Off the conveyor?
Off the wall.
Off my rocker.
Off the mark.
Off the shoulder.
Off the grid.
Why would you want to keep reading this blog? I don’t personally possess the mystique to keep you around, so why would you want to consider or even share the ideas found here? Go ahead, answer those questions to yourself (or in the comments).
While some titles and euphemisms are best caught, implied, or made known through innuendo and hints, this blog’s name will get a post of its very own!
The conveyor is all about control.
Consider the modern factory-derived conveyor. These amazing systems that are designed not only to move things from place to place, but to control the rate of conveyance, the temperature at various stages, the lid that goes on top, the integrity of the weld, and the order in which every unique process happens, all down to painstaking detail. And for what? For the sake of Quality Control. In other words, conveyors are a great tool in making products as uniform and indistinguishable from one another as possible in order to meet a specified standard. My father runs a food packing/canning business and he uses many conveyors — designed to move products-to-be forward, in a controlled manner, so the authority over them (whether him or the FDA through regulatory processes) can more or less predict the outcome. So theoretically, through process control, there is a very slim change of botulism in the salsa, misprinted pages in the book, or material defects in the CV joints.
So conveyors are great for many things, like making uniform objects, getting normalized product off of “the line” at a predictable rate, in accordance with specifications. One key behind great conveyor systems is that the person/people who design the conveyor know and understand the ramifications of the processes which are fixed. Is the elimination of variation in a certain process worth the long term outcome of that process? In many cases, as in manufacturing, the answer is Yes.
What qualities are being controlled?
However useful a conveyor is for controlling outcomes of large batches of things, much of nature and especially humankind does not really fit into this category. Have you met people whose parents controlled them? Typically this does not turn out well for either the person or the parents. Humans are difficult to characterize, put in tidy boxes, and move from place to place like the inanimate things found on an industrial factory. And really, should people be controlled? If part of you answered, “yes,” then consider — who ultimately does the controlling? We’ve seen the extensive use of conveyors upon mankind and its tendency toward absolute corruption.
However, even if we don’t have state control over most of our choices in the US, there are many facets of our lives that have the tendencies of bulk conveyance that have emerged over the past 150 years. Chances are, like me, you were born in a hospital with protocols. You were probably bottle fed for a good portion of your infancy. You likely went to some kind of day care which started you on an educational conveyor that your parents selected for you. You were probably in age-segregated classes that began teaching distinct subjects starting in early grade school. Like me, you may have eaten a school lunch. Once you were of a certain age, it is likely that your background predisposed you to a set of vocational choices, all of which have their very own built-in conveyors. It’s likely that on weekends, you mow your yard and/or watch a movie. You probably run a few errands or go shopping.
People aren’t like manufactured goods.
So what’s the big deal about these systems? Aren’t they well designed? Aren’t they executed for the good of stable society? And what is the point of even asking you to consider the way you got to where you are? And aren’t these constructs there to make my life manageable?
The big deal is that people aren’t like manufactured goods. We are unique. Organizations, families, churches, and businesses are unique and alive. And as we’ll explore in the next few weeks, living things don’t convey so well.
We are also faced with a generation of folks who want to get off of the conveyor, but are ill-equipped for life once the belt, the stops, and the controls are gone.
So let’s explore the continuum between chaos and control, the difference between routines and schedules, and some ways to consider structure for areas of life off the conveyor.
Looking forward to more! I found interesting your comment about those wanting to go off the conveyor but finding they are ill equipped for life without controls. More specifically entrepreneur wannabes who don’t have the needed grit and discipline.
Yes! In particular, I met a twenty something who was bemoaning the idea that he thought he would have “made something of his life by now.” He wanted to be respected, known, and “making it.” I thought about myself at that age. I hadn’t had any children yet (meaning I was completely selfish), I was in the first 5 years of my career, and I was just learning so many new things about the way the world works, and making up my mind about things like life in a big company. I definitely hadn’t suffered or learned how to live through affliction of any kind. I’m not sure what he meant, but I feel like our culture exults young celebrities who have “made it.” But the media doesn’t cover all of the people who helped that person and supported him/her, and neither do they cover individual cases of loss, depression, lack of stewardship, and the death and destruction that come about as a result of early success.