100,000 Bent Nails
Donald Hall* tells the story of an eccentric who straightened bent nails.
“If Washington Woodward found a board in a ditch as he walked home from the day’s work, and if the board had a bent nail in it, he would hammer the nail out of the board with a rock and take it home.”
When he died, he left a hundred thousand straightened nails. “…it was a sin to allow good material to go to waste.”
What do you do when people are bent nails?
It’s easy to label them and leave them in the ditch.
Straighten Bent Nails
A bent nail isn’t useless. It’s untapped potential.
You don’t hammer people straight. But you can refuse to label and toss them out.
- Teach people.
- Give them a second try.
- Tell them the truth without throwing them away.
- Notice current contributions.
- Imagine future potential.
Disposable people build self-protective walls.
Do Work Worth Leaving Behind
Washington’s nails seem ridiculous. But they tell you he believed: Waste was wrong. Work mattered. Materials mattered.
Your calendar tells everyone what you think of bent nails.
The way you run meetings shouts what you believe about people.
When people screw up, do you discard or develop?
What are you doing to straighten bent nails?
10 Ways to Deal with Weaknesses in Others – Leadership Freak
*The story of Washington Woodward is in Donald Hall’s book String too Short to be Saved.
thif there are 100,000 bent nails, stop congratulating yourself for straightening them and work out why you keep bending nails.
It sounds like the nails he was straightening were from boards that were ripped away and discarded from the original structure during demolition or another means by another party. Rarely does something get taken apart without damaging what was used to hold it together. It is nearly impossible for nails to remain true as their task is to make sure it solidly stays attached. Brute force breaks the intent and functionality. In a human sense when drastic changes happen, those that bind are those that are bent and many times stay bent without someone coming along. There is damage that needs nurturing and strengthening. I enjoyed this blog topic very much! Thanks!
“Those that bind are the ones who are bent.” That’s a powerful statement. I wonder how it relates to being adaptable and flexible. I’m thankful for your reflection, Rob, it makes me think.
Love it. Thanks Natalie
Insightful Dan, in a society that ghosts by ceasing communication, resolving issues is fast becoming a lost art. The temptation to simply discard others who no longer (seem to) have purpose is also an accepted behavior.
I’m afraid we are losing the intrinsic value of people.
In industry we worked hard to restore, not primarily from a noble motive, but from an economic one, the cost to retrain.
Individually the social constructs that promote “nail straightening” – I’m thinking Big Brother, CASA and the local church and similar – are making a quieter difference.
I hear you Ken. There are too many issues under the carpet.
I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to straighten bent nails, but it usually takes multiple steps…
1. Some nails come out of the board easy, and some are very difficult and take lots of effort to remove.
2. When trying to trying to straighten out the bend, sometimes it takes multiple “whacks” to get the nail back to a point where it is finally straight.
3. Truth be told, even after working on it, the nail usually isn’t straight… but it’s very usable, even though it isn’t perfect.
Hi Page. I have to say, I’m not sure what to do with this. Some nails need several whacks. Sounds like a lawsuit to me. 🙂 Thanks for jumping in today.
Innovate. Nail guns have eliminated bent nails. Teach people to be creative and find simpler and easier ways to do their work.
I suppose fewer bent nails is a good thing. It just doesn’t work with this post. 🙂 Thanks Paul.
The point for me is if it’s possible to see value in bent nails, how much more important is it to see value in people others might have deemed worthless?
Hi Michael. It’s important to value imperfect people.
Very very good, Dan. Love this real life analogy. In all my job experiences, sadly I worked for far too many so-called leaders who threw out far too many bent nails.