Just Naturally Different (1950s)

This is Bill Thompson, your district production superintendent. Bill is a smart veteran in the highly competitive business of producing oil. Behind him are 20 tough years of experience. Coming up the hard way, rough neck, rustabout, gang pusher, farm boss, assistant to the superintendent, and now one of your best production men. Yes, Bill is smart. He has the knowhow and the experience to produce oil. He knows a lot about tools and the materials and the methods of oil production. But about men? Well, Bill is on the ball there, too. Now, Bill sees men as they are. Each an individual with individual feelings, needs, behavior, likes, and dislikes. Fat, tall, thin, or short, quick or slow. Serious, stubborn, or hotheaded. Lazy, ambitious, worried, or scared, he sees all he can. But Bill didn't always see men this way. He used to see them like equipment. All standardized, packaged, and ready to go. A false sense of justice made him see every man the same. To each should go the same rewards, the same treatment. But this looking at men as he looked at equipment had brought some problems into Bill's life. After he had been in charge of a district for a while, his lifting costs had begun to mount. It was hard to put his finger on the cause. But one thing was obvious. Transfers and turnover of labor had increased sharply after Bill had taken over. Bill was sharp enough to realize that directly and indirectly labor was the factor increasing lifting costs. Bill pondered, "Weren't the men as good as they used to be? Could it be me that is making the difference?" he reasoned. Bill's investigation led him to visit an adjoining district. He found supervisors there talking about company policy, material delivery, corrosion troubles, and causes of personnel problems. Bill was interested in this talk about the handling of men. He listened closely to it and got some clues to the real causes of his own troubles. Others were having personnel problems, too, and others were maintaining and increasing their efficiencies by giving special consideration to the differences in individual workers. Bill's old theory that all men are exactly alike began to fade. Because he was alert and deeply interested in making good, Bill listened to the world around him. Everybody's different. No two people alike. My boss knows I'm different. We're all human beings, not machines. Now, fortunately, Bill had a wise man for a boss. He too had noticed the increase in lifting costs, and likewise, he had spotted the trouble. Maybe he even planted the thought for Bill to visit with others. We don't know. But nevertheless, he was genuinely concerned and was ready to help when Bill came to him asking, "Say, what is this business about treating everyone differently? I've always thought we should treat them all the same." Jim, with his 30 years of experience among oil field workers, was impressed by Bill's question and was ready to talk with him about the problem. Bill remembered Jim's many illustrations capped with observations such as, "I like to think that a good foreman has got to know and must really know every man in his gang or crew. Somehow he's got to get below the surface and find out what makes one man different from the others. So slowly, Bill began to understand. He continued to handle a lot of equipment, noting the specifications with care. But he took even greater care in noting men. His skill at observing their differences increased. Bill began seeing men as human beings, as individuals, and as a result, the men began to recognize Bill as a real leader. Improvement came about in every work assignment. The men felt more secure under Bill, and lifting costs returned to normal. In the old days, Bill walked alone, but now he works with men and tools. Others are watching and talking with him. His ability, skill, and desire to work with the differences in men attracts attention. Yesterday, for instance, Jim West, the division superintendent, invited Bill's help in recommending a man for greater responsibilities. That's why I want to see you. I want you to help pick the foreman. Bill, you've handled that area down there a long time. You know those men. You know their qualifications. And I feel that you're better qualified than anyone else to pick the man. Before Bill answered, he requested Jim to describe the district in which the man would work and found that the selected man would be transferred to an old field on the pump. Except for a new Deep Horizon producing high-pressure gas, an old established camp, warehouse, and office, high, dry, and dusty with no big towns. And the men who were likely prospects came to Bill's mind. one he quickly eliminated because of repeated refusals to accept any additional responsibility. Well, that shouldn't be too hard. I have two or three men right now I think to take over without any trouble. Bill continued with the description of the men. Ben had the knowhow and he had taken advantage of all the extra training he could get while working. Not very talkative, inclined to take chances, but a good steady record. Tom was quick on the uptake and absorbed his instructions rapidly, but Henry waited around for a restatement to make sure. Henry had a lot of dogged determination and patience. Impulsive Tom dashed. Henry plotted, but they both finished jobs in about the same time. Ben was a good, wellervicing unit operator. He liked machinery. Ben's men didn't seem to get too much instruction, but they worked together well as a team. Maybe because the men just like goodnatured, drywitted Ben. Even though the men worked hard, there was time to enjoy it. But Henry was the maintenance man of the bunch. You always saw a clean job where he was. Too much cleaning up, repairing, and painting, some of the men said. But Henry slept nights because he had few emergencies. He was a good planner, too. His gang seldom came back for parts or tools that had been forgotten. Maybe his ability at planning came from having to fend for himself at an early age. He was single and supported an aged mother. Tom had his men spend a lot of time on ingenious gadgets, laborsaving, time-saving ideas. He said, "The more time I save, the more time I have to rest." But he never did. Didn't even stay home too much. People said his wife was a sort of a crackpot on health. So Tom spent his time on cranky wells. He loved the problem jobs that took a lot of figuring. Bill remembered these men in conference, what they had said and how they had reacted and other clues he had to their differences came to his mind. Ben, Tom, Henry, all just naturally different.