Most of you who are reading this live and work in a world where your cognitive skills outweigh your manual repair skills. That description certainly applies to me, as I consider myself home-improvement impaired. If something is broken, I call a repair person or my wife, who, in retirement, takes pride in her ability to fix things.
Personally, I envy those who know how to do home repairs, which includes many of my friends. That envy led me to read Michael B. Crawford’s classic book, “Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work.” Published in 2009, it is now in its 28th printing, and as a review in The Washington Post put it, “May upend your preconceptions about labor, and just maybe, cause you to rethink your career (or how you spend your weekends).”
To the rescue
“The repairman is called in when the smooth operation of our world has been disrupted,” writes Crawford, “and at such moments our dependence on things normally taken for granted… is brought into vivid awareness.” We need help when the plumbing leaks, the light switch breaks or the garbage disposal quits. Those who can fix these problems, and by extension ours, are skilled tradespeople. Yes, they work with their hands, but they employ significant cognitive skills to diagnose the problem and fix it.
Crawford knows of what he writes. He has worked as an electrician and motorcycle repairman and, by the way, holds a doctorate in political philosophy from the University of Chicago. He is now a research fellow at the University of Virginia.
Crawford’s take on fixing things echoes Robert Pirsig’s tome, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” Both books have roots in philosophy and down-to-earth practical applications. One lesson I took from Pirsig’s book, which I read 50 years ago, was to get into the proper position to fix things. As one who is home-improvement impaired, the idea of getting into a comfortable position before you try to repair something, or even nail two boards together, makes perfect sense. And sure beats bending over, nearly upside down so the blood rushes to your head, as you seek to loosen a stuck screw before you pass out.
Essence of resourcefulness
What “Shop Class as Soulcraft” teaches is resourcefulness. In a throwaway culture such as ours, where designed obsolescence is not a myth but a reality — ask your neighborhood appliance service tech — machines can be fixed. You need to know how. Learning how to fix things, and doing it well, becomes a craft in itself. Crawford distinguishes craft, as in artisanal skill, from being a mechanic or electrician: Mechanics repair. Artists create.
I would argue, however, that repairing well requires the ability to envision the result, a working thing, and the ability to make it so. That requires mastery, or a true sense of craftsmanship. And therein lies a lesson for those in management. Identify the skills of the individuals on your team and find ways to let them apply those skills to complement the task and the mission. For example, one person may be a conceptualist, able to formulate something new or streamline a process. Another may be detail-oriented and able to keep projects on track and on time.
Labor builds community
A theme Crawford draws upon throughout the book is the value of tacit knowledge, the knowledge behind the knowledge. The ability to understand how things work and how to make them work efficiently or better. Rooted in such knowledge is the labor required to execute. In short, we need to think and act to succeed.
Near the end of “Soulcraft,” Crawford places his work within a sense of community. “I try to be a good motorcycle mechanic. This effort connects me to others, in particular to those who exemplify good motorcycling, because they can best judge how well I realized the functional goods I am aiming at…
“The narrow mechanical things I concern myself with are inscribed within a larger circle of meaning; they are in service of an activity that we recognize as part of a life well-lived. This common recognition, which needn’t be spoken, is the basis for a friendship that orients by concrete images of excellence.”
Labor, manual or cognitive, when well done, creates a sense of mutuality that links the laborer to the end user.