My mother, an adult student at the University of Utah (go Utes!), was required to learn a foreign language for her Art History major. Due to her love of Impressionism the language she choose was.....French. It soon became a nightly ritual for her to ask me to identify the paintings by name, artist and date in.... French.
Dès 1869, Claude Monet a commencé à peindre à La Grenouillere avec son ami Impressionniste proche, Pierre Auguste Renoir.”
I formally began studying French in the seventh grade. Now, my French pronunciation is and always will be truly horrific. In my eyes, French was contagious and, when spoken appropriately, it was just plain pretty. By the time I entered college, it went from love of the language to love all things French culture.
I was introduced to the Eiffel Tower in my very first French Culture class. Mme. Shapiro was a strong French woman, with an even stronger presence. She asked the class to state something we loved about France. When my turn came around, I responded to the question with la tour d'eiffel.” The room fell silent and with Mms. Shapiro's gaze on me, I quickly realized the Eiffel Tower was the wrong answer and, apparently, I was the only one in class who hadn't received the memo. I quickly responded, "Aussi j'aime manger des croissant de chocolat?" Her piercing gaze broke as she called, votre virage and moved onto the next student.
She was not a fan of the Eiffel Tower, but through the semester I was successful in at least having her admit that she couldn’t imagine the Parisian skyline without it. She said the tower reminded her of the need to be constantly reinventing oneself to stay in favor. To this day, I don’t know if she thought that was a good thing or bad.
Last weekend while shopping at my local Pier One, I came across a framed picture of the Eiffel Tower construction site with pictures of the tower going up for the International Exhibition. After I got over it's glory, I recalled learning that the tower was met with tremendous opposition before it was built, even more hostility after it was built, thus a condition made to tear it down after the World's Fair. As I have been in deep thought about the value of process of late, that picture of the Eiffel Tower caused an epiphany the history of the Eiffel Tower and the process discipline at Wells Fargo have a lot in common. I came home and immediately googled the Eiffel Tower.
Wikipedia.org describes the Eiffel Tower as an iron tower built during 1887-1889 on the Champ de Mars beside the Seine River in Paris.”It continues the Eiffel Tower has become a global icon of France and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. All good until you get to the middle of the definition when you find out that the Eiffel Tower really wasn't wanted or welcomed. As I attempted to untangle the correlations between the Eiffel Tower and Process Engineering in my mind, my journey led me down several revelations.
The Eiffel Tower wasn't born one of the world's greatest wonders. It didn't pop out of the ground in a day with a World's Greatest Wonder sign at its base. In fact, people didn't like the tower at first. Of course, we can relate as process isn't born out of thin air and many people stop, drop and roll away (far, far away) upon hearing the word. :)
Newspapers of the day were filled with angry letters from the arts community of Paris. One is quoted extensively in William Watson’s US Government Printing Office publication of 1892
Paris Universal Exposition: Civil Engineering, Public Works and Architecture. “And during twenty years we shall see, stretching over the entire city, still thrilling with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see stretching out like a black blot the odious shadow of odious column built up of riveted iron plates.”
Not an attractive description. Public opinion was dead set against the Eiffel Tower, but attitudes slowly began to shift as the beauty of the tower began to grow on people. Attitudes shifted even more when the practical significance (as a communication tower) saved it from being torn down. How do we get process to grow on people? Not show how pretty the diagrams are, but to show the value it adds to the IT organization. What efficiencies are gained. What measurements are now achieved. How process makes their jobs easier.
They say time can change all things and after 120 years, one can say it truly is one of the World’s Greatest Wonders. I believe that with the right value message, we can bring process back to mainstream.
Change will and should occur (and the more seamless to the customer's eye, the better!)
Looking at the evolution photos of the Eiffel Tower, there are two pictures that look a lot alike (figure 3 and 4). Four months actually passed between the two figures, but from the picture you can’t tell that it was one of the largest developments during the build. During this time, the critical infrastructure was being added that created stability and strength for the remaining upward build. Did you know there are over 2.5 million rivets holding it together? In process engineering, it is often the planning, surveying, watching, and documenting that provide for the most impactful change. Likewise, we say that during Kaizen events that the event itself is the least important part. It is the prework that isn’t seen by the masses , but that has the most impact on both the event and the event's outcome.
Building something to last takes one plus For over two years, the Eiffel Tower had more than 300 people involved in its construction. Think about that for a second. What a tremendous amount of human investment working towards one person’s vision. The same is true of process. Great process takes the right people designing the process with time to watch, experiment and document. It takes management to buy in to its importance. It takes team members to be trained to use the process and become proficient with the appropriate tools. Bottom line: It isn’t a one person job, but rather takes one plus to build something that will stand the test of time.
Be a beacon (aka don't let dissenters tear down your tower) The visionaries behind the Eiffel Tower believed in something bigger than themselves. They held true to their architecture vision. Same is true in process engineering! Don't let dissenters distract from the importance of process. Surround yourself with other process lovers and advocates in order to build something tres magnifique!
It is odd to imagine Paris without this amazing piece of architecture. As Mme. Shapiro could not imagine a Paris without the Eiffel Tower, let's establish a process culture at Wells Fargo that Wells Fargo team members can't live without.
Thank you for letting me share
~ Stacy
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