Willy's Story

A Sea Story about ‘Running Room’

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Many people in large, rule-bound organizations resent being forced to toe the line and they resent even more what they see as unfair tolerance for the misbehavior of others. They never seem to understand that the tolerance by the authorities for one's behavioral missteps — what some call “slack,” “leeway” or “latitude,” what others call “operating room” and what was known in the Navy of my day as "running room" — is closely linked to the quantity and quality of one's contributions to the organization. Willy's story illustrates this point.

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While I was stationed at the Instructor Training (IT) School, part of the Service School Command at the San Diego Naval Training Center, I had an opportunity to teach a young fellow about “running room.”

"Willy" Wilson was a petty offi­cer first-class, an electrician's mate. Like me, he was a staff instructor at the IT school. Unlike me, he wasn't happy with the way he was being treated.

Willy approached me one day and asked, "Chief, can we talk?"

"Sure, Willy. What's on your mind?"

"Well, you know the Lieuten­ant is down on me," referring to the officer‑in‑charge of the IT school.

"Yep."

"And so is 'Bull,'" he added, referring to the E‑9 who was the chief instructor.

"Uh huh."

"I do get in my fair share of trouble," he admitted, "but so do you."

"Uh huh."

"What I want to know," he said, "is how come when I get the tiniest bit out of line, I get hammered, and you seem to get away with mur­der?"

Before I could respond, he went on.

"I've thought about it and I know it ain't 'cause you're a chief and I'm just a first‑class. And it ain't because I ain't doin' a good job. I'm just as good an instructor as you are. It's somethin' else and I don't know what it is."

"Willy," I said, "I'll tell you as straight up as I can. The difference between you and me is the difference between a man who is just doin' his job and one who is puttin' something extra into it."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Willy," I asked him, "How many master lesson plans have you written?"

"None."

"How many test items have you written and submitted for inclusion in the test bank?"

"None."

Looking up at the qualifications board on the wall in the instructors' office, I pointed toward it and asked him, "In how many of those 23 lessons are you qualified?"

"About half."

"Willy, I'm qualified in all 23. I wrote three of the master lesson plans in our curriculum from scratch and I've rewritten about a half dozen others. I must have at least a hundred items in the test bank. The difference between you and me, Willy, is that I'm a contributor and you're just doing your job. Now if you're just doing your job, they’re not going to cut you one inch of slack. But, if you're contributing, they'll give you as much running room as your contributions are worth. Get my point?"

"Yeah," Willy nodded, "I see what you mean."

Sitting silent for a few moments, I let him think. Then, as he got up to leave, I said, "Willy?"

"Yeah."

"Just for the record, Willy, you are nowhere near as good an instructor as I am."

He didn't respond; he just walked away.

About two days later, Willy collared me again.

"Chief," he said, "I've been thinkin' 'bout what you said to me the other day."

"Yeah, Willy."

"I've thought about it quite a bit and I've decided that I'll just toe the line. It ain't in me to give somethin' extra, so I'll just have to adjust to stayin' in line."

"Okay, Willy."

As he walked away, I looked after him, feeling kind of sad that he had decided to toe the line. Then, something my grandmother used to tell me whenever I got into trouble popped into my mind: "You made your bed," she'd say, "now you have to lie in it." The real difference between Willy and me was that he was content to lie in a bed someone else had made for him. I preferred to make my own, even if it was a bit thorny from time to time.

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An Afterthought

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In today’s workplace, Willy’s story illustrates two very different degrees of employee engagement. Willy wasn’t inclined to expend any of what some call “discretionary effort” whereas I was in fact very much inclined to do so.