator. Many times, he would have to go to a job site and revise the estimates others had given. He knew that a proper estimate and thorough planning could make or break the profitability of the job.

I remember a time when I asked him to help me build some bookshelves. I was ready to get out to the garage and fire up the table saw and get started. Instead, he sat down at the table with a pencil and paper and began to sketch out what we were going to build. By the time he was done, we knew the exact dimensions of the bookshelf and the measurements of every cut we were going to make before we ever picked up a single piece of wood.

I am taking a class on Microsoft Project at work this week, and this is my first formal exposure to a lot of project management principles. The thing that struck me as I started to dive into this great software planning tool was how many of these principles were a natural part of the way my grandfather went about his work.

We have a tendency, I think, to dress up old ideas and package them as part of modern business management, when in reality, many of these ideas are timeless principles that characterized the work ethic of generations past. We simply have the benefit of some better tools to help us out. The next time I build a schedule in MS Project, I'll have to remember: "Measure twice, cut once."

Light it up...

Rob