crank the handle

present singular third person cranks the handle · participle present cranking the handle · participle past cranked the handle · past cranked the handle

1. idiomaticbusinessTo perform a process; to do some work.

   “What do you mean?” said Ozbek. “All he has to do is slide some paper in there, ink the quill and crank the handle”

   2008, Brad Thor, The Last Patriot, Atria Books

   3 more examples

   There are various ways you can do this, including creating capacity by building a strong team, or by setting the sales stream up in such a way that anyone can crank the handle and keep the products going out and the customer demand coming in.

   2006, Rebecca Jordan, Kirsty Weir, In Good Company: The essential business start-up guide for women, A & C Black, page 229

   The suspension of one's critical faculty is not possible in a risk management exercsie. It is not simply a “crank the handle” process: intelligent analysis needs to be applied at all times throughout the activity, including critical review of the appropriateness of any methodology for an organisation's specific circumstances.

   2009, Nick Gifford, Information Security: Managing the Legal Risks, Australia: CCH

   These five questions provide a framework for analyzing the benefits and costs, opportunities and risks. It won't provide a bright-line test or a crank-the-handle algorithm. But you shouldn't be looking for that here anyway.

   2010, Robert Mnookin, Bargaining with the Devil: When the Negotiate, When to Fight, Simon & Schuster, pages 32–33