Letter to Ada

Ada is my 7 year old. We sometimes have deep philosophical conversations on the way to school. This morning, her questions inspired this letter.

Ada,

This begins with a stuffed toy and ends with why entire companies and countries can keep doing things that almost everybody knows make no sense.

Imagine I give you a stuffed toy. You name it, play with it, and decide where it will sleep. 10 minutes later, I take it away.

You have exactly as many toys as you had before. But you probably feel worse.

Part of that is because I broke a promise. Part is that the toy became yours. Your mind moved the line marked “normal.”

Now suppose I had said, “You can borrow this for 10 minutes.” Same toy. Same 10 minutes. A different ending, because you expected to return it.

Now imagine you spend 5 years building a startup company or a department inside a bigger company. You hire 100 people. You know their families. Your salary pays for your home and your children’s school. When people ask what you do, your answer makes you proud.

Then a small team finds a way to give customers better service at half the cost. You check their work. They are right.

The company will need fewer people. It may no longer need you.

You understand why the company should do it. You also have to go home and tell your children what it means for them.

At the next meeting, you ask for another study. Then another approval. You talk about protecting quality, protecting the team, protecting the company. These are things you care about. They also happen to protect you.

Your team backs you. Their jobs depend on yours. Someone who privately supports the change stays quiet after watching what happened to the last person who challenged you.

The meeting ends with everyone agreeing that the company is not ready.

Customers keep paying too much. The owners keep paying for work that could cost less. Inside the room, everyone has a reason to leave things as they are.

If you were building the company today, would you build the department you are now fighting to preserve?

Ada, one day the stuffed toy may be your title. You may have the power to make everyone else pay so you can keep it.

That is when I hope you remember this letter.