Remove Hidden Wedges and Employee Retention

The ice storm that winter wasn’t generally destructive. True, a few wires came down, and there was a sudden jump in accidents along the highway. Normally, the big walnut tree could easily have borne the weight that formed on its spreading limbs. It was the iron wedge in its heart that caused the damage.

The story of the iron wedge began years ago when the white-haired farmer who now inhabited the property on which it stood was a lad on his father’s homestead. The sawmill had then only recently been moved from the valley, and the settlers were still finding tools and odd pieces of equipment scattered about.

On this particular day, it was a faller’s wedge—wide, flat, and heavy, a foot or more long, and splayed from mighty poundings which the lad found in the south pasture. A faller’s wedge, used to help fell a tree, is inserted in a cut made by a saw and then struck with a sledge hammer to widen the cut. Because he was already late for dinner, the lad laid the wedge between the limbs of the young walnut tree his father had planted near the front gate. He would take the wedge to the shed right after dinner, or sometime when he was going that way.

He truly meant to, but he never did. The wedge was there between the limbs, a little tight, when he attained his manhood. It was there, now firmly gripped, when he married and took over his father’s farm. It was half grown over on the day the threshing crew ate dinner under the tree. Grown in and healed over, the wedge was still in the tree the winter the ice storm came.

In the chill silence of that wintry night one of the three major limbs split away from the trunk and crashed to the ground. This so unbalanced the remainder of the top that it, too, split apart and went down. When the storm was over, not a twig of the once-proud tree remained.

Early the next morning, the farmer went out to mourn his loss.

Then, his eyes caught sight of something in the splintered ruin. “The wedge,” he muttered reproachfully. “The wedge I found in the south pasture.” A glance told him why the tree had fallen. Growing, edge-up in the trunk, the wedge had prevented the limb fibers from knitting together as they should.

-Samuel T. Whitman in “Forgotten Wedges” as shared by Thomas S. Monson

Within every startup or organization, there are individuals with hidden wedges. These are sensitive matters that gnaw on team members. They might be harmless now, but they could fester and grow severe later on.

Sometimes team members give slight hints about the things that bother them. Slight hints are often of deeper importance to the individual than they sound, because people naturally hide some of the things that bother them.

When slight hints are given, it is tempting to ignore them. “Let it pass; let is blow over,” is the convenient strategy that naturally comes to mind. “If I dig deeper, I could make a mountain out of a mole hill,” is the logic.

However, the danger of hidden wedges is real. My advice is to pay close attention to the slight hints that come along as team members express frustration. Dig deeper tactfully. Ferret out the root causes of concern. Nip things in the bud. Follow-up a week later and make sure things are better. Take it seriously.

Otherwise, you’ll find yourself receiving the 2-week notice of key employees.

Allen Nance wrote a nice post tonight on creating a culture of low employee turnover, so check that out too.

What are your thoughts on employee retention and removing hidden wedges?

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