Bringing the A-Game to making

I love it when a plan comes together (says the protagonist, with a sly grin)

Today’s story is another installment on making. This one is a bit of a stretch, so let me know what you think. Post a comment or send me a note here. Thanks for reading and thanks for supporting my work.

Remember the now-classic 1980s TV series The A-Team? It was about a crew of ex-special forces guys who traveled about getting into adventures and saving the day through crazy schemes. Often the team appeared to luck out by each episode’s end, but truth-be-told, their success was all by design. The leader of this rag-tag group, John "Hannibal" Smith, was famous for saying, "I love it when a plan comes together." He invariably said it with a grin.

The man knew what he was doing and enjoyed doing it.

For makers, when a project works out, it elicits a similar grin - a confident, satisfied sign of achievement. And while creating can seem a happy accident, much like the success in The A-Team, there is a lot of unspoken know-how involved, also like in the show.

For a maker’s plan to "come together,” it requires tons of preparation. And some improvisation too.

That’s a maker’s A-Game.

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Alas, many projects are not bulletproof (unlike the A-Team van, which seemed to be). The flip side of the "A-Game" is when things don't come together - at all. Occasionally, a faulty tool, some material weakness, or an"act of God" will wreck a job. But these are rare. More often, when things go south, it's because of a screw-up - a mistake that’s usually avoidable.

We've all been there: working, up to our elbows, when all of a sudden we don’t have what we need within reach. A tape measure isn't handy, for example. Impatient, we decide to eyeball it - estimating the length, then holding our breath while we cut.

Disappointment ensues because - you guessed it - we were off. Whether by a fraction of an inch or yard doesn’t matter, the piece will no longer fit. The rushed job now means another trip to the supply store to replace what we destroyed.

As my dad recently commented, "If you jump into something too quickly, it's not gonna be your best work." Succinct and true, Pop.

Mistakes happen for many reasons, but almost all stem from one central failure - a lack of investment. As my dad implied, not investing the time needed is a huge mistake. So is not having the right tools. And not having the required know-how spells all but certain failure. I've messed up many projects over the years. And every time - and I do mean every time - it was because I didn't invest in one of these three: the time, the tools, or the knowledge.

Bringing your A-Game to making means investing beforehand to ensure all goes well.

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During episodes of The A-Team, the guys were always under pressure. Time was in short supply. A seat-of-the-pants approach worked for them because, well, it was fake. Winging it makes for great television. But the back story for The A-Team matters for real-life comparison; Hannibal and team had put in the time before to be ready when the time came. They invested in butt-kicking, I guess.

Smart, knowledgeable, and war-hardened (experienced), the A-Team had the skills to get out of some bad jams. Sure, there never seemed to be a shortage of helicopters, guns, and bombs to pull it off (the right tools for the job?!). But at the center of the mayhem was Hannibal - the man with the plan. He tied it all together, no matter the mess because he knew the game. And he also knew how to improvise when the situation and time constraints called for it.

Making works - when it works well - in much the same way (yeah, I said it was a stretch - but stay with me).

If we invest the time to know our stuff beforehand and have a capable set of tools at the ready, we can do almost anything we set out to do in the time allotted. But we must be vigilant and ready to perform under pressure. Often there are no instructions for what we are creating, and even if we are following plans, there's usually more than one way to execute them. It's the maker's job to pull it all together.

Just like Hannibal, if you’re going to improvise in making, be ready to kick some butt doing it.

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Doing a job well begins long before we start, and extends far beyond the final product. There's a quality of experience too when the plan genuinely comes together. It's about taking a set of skills and applying these to a subset of knowns, and dealing with the unknowns accordingly. It keeps us guessing, strategizing, and yes, improvising. It's knowing our craft and being in control while making. That’s what delivers the grin - it’s the A-Game in making.

I love it when a project comes together.

Science. Fiction. Create.

JRC

(fade to black)

PS: The best part of writing this story? Having The A-Team theme song stuck in my head. You too? Complain about it in the comments!