The Division and Coordination of Labor

"Divvying Up the Work"

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As I progressed through my career in the Navy, I became ever more concerned with matters relating to training, human performance, the work itself, and issues pertaining to organization and organizations. One such issue is the division and coordination of labor. Upon telling the following story to a well‑known training and human performance consultant who was at the time a senior executive for a large automobile parts company, he exclaimed, "Nickols, you're a genius!" Modesty for­bids claiming that title, but the story does make a point.

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This incident took place on board the USS Waddell, a guided missile destroyer I put in commission in Seattle. We were installing a new and comprehensive equipment maintenance program and its installation meant a complete reshuffling of work assignments.

By way of preparation, I made a complete listing of all maintenance tasks, general quarters stations, battle repair assignments, operating stations for special drills, and watch stations for various condi­tions of readiness.

I assembled my FT gang in the plotting room and told them we were going to "divvy up the work." I also told them we would handle it much like a major league draft; that is, they were to go 'round‑robin' as it were — by seniority — each man picking a maintenance task, a GQ station, a watch station, and so on. Any man could quit as soon as he figured he had a full workload.

Frank Sisto, a dark, good‑looking Italian kid from Providence, Rhode Island, eyed me suspiciously, and asked, "What are we gonna do with what's left over?"

I told him we'd worry about that when and if it happened and that I already knew how I would handle the situation.

My crew went 'round‑robin' as they had been asked, picking out their assignments. Ralph Haberland took the director, the switchboard, and the associated maintenance tasks. He also took some mainte­nance tasks for the radar and the computer. Frank took the computer, but he also took some assign­ments related to the radar and the director. Bill Farra took mostly tasks associated with the stable element, but a mix of other tasks as well. And Jim Sirl seized upon the radar. But he, too, took on other tasks.

When they all said they had enough, the workload was evenly distributed, there was a nice match of assignments with abilities and prefer­ences, and an equally nice mix of inter‑related tasks for cross‑training purposes. Only a few unappealing tasks were left.

Frank was studying the list on which I'd been check­ing off items. Obviously referring to those that hadn't been checked off, he asked, "Who gets those?"

"I do," I said, and with that, I gathered up my lists and left the plotting room, headed for the Chief's Mess to do the paperwork associated with my new work organization.

I'd been in the Chief's Mess all of five minutes when there was a knock at the door. In response to my invitation to enter, Frank and Jim stepped through the doorway, taking off their hats as is customary when a "white hat" enters Chief's Quarters.

Frank hemmed and hawed a bit, then said, "Look, Chief, we can't have you doin' that kind of work. After all, you're our Chief. One of us should be doin' that stuff."

"That's fine by me, Frank. What do you want to do about it?"

"Well, we all talked it over and we want to divvy up the rest of that stuff among ourselves."

They did too.

From then until I left, that was the smoothest running fire control gang I'd ever seen. All wound up cross‑trained — they trained each other. Whenever one would go away on leave or off to a school, the others would take up the slack – without me having to see to it. All were masters of their own domains; I never inter­fered with what they wanted to do and I always backed their play — to the hilt, sometimes. In turn, they kept their noses clean (most of the time) and the USS Waddell’s gun battery turned in one sterling performance after another.

Doesn't seem like there's all that much to the division and coordination of labor, does it? Espe­cially if you leave the division and the coordi­nation to the labor.