Chapter 5 “Five Steps”

September 29, 2009 | Posted by Mister P

- FIVE STEPS -

                John left work early the next day. Since he had stayed so late the day before, no one questioned him about it. Besides, he had more than caught up on everything he could think of in his attempt to avoid going home. He picked up some Thai food on the way home so they could eat without delay. He got there early, so Lisa wasn’t home yet from her job as a primary school teacher. John ate quickly and was about to call her on her cell phone when he heard the front door open.

                “I brought some food home, Lisa,” he called.

                She came into the kitchen and joined him at the table. He slid her food across to her. “Thanks,” she said.

                He watched her for a moment then turned to clean up his plate. There was still tension between them but something seemed to have changed. There was a lighter feeling in the air. Neither one even dared to utter the word, “hope.”

                By the time John had gathered up the mess of papers he wanted to bring, Lisa was finished eating and was ready to leave. In the car, John tried to strike up a conversation but kept running out of things to say. They drove most of the way in silence, broken only by an occasional comment about the ignorant drivers on the road or how the stop lights insisted on staying red!

                Lisa wasn’t sharing the same hopeful feeling as John. She was glad to be doing something, but she had a hard time believing it would really help. Still, if Rob could point them in the right direction, it was worth a try. She hated to admit it, but John had been right. They could give up or they could try. Things certainly couldn’t get any worse, so they had nothing to lose.

She glanced over at John. He was staring at the road and didn’t seem to notice. He had just been so intolerable lately! He rarely expressed what he was thinking and it was so frustrating, always trying to guess. Where was the funny and smart man she had fallen in love with? But then again, maybe she was being too hard on him. He did have a lot on his mind the past couple of weeks, and this clearly wasn’t easy on him, either.

                They arrived at Rob’s company with a bit of nervous anticipation. John parked the car, then they headed into the building and up the elevator.

                “John?” Rob smiled as he held out his hand. “Hello, I’m Rob.”

                “Nice to meet you,” said John. “And this is my wife Lisa.”

                “Hello Lisa,” Rob shook her hand also, “nice to meet you both, why don’t you follow me.”

                Rob welcomed them to his office and asked if they’d like something to drink. After pouring two steaming cups of coffee, Rob handed one to each of them. “So, you’re thinking of building a timber framed house?” he inquired.

                “Yes” replied John, “but I don’t know if we’ll be able to now.”

                “What seems to be the problem?”

                “Well, we found some property along a lake that was just perfect…got started on the paperwork, and everything was going great until a few days ago. We found out that we can’t get the loan we needed. It’s been very hard to deal with.”

                “Don’t forget about the zoning problem,” Lisa chimed in.

“Yeah, it’s kind of complicated,” finished John. “It has something to do with the property being designated as a ‘wetland.’ We wrote down all the complaints we could think of, like you suggested. It feels more confusing than it did before we started.”

Rob nodded empathetically. “That’s the way it always feels. But I’ve got to tell you guys one thing, don’t expect me to solve your problems, you’re going to do that yourselves.”

“Huh? Sarah said you helped them get their dream home!” blurted John.

“I did help them, but they did the real work,” Rob explained. “They started out just like you, really frustrated and no apparent cause for hope. I simply helped them go through the steps to look at their problems so they could come up with a solution. They just needed a little guidance.”

“I suppose there’s no such thing as a silver bullet,” Lisa mused,” but what is involved with this – do we need to buy software or anything?”

“No, No, nothing really complicated. We thought about making some software to help our customers, but this is totally doable with paper and pencil. It’s based on a formula of Eliyahu Goldratt’s that we’ve adopted and modified.”

“Whose formula?” asked Lisa.

“Eliyahu Goldratt. He’s an author who’s written many business books with a scientific approach. You probably heard the science statement, ‘Truth doesn’t exist, only the best explanation,’ or, ‘There isn’t any truth, only the best theory.’

“As far as how it affects you, you need to learn the 5 Steps. Hang on, I’ve got this listed out…here we go.”

“Is this it?” asked John. “I expected more.”

“Nope! Just the 5 Steps,” replied Rob, “6 if you count going back over the steps to keep improving.”

Lisa looked at the sheet. It read:

Tomorrow… Thumbnail view… please post your opinon thus far!

Mister P

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