Stop and Think

The listeriosis infection and the inability to stop it in time from killing a dozen people should make us all pause and contemplate. We could have avoided this accident easily but since we are more concerned with perceptions than actual realities, we will always suffer such nonsense. Consider this, no matter where you work, you will find that what is advertised to the public at large and what actually goes on behind closed doors is always different. How many times have you said to yourself or to co-workers at your job that if the public at large knew what was really going on at your work they would be in an uproar. Then when something happens in some other industry than your own, you act surprised at the level of incompetence there. If there are foolish things in your work environment, do not be surprised to find out that other industries have their foolishness and that they were unlucky to have it blow up in their faces.

Listeriosis is but one symptom in one specific industry, what about the tazer death in the airport with the security team walking in and killing a frustrated tourist who had not had anything to eat for over 8 hours in a completely alien environment? What was the public told after this death before the video evidence was available to the public? What about Enron and its sudden financial downfall? There are many situations like this that happen and I believe that these happen because there is little respect for someone to stop, think and implement.

We are on a metaphorical boat that is taking on water through a hole. We will eventually sink if we do nothing. The hole is small and will get bigger if the boat acquires more water. The amount that comes in is 1.1 gallons. We have a bucket that can get rid of 1 gallon at a time. So we struggle with great speed and for every 1.1 gallons that comes onto the boat, we throw 1 gallon back into the sea. We don't seem to notice that more and more water is getting in and we keep working fast and hard. Much like the frog who avoids boiling water but will stay in a pot of water as it slowly reaches the boiling point, we don't see that the boat is getting more and more water which slowly enlarges the existing hole. My proposal would seem absurd and counter-intuitive and many would just discount my following suggestion as laziness.... but my proposal would be to stop using the bucket for a few moments and think of a way to plug in the hole. I agree that while we think, the boat will have acquired a few hundred gallons, but once we have the solution, we stop the flow completely and then we get rid of the existing water with the bucket, or think a bit more and find an easier way to get rid of this water. The boat can probably take about 10 thousand gallons before it sinks so we have a bit of luxury of time to find a solution.

I propose we work smarter, not harder. Society's thinkers are often ignored and mocked. We discourage true thinking in society, we encourage memorization of techniques, we discourage questions. Had I been a worker in the meat plant, I would have asked "Shouldn't we test to see if the food was poisoned because the workstation was infected, the food may also have been infected?" This would have been answered with condescension that the procedures exist to avoid such things and that as a non-decision-maker I should not ask questions but follow the existing procedures. How many of us have had similar experiences in our personal workplace? I sincerely hope your workplace is not the next accident where the rest of us will shake our heads and mock the "other guy" and his incompetencies. Last year was Enron, last week was the tazer death, today its listeriosis.... what industry will have its foolishness blow up in its face next?