All Hands on Deck; Don't Deck the Hands

Today in Vacation Bible School at the church we were wrapping up over 200 barbeque sandwiches. It took a while to work out the system. When we first started we'd run into each other and shuffle, but eventually we got the system down. We were laughing because one person saw a "quality control" issue where we'd put two bun tops together.  We laughed and fixed it - but she commented:

"Wouldn't you know when that happens that the most ornery person in the whole place would have gotten that sandwich."

Yes, that is about how it goes.

This quote came out of that conversation - we had to do another 50 plates and I yelled out --

"All hands on deck and don't deck the hands!"  

(For my international friends, deck is a word for slugging or hitting someone!)

Someone else said

"And if our hand quits, we don't have any more hands!"

It fits.

Why do we deck the hands?
Sometimes when we've got everyone working on something new and there is an issue, we lay blame on the hands! This is particularly irritating if we let someone who isn't even working in the process totally frustrate and make us want to quit. (i.e. the ornery person who got the bbq sandwich with two tops!)

Those people are working, sweating, and have just produced many excellent products and mess up on one! Just one! Don't deck the hands, friends!  They might not quit on your physically but they just might quit psychologically which is even worse. Then, you have a body taking a spot who isn't really there!

So, as you work on 1:1 laptop implementation and all of the projects this summer -- call it out!

"All hands on deck; don't deck the hands!"

Good luck!