Valve Magazine - Summer 2011

PERSPECTIVES

Valve MAGAZINE

www.ValveMagazine.com

Learning Goes in

Both Directions

EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD
Richard D. Oaks
AUMA AC TUATORS, INC.

Mike Hendrick CONVAL, INC.

Doug Clendenin
CRANE FLOW SOLUTIONS

John Wells
EMERSON PROCESS
MANAGEMENT

Ed Holtgraver QTRCO, INC.

Christopher Warnett ROTORK CONTROLS, INC.

Who hasn’t heard these much-used phrases?

; That’s the way we have always done it.

; Who are you to tell me how to do my job?

; If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

VALVE MAGAZINE (ISSN No. 1057-
2813) is the official magazine of the
Valve Manufacturers Association of
America (VMA) and is published
quarterly by VMA, located at
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After returning from VMA’s most recent educational program on the campus of the University of Calgary, where I mingled with both contemporaries and the generation we hope will be tomorrow’s valve industry professionals, I began to question such thinking. Are these phrases sayings of the past? Are we, the “elder statesmen” of our industry, turning a deaf ear to the newer generation? Yes, we have been doing things a certain way for umpteen years, but are there better ways?

For example, I have worked with numbers for most of my professional life so I thought I knew just about all there was to know about Lotus and then Excel. However, when I ran into a problem recently in Excel, I consulted my son. He showed me not only how to solve the problem at hand, but also showed me about 15 other Excel tricks I didn’t know existed—even though I thought I was an expert.

Similarly, when I listened to the engineering students in Calgary, I heard not only good questions but good ideas about the products we are so familiar with on a day-to-day basis. These are unbelievably inquisitive minds that we shouldn’t ignore. Instead, all educational programs should be a two-way street—we have a lot to share with the next generation and the one after that, but we also are never too old to learn. We should always be using both our mouths and our ears. This is why this column is entitled: Learning Goes in Both Directions.

Instead of using the phrases above, let’s encourage new phrases such as:

; What are your thoughts on our current process?

; Do you feel there is a better way to accomplish our goals?

; Give me your input on these issues.

In other words, don’t close the door between the conversations: make them two-way. I know it is sometimes hard to give up old practices or accept there is another way to do things, but we can all learn alongside those that are learning from us. VM