Salad

Stephen tosses salad greens in dressing before adding the tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber slices, etc., and finishes with a brief last toss.

Never having witnessed this order of operations before, I stare in confusion.

“What’s the point in being a tomato if you just get treated like a salad?” he asks me, when I express incredulousness.

I stick to my greens-extras-dressing-toss status quo for several months, partly because I am stubborn, but mainly because I like the way Stephen lovingly teases me about making salad wrong when he catches me in the act.

A few salads ago, I tried Stephen’s steps and was pleasantly surprised to find that his is indeed the superior method. For me, the crux of salad making has always been the toss. Even distribution of dressing amongst the greens and comparatively heavy extras consistently eludes me. Both greens and extras cheekily fly to the counter, unless the salad is prepared in a disproportionately large bowl. But working with greens alone makes child’s play of dressing dispersal. And the goal of the post-extras toss becomes merely to work some salad greens to the top again. I’ve whole-heartedly adopted this as my preferred technique and my life is all the better for it.

While preparing salad this evening, I reflected that this anecdote beautifully illustrates the fact that other people can contribute brilliant solutions for completing the task at hand. Even when, and perhaps particularly when, you have been doing that task the same way your whole life.

This lesson is one I wish would dawn on certain project managers who have been editing the same Scope of Work for over two weeks. But perhaps certain project managers just enjoy the way I lovingly tease them by staring at them with a ruthlessly expressionless face before responding to questions about said Scope of Work that were resolved in meetings two weeks ago.

Mounting tension would suggest otherwise, and one senses that a difficult conversation may be in order.

Wish me luck. And try adding salad dressing to just your greens. It really works!