Touch vs. Consistency

It seems to me there are a couple different ways to make sure you achieve high quality outcomes, using touch, or by being consistent.

“Touch” as used here is the ability to react to change dynamics and to be able to get the desired result you’re looking for. If you’re cooking strawberry shortcake and your strawberries are less ripe than usual, adding more sugar is “touch”. If you are driving an Uber and a customer seems particularly agitated with conversation, so you dial it back you are using “touch”.

The alternative is to use consistency. To measure all the ingredients in the baked goods exactly the same by weight. To re-calibrate the scale and the oven routinely and cook to the same times so everything comes out exactly the same. If you’re the Uber driver to always make conversation with people so that anyone using you can know exactly what to expect and that you only start to get people who enjoy the conversations you make.

We all may be using a combination of touch and consistency in our lives depending on the tasks we choose to work on, however, most people probably have a preference towards one over the other. It’s worth thinking about which you use, in which tasks, and how you can best utilize your skills to maximize your “touch” or your “consistency”.