The postings here are related to musings from Lessons Learned during my 30-year employment with Southern California Edison. All of life is a metaphor; things observed and experienced that say one thing, but speak to another. As such, we are surrounded by wonderous things and opportunities for learning and seeing the hand of God:
Faith finds weapons to enforce it everywhere. He who wills to believe shall never lack reasons for believing. – CHS – Treasury of David – Psalm 22:9
This is Lessons Learned #4, titled “TTUBUBC.” I doubt that there is but one person apart from myself that knows or remembers what that acronym means. Let me explain.
In Lessons Learned #1 – “The Big Picture” I rehearsed the story of walking into the SCE Energy Control Center for the first time seeing the huge electrical grid of the Western United States, mapped out on the surrounding walls in colorful lights and illuminated lines. That experience gave new meaning and understanding to the necessity of knowing that there is a bigger picture existing beyond our daily experience when things seem disconnected and confusing.
At the end of that Big Picture, Lessons Learned narrative I mentioned that –
As time went by and tools such as email, internal communications and networking became more prevalent, System Operations began to communicate the big picture in real-time, bite-size pieces of information to explain decisions being made. … sharing with others the big picture which they were a part of as well. Though that statement is true, it is not entirely accurate as to the turning point of those events. What actually occurred was this.
Early in 1990 I enjoyed the opportunity to be assigned to the position of Steam Division – Short-Range Planner, working alongside the Long-Range Planner. This was a two-person team assignment, coordinating all the Steam Division generating resources in conjunction with the Energy Control Center. The Long-Range Planner worked with the individual generating stations, managing the three-year on-going, rolling maintenance and outage schedule to insure that ECC System requirements were met by available generation. The Short-Range Planner (me) worked off that long-range planning schedule in real-time, responding to emergency energy needs due unexpected contingencies of lost generation that invariable occurred for a number of reasons. For the two of us, the job was a very dynamic assignment, requiring near continuous communications as we were the single contact point between the Steam Division generating stations and the ECC.
As previously mentioned, this was a time when tools such as email, internal communications and networking became more prevalent – but in fact, were not being fully utilized. These new forms of communication and their potential were as yet not fully appreciated. Thus, the advent of TTUBUBC. You see, my cohort (his name was Richard) and I noticed something that was sort of what we called, the Thursday and Friday irritation. As each weekend approached there followed the subsequent reduction in system energy demands, and the ECC would direct the planned shutdown and start-up of generating resources according to the Long-Range Plan and operating schedule. However, there were times when those plans were altered due to other factors, usually known only to the ECC. Remember, the “Big Picture” is not always apparent or made clear at the local station level. So, as the weekends drew near, management at each generating station would start to get anxious that “their” plans were going to upended by some unknown system contingency, and wanted to know how to respond to what “might” happen to their manpower and maintenance plans. Thus, those irritating phone calls that started on Thursday mornings that ran incessantly through Friday afternoon from generating stations wanting to know “what was going to happen to the plan?”
Our phones would start to ring with the enviable question being asked and answered over and over again; a disruption to our routine activities and responsibilities. Then one Friday afternoon as we were ending the day, Richard commented about this weekly irritation and all of the sudden “the little light” came on. The following week we confirmed with the ECC as to what the upcoming System Status would be. After that, we sat down and drafted a “System Status Report” email, and sent it out to all the generating station planners and administrators. As I pressed the email send button Richard said outload, That the uninformed be uninformed by choice – TTUBUBC! And the strangest thing happened, our phones stopped ringing!
From then on, TTUBUBC – System Status Report became a new and regular routine. Even though it didn’t fully communicate every aspect of the “big picture,” it was enough information to help alleviate the questions in making known what could be known.
Once again, I believe this has application as another fitting metaphor to the Christian life and the worries and anxieties we so often face. There is a Big Picture to all that transpires in God’s sovereign grace and providential rule. There are so many promises to that effect like Romans 8:28. And yes, it is not always as clear as we would like it to be. But Deut. 29:29, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Notice, “those things which are revealed” are contained in the Scriptures, all there for our information and learning, to “bring every thought captive to Christ.” 2Cor. 10:5 I’m constantly amazed when I meet a troubled soul for counseling or mentoring just how ignorant some are of the basic principles for their faith and practice. As an axiom for the Christian life, TTUBUBC might be better written as TTUAUBC, That the uninformed are uninformed by choice. 2Tim 3:16-17 states it this way, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…. In other words, the information is there, you have just got to let it in. Jesus speaks quite emphatically to the needs and blessings of the “hungry and teachable heart.” Matt. 5:6.
So, our phones quit ringing because the answers to those repeated questions were provided and were subsequently acted upon. There is however, a “rest of the story” to all this. After several months publishing the Friday System Status Report, Richard and I got somewhat comfortable doing it and well, a little creative as well. We began to add a little irony and humor to the narrative to sort of liven it up! One day when walking down one of the corporate office hallways, near where the higher-level executive offices were, I recieved a passing comment by a VP praising our System Status Report. …What? …Oh my, how did he see it? I hurried down to my desk a little panicky to confer with Richard, “What did we just say in the report? Oh, good grief!” This was only meant for the local station planners! What we didn’t know was that the planners were forwarding the emails to their managers, and so forth and so on, all the way up the ladder! As a result, Richard and I sheepishly went to our boss to make apology for any indiscretions. But we were told none was needed, to keep it up, humor and all. …You know, this provides another metaphor to the Bible as well. Scripture paints a very accurate, inglorious and sometime humorous picture of human nature and our history. Someone once said that one of the proofs that that Bible is inspired by God is that mere human beings would never have written such an unflattering narrative about themselves as we find in Scripture.
TTUBUBC
That The Uninformed Be Uninformed By Choice
