Boomership by John R. Grinnell

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

-William James

Disliked, yet never fired, he was an employee whose career was almost legendary due to his ability to solve the most difficult engineering problems. He had numerous patents and many saw him as savant-like when it came to statistical process control. Yet his colleagues would avoid him at all cost because he didn’t “suffer fools well.” Almost everyone in his company had felt embarrassed a time or two as he left hurt feelings and distrust in his wake. Recently he had said some things that had seriously undermined a young up-and-coming plant manager on the fast track to the corporate office. That was when I was asked to work with him. He was 63 years old, two years from retirement, and thought he was “bullet proof.” He wasn’t. continue reading