| Get It Done vs. Get It Done Well |
| By Cheah Lee Hwa, director of the Office of Humanities, Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology Abridged and translated by Wu Hsiao-ting |
When I tell my students to put in more effort on their homework, they often cannot understand why I’m so demanding. “Isn’t it good enough that we get it done?” they ask. Sometimes it’s not just students that display this attitude, but people who have entered the workforce as well. When assigned a task by their superiors, some feel that as long as they can finish it before the deadline, it’s “mission accomplished” and all is well. To help my students understand that simply getting something done isn’t the same thing as getting it done well, I gave them examples of the attitude with which Tzu Chi volunteers carry out humanitarian work. In September and October 1998, Hurricanes Georges and Mitch pounded Central America, killing and injuring tens of thousands of people and leaving over a million people homeless. In addition to giving different kinds of aid, Tzu Chi also started a clothing drive for survivors in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Haiti. The drive collected enough garments to fill 60 freight containers. However, among the donated clothes, some were dirty, had holes in them, or were missing buttons. Volunteers washed those that were dirty and mended those that were torn, and if a row of buttons was missing one, they replaced the entire row. Sewing in a single button different from the original ones would suffice, but that is simply “getting a job done.” On the other hand, replacing the entire row of buttons is a supreme example of “getting a job done well.” Master Cheng Yen always reminds Tzu Chi volunteers to treat disaster victims with respect to help them feel the love and warmth of the world. Such warm feelings will in turn bring courage and strength to the survivors and sustain them on the road to recovery. The volunteers who sorted the donated clothes were acting in accordance with the Master’s teachings. They replaced entire rows of buttons because they didn’t want the survivors to feel that they were getting clothes others had thrown out or didn’t want. They didn’t want to make the disaster victims feel that they should be happy with whatever they could get. This extra layer of consideration goes a long way toward comforting victims who are going through a rough patch. Another example occurred when Tzu Chi was aiding the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which hit that nation in November 2013. To help the city of Tacloban recover from the disaster, Tzu Chi initiated a work relief program through which the foundation paid survivors to clean up their own flooded neighborhoods. Master Cheng Yen proposed giving those who participated in the program twice the minimum daily wage in Tacloban because she felt that work relief was different from regular labor compensation—it contained an element of love and best wishes for the victims. She hoped that by meeting the victims’ urgent needs, Tzu Chi could instill strength in them and help them get back on their feet. In the end, the program did infuse energy into the city, which was almost knocked out of commission by the storm, and helped the city return to normalcy. I asked my students to think about these examples and ponder the difference between simply “getting it done” and “doing it well.” If they hold higher expectations for themselves instead of doing things without real effort, everyone benefits.
|
|
