The PJ (poor joke) above might no longer remain a PJ if banana peel is replaced by a typical problematic situation one encounters in daily routine. The question remains unanswered then: Why do some people find it difficult to act beyond cure? They do think 'Prevention is The Best Cure' though! I was no different from them! But now my journey is gathering speed, hopefully in the direction that the blog is supposed to drive towards. Checkout my other blogs and work at http://www.worldOFkaizen.com/
Showing posts with label Responsibility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Responsibility. Show all posts

Thursday, 31 July 2014

Invisible Tension

"You have to pay penalty: Rupees Two Thousand.

Why Ma'am?

Because you didn't 'declare' that you had held a passport as a child.

Madam it's inadvertent. During last visit the other 'window' advised to make fresh application under 'reissue' category instead of 'renewal'.

Then go to that window", shouted the 'cashier' (window).

"Fine. I don't have cash right now. Do you have facility to pay on-line?

Don't waste my time...". The lady reacted with an angry sermon. She kept me waiting endlessly. At the closing hours she put some remarks on the application asking to come back on Monday.

Questions that remained unanswered were:

Has she put some adverse remarks on the application?
Are they going to accept the penalty in cash on Monday?
If they do, then what are the next steps?
How many days it'll take to get the passport?
If they don't, then what? And so on.

My son returned with these thoughts that kept bothering him until Monday.

In many situations, one gets preoccupied with such worrying thoughts primarily because of lack of visibility of "what next?"

Someone borrows money but doesn't observe commitment to repay. Nor does he bother to give visibility to when he'll repay. A case of shattering trust.

School authorities don't give visibility for admission process and deadlines and so on.

A standard advice under such circumstances is not to get preoccupied with worrying thoughts. But it's easier said than done.

Isn't there some responsibility (on us as suppliers) to our customers?

Can't we bring in visibility to our role in meeting expectations of the customer and a timeline to do so?

Or is it a strategy by design to give the customers sleepless nights by forcing her to guess "what next?"

If 'Yes', then for a criminal it might be fine. But otherwise it's a criminal behavior.

Saturday, 15 March 2014

Discrimination Cremated! But How Long?

Can you see the traffic-jam in 'Before' picture. 

The change seen in 'After' picture is captured on next day. It so far has lasted for a day at least until writing of this post. Authorities took a couple of vigilance rounds after twilight also. 'Being vigilant on what one wants' was one of the success factors. 

Although it might be too early to rejoice this it didn't happen overnight.

It took more than seven years to see such a desired picture. Public had been struggling to get a solution since then. Authorities with all their might were unable to control a few heavy vehicles parked there illegally, causing trouble to traffic as well as to the community. One may read more details in my blogposts titled "Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) and (Part-2) that prompted title of this post. 

But how long will this last? 

Just about I was penning this down see what the other picture that I took at the other end of the road about 30-yards away says.

I tweeted the abnormality as "Corporate-Social-IrResponsibility@HajuriRoad Thane. India Shines! Effluent disposal on road. Road blocked."

Sanjivani (my better half) dials Police-Control-Room #100. Alerts our society's security guards. A few alert citizens don't allow 'them' to take it for granted. The 'irresponsibles' RETREAT. INDIA WINS!!!

All within just about half an hour.

Yes.. ss.. ss! Social media does work sometimes!

The point is how and why everyone just takes-it-for-granted.

So with such an attitude of various stakeholders it's foolish to conclude that changes for the better such as in first picture will sustain on their own.

What's the learning?

Change can happen overnight if people-in-power take up causes of common-interest seriously and with a sense-of-urgency at that.

'They' ('suppliers' of the trouble as well as service-providers) do and will test patience of people-NOT-in-power. So people-NOT-in-power must persevere and "keep-knocking" their-doors even by guerrilla tactics if required.  

It's unfortunate but true that citizens in high-mistrust, inefficient and in-effective societies have to spend more than half their waking hours in non-value activities such as visiting and revisiting government authorities' and supplier's workplaces for reworks and follow-ups.

Be vigilant otherwise "But-How-Long?" will keep you haunting.

Use technology as a powerful enabler. That's one way to speed up the snails.

Faster you rejoice faster you will repent. Let equanimity prevail.


Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) 

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2) 

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

A Ride To Hell

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Taken-For-Granted? You deserve it! 

Will It Work Here

Technology in-place, security dis-placed

India-shining

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Customer or Custo-Mer

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
 

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2)


Do you want to know how to Tax-Tax-Tax?

How to: Tax-Citizens, Tax-Nation, Tax-The-Planet !

Have you read this joke about two guys working for the municipality? One would dig a hole. He would dig, dig, dig. The other behind him would fill the hole. 

'Dig-Dig-Dig' followed by 'Fill-Fill-Fill'! 

A man watching the furious activity from sidelines was confused. He finally asked them what they were doing. The hole-digger replied, "Oh yes it does look funny but the guy who plants trees is sick today."

So when the tree-guy resumes his duty, rework will resume dutifully is it?

This question kept bothering the confused man.  He kept  wondering about their unique Principles-n-Practices:

Dig-Dig-Dig ! 
Fill-Fill-Fill !!
Tax-Tax-Tax !!!

Break-Break-Break !
Make-Make-Make !!
Waste-Waste-Waste !!!

What is the relevance of the rework-joke here?

The question raised in my earlier blogpost titled Discrimination-is-cremation of law-&-order: Part-1 was "Why footpath on the other side was not made-up yet?". See red-circle in picture-4 from Part-1 above.

Eventually if & when they do it, I was hopeful that the past improvement (see green-circle in picture-4) that of a ¹mistake-proof divider for saplings would be replicated on the other side. I was happy, for it would make it difficult for parked vehicles to run over saplings on the other side as well, of course if planted. I was also hopeful that it will provide a tree-lined walking-avenue for pedestrians.

But alas, I was proven wrong!

With elections a couple of months away, the 5-year-pending work did get a push as a 'shining-opportunity'. However, picture-5 clearly shows that the improvement itself was undone while reworking the footpath after leaving it unused (without planting trees) for over 5 years.

Picture-6 also shows a rework of breaking the made-footpath in order to 'embed drain-pipes below it'. Perhaps a result of an inadequate design then or it was forgotten 5 years ago due to lack of inspection checks.

Do you know cost of rework?

Can you now calculate COPQ (Cost-Of-Poor-Quality) of Poor-Design that results in such rework?: Cost of extra labor & extra material (as can be seen in picture-7). Surprising that the old stones were not recycled forcing extra mining. Perhaps the regulatory authorities did not know that excessive mining is akin to raping the planet.

Other costs are cost of delays causing inconvenience, accidents², traffic jams, etc. It's typically a different Indian-story that the newly made-up 'foot-path' is creatively used as a 'scooter-path' (see picture-8). Now the traffic-police doesn't enter the 'path-zone' for penal action in 'municipal-jurisdiction'.

Apart from COPQ as above, issue of survival of saplings itself (if at all planted somewhere by the side) stays doubtful like in past. It goes without saying that cost to the planet and people as a result of inadequate tree-cover is intangible.

Now you may know relevance of the Dig-Dig-Dig Fill-Fill-Fill joke above!

The tangible and intangible impact of such 'rework-factories' that keep repeating rework due to sick-designs, sick-planning, sick-administration, sick-shoddy quality-of-work is insurmountable !!

It is like someone breaking your window-glass for fun. 
You change it for fun. 
Glass-factories profit on this break-make game and make fun. 

Or it's like making a shoddy road. 
You drive on it to rub tyres and enjoy the fun. 
Tyre-factories enjoy the fun as a bye-product of this rub-on-road game. 

Main fun-product is profiteering from road-construction contracts. The vicious cycle of costly 'Dig-Fill' and 'Break-Make' game goes on pushing public to experience death daily.

What is the solution?

Why should the 'sick' people responsible for this not be held accountable by slapping a Rework-Tax on them equivalent to at least the tangible part of COPQ

Research shows that such COPQ that gets embedded in a typical project cost work out to not less than 30%. In other words, there is a profit-potential of at least 30% if sick-work-rework chain is broken. An answer to this chaos until of course you add more tips and thoughts to this, is installing Kaizen-culture and penalizing indisciplined shoddy work with a sense-of-urgency.

Let us exercise our choice to engage in improvement culture. Let us not allow above kind of 'sickness' to be reflected in our own work and workplace !!!


Footnote-1, Mistake-proofing is called as Pokayoke in Kaizen parlance
Footnote-2, Accidents due to dirty-dagerous-difficult (3-D) situations