Take Habits For A Ride

Long time ago, while approaching a crossroad where red light was blinking, I slowed down the jeep that I was driving.

Just about when I was to cross the signal, suddenly a biker overtook me from left in a flash. He almost took a ninety degree turn to right, crossed me and sped away. By the time I could realise what was happening, he evaporated in thin air.

His dangerous adventure was just short of being fatal. His motor cycle narrowly escaped  bumper of my jeep. Perhaps the elephant-god saved him. It was the first day of Lord Ganesha's festival in Mumbai. So what the blind faith may prompt one to believe so.

He took himself for a ride 
Death almost came calling in stride
Why don't habits suicide

Couple of mistakes that he committed was he overtook from wrong side. At the crossroad looking at amber signal in particular he should've slowed down instead of zipping in. He should've stayed in the extreme right lane well beforehand with indication signal ON if he wanted to take right turn.

Perhaps for him those were "I've been doing this for years" kind of 'skills' rather than mistakes. So how does one tackle such 'skill-full' mistakes?

Mistake-proof methods (Poka-yoke) should be in place particularly in high-probability high-risk zones. Poka-yoke is an innovation by Shigeo Shingo at Toyota. Poka stands for a mistake. Yoke stands for proofing against it. It's a commonsense improvement (Kaizen) but with a structure. In order to prevent nail-biting habit, application of something on fingers that tastes bitter is an age-old Poka-yoke used by a typical grandma.

For instance, in accident prone areas there should be guided lane dividers to prevent sudden lane changing habits. Rumblers should be provided to force slowing down at crossroads. Speed measuring devices should be installed alongwith cameras to detect speedsters.

In spite of the above, some practices (Habits!) get ingrained in us so much that they become our second nature. If the habits are for good then it's fine. Otherwise even if you want them to die they don't! Instead they make sure that you do!

By using various grandma kind (Sama-Dama) methods one may try to change habits piece-by-piece. But a piece still remains until you lose your peace. Habits do die but they die hard way.

Habit is a H. A. B. I. T.
Even if you remove H in it, A BIT remains.
Remove A; and BIT still remains.
Remove B; but until you remove 'I' in it, IT still remains.

The only way to remove 'I' in it is to teach IT (the self) by a stick if everything else fails. If you don't, the habit-prone may 'poke' a 'yoke' in the Poka-yoke itself.

Here's a MaiKu© on the topic.

Back-n-forth Habits sway 
Unless they die hardway
Few mistake-proof by-the-way 

MaiKu© Is My-Haiku

Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Please consider leaving a comment or sharing this post via social media.

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?

In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !!

Beware Of Political-Presentations

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) 
Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2) 
Discrimination Cremated! But How Long? 

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?

A Ride To Hell

Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !

Nauseous Communication Gaps

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Will It Work Here? 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

Technology in-place, security dis-placed

I am afraid ! What do I do !! 

Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?

Can cigarette butts start (bush) fires?

A study at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) provided solid proof. The laboratory trials found cigarette butts ignited the hay in 33% of cases under combination of a certain conditions: wind speed, fuel moisture and the degree of contact between the fuel bed and combustion area of the cigarette. During the survey, 426 cigarette butts were collected in a 60 square meter area.

Now can you say which one of such abandoned butts might contribute to 33% that cause fires?

Can dangerous road conditions cause accident-deaths?

Washington Post (dataflurry.com Jul 22nd 2009) published an estimate that over 22,000 of the 42,000 people that die each year in USA from automobile accidents (i.e. over 50% deaths) occur because of dangerous road conditions such as potholes, fading lane-line-markings, missing road-signs, and debris that gathers on roadways, hazardous highways, narrow roads, etc. Rest deaths are caused by driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding excessively, and even neglecting wearing a seat-belt.

Now can you say which one of those narrow roads or potholes (see picture) is a potential death trap?

Worldwide an estimated 200 to 300 million malaria infections occur each year with 2 to 3 million deaths. A person gets malaria from the bite of an infected female mosquito.

Now can one guard oneself from an infected female mosquito?

One may find it difficult to find answers to such questions as: Which female mosquito is infected? and Which one of those will bite? and Which one of those bites might cause malaria?

In other words, it is difficult to know which one or more of the typical abnormalities in daily life might strike you in the form of a crisis or a disaster and when so. What is most likely is 1-in-every-300-abnormalities of similar nature might strike you sometime if one goes by the '1-30-300 Safety-Maintenance-Pyramid' of Kaizen¹. And when it strikes, it does bring with it corresponding intangible as well as colossal tangible losses or costs called as 'Costs-of-Quality' in Kaizen¹ parlance.

In that case isn't it wiser to take more-care every-time one is confronted with 'signals' of such abnormalities in 'seed' stage?

- It may be a municipality possibly doubly-caring to look for causes of cracks before they turn into cracks that then graduate into moon-ly-craters. Expecting municipality to be prompt for the benefit of tax-paying customer sounds difficult though!
- It may be a driver/rider doubly-caring not to speed-up in order to prevent getting trapped into a crater.

- It may be a police strictly dealing with a 'No-Entry' violator or a petty thief. 

- It may be a caring mother/warden cautioning (although at the cost of sounding irritating) her child/ward of 'signals' or to look right-n-left for vehicles before crossing roads.

- It may be a caring mother serving 'boiled-water' for drinking or
- It may be a caring father ensuring actions such as 'no-open-gutters' or spraying mosquito repellent in/around house.

Isn't it wiser to take care of (recognise) those who take care of 'seeds' as above.

Wise are those who do and those who know 'when' to overlook 'which' of the 300-abnormalities and 'how'?

Overlooking does not mean ignoring the abnormalities. 'How' part is supposed to address the means i.e. to know 'what' care should be taken with 'how much' risk while overlooking the chosen ones. Sometimes decisions are needed to be taken with calculated² risks if facts and figures are available in time. It's like  making decisions by 'wearing a helmet'. Sometimes it's with ³judgmental-helmet particularly in emergencies.

In absence of being wiser, an over-confident fellow must get ready to 'fall again-n-again' like Mr-Foolhardy and keep endlessly hoping to get 'cured' of the resultant crisis under someone else's 'paid-intensive-care': The 'Costs-of-Quality' for self as well as for her customer in case of a business-delivery.

That's the theme under exploratory care of this blog: Prevention-Is-The-Best-Cure! Or Care-Is-The-Best-Cure!

Keeping fingers crossed hoping that the mission proceeds in right direction!


Footnote-1, Kaizen is the continual  improvement philosophy (or science or culture) that provides ways-&-means to manage both the prevention of crises as well as quick relief from crises. The ways-&-means are composed of a judicious balance of both the intrinsic motivation (typical eastern-approach) as well as extrinsic motivation such as carrot-&-stick (typical western-approach) where needed.

Footnote-2, FMEA is a Kaizen-tool that gives a calculated number to the risks called as Risk-Priority-Number (RPN).  

 Footnote-3,  For analytical and judgmental tools to make a decision refer, book "World-Of-Kaizen: A Total Quality Culture For Survival" Authored by Shyam Talawadekar.