It's About Time

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to operate on a patient who has a number of things wrong with her. She's on dialysis; she has had a stroke; and her lungs and her pancreas aren't working very well. She needs four bypasses, and she needs to have a valve replaced. Now, suppose that two of the four bypasses require a lot of time-consuming technical work. If that's the case, then I'll probably end up repairing one or two of the most critical vessels, replacing the valve, and then closing the patient up.

I'd much rather have someone who's up and functioning with a less-than-perfect heart than someone who has had four successful bypasses -- but who is paralyzed on one side and can't talk. Have you ever heard the saying "The operation was a success, but the patient died"? Ultimately, that's what surgeons try to avoid.

O. Wayne Isom (owisom@mail.med.cornell.edu) has probed the hearts of talk-show host Larry King, former U.S. Treasury Secretary William Simon, and former U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers, among others. "They all look the same on the inside," Isom says.

Bonnie Dunbar

NASA astronaut
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas

I've made good use of my time by remaining optimistic and energetic about the future, and by choosing not to agonize over things that I can't change. There's no better way to waste time in life than to dwell on the past. You should learn from the past with as much objectivity as possible, so that you can modify your future actions -- and then move on.

I wanted to be an astronaut at a time when there weren't any women astronauts. When I was growing up, women couldn't do what I wanted to do. Yet I clung to my goal. So I looked toward the future. I knew that someday women would become astronauts, and when they did, I wanted to be as qualified for the job as possible. I loved aviation when I was a teenager, so I thought that I'd become an astronaut by starting out as a military test pilot. But back then, women weren't admitted into air-force or navy programs. I applied later, when they started admitting women -- but officials told me that I was too old. So I had to take a different route. I studied engineering and eventually became a mission specialist. I still get to fly, and I have a rewarding and productive job, overseeing scientific experiments and other operations that take place in space.

I've always believed that if you remain optimistic, and if you prepare yourself for opportunities, then those opportunities will find you. I tell young women not to let themselves feel discouraged just because there's a fence on this side of the pasture: The gate may be open on the other side.

Bonnie Dunbar (bonnie.j.dunbar1@jsc.nasa.gov) has exited earth's atmosphere five times -- most recently in 1998, when she served as payload commander of the space shuttle Endeavour. During that mission, she was in charge of 23 science and technology experiments, as well as 9,000 pounds of scientific equipment, logistical hardware, and water (for delivery to the Russian space station Mir). Dunbar has spent more than 50 days in space and has orbited the earth 796 times. From 1995 to 1996, she was assistant director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

Joe Greulich

Director of MIS
Roberts Express
Akron, Ohio

We're a high-speed delivery service, so our revenue is based on our ability to manage time. We ship freight -- quickly and on time. And we're proud of our record: We complete 96% of our jobs within 15 minutes of our estimated time of arrival. We do so by gearing every element of our business toward time.

We've set up our salary structure to match our speed objectives, because we believe that people will accomplish tasks rapidly when they're given the incentive to do so. For example, up to 60% of my salary is pegged to how quickly Windows pops up on our computers. We also keep track of each customer-assistance team's on-time record for pickup and delivery. The people on a customer-assistance team can make up to 16% of their salary in bonuses -- depending on how prompt the team's deliveries have been.

Perhaps the most important principle that we've learned is that you should never sacrifice humanity for speed. We track how long employees are on the phone and award bonus points if they take calls speedily. That gives them an incentive to handle customer calls quickly. But we found that, as a result of this policy, employees were giving short shrift to our truck drivers, who also call in for help. So we've hired a person whose sole mission is to talk to truck drivers about problems that they encounter on the road.

Joe Greulich (jgreulich@roberts.com) is in charge of Roberts Express's information systems -- both terrestrial and extraterrestrial. The company monitors its 2,000 trucks using a satellite tracking system that automatically alerts a call center whenever a shipment is going to be late. The system also enables customers to get real-time status reports on their shipments via the Internet. Roberts Express is a division of FDX.