Averages kill

As a company grows it starts looking at averages rather than specifics. Management decisions are then based on averages rather than on specifics.

There is an interesting saying on 'averages'. It says that the concept of average is like a bikini. What it reveals is interesting but what it hides is vital.

So as the company grows the vital things get hidden from the management's view. The management stops seeing the right things. And as a result sooner or later the company trips over and falls flat on its face either breaking a bone or eventually dying in the process.

The photograph shows how the 'law of triangulation' and the 'law of putting small things together to improve performance' work in increasing the stiffness (performance) of a structure.

This structure has been constructed out of very thin sheets (3 mm) of corrogated plastic material. Individually, each sheet can be crumpled up by the pressure of one hand. A five year old can do that easily.

But a miracle happens when such thin sheets are cleverly placed on top of each other and glued together to form innumerable small triangles. When constructed like this the material as a whole suddendly gains enormous strength. The structure does not give way under the load of six to seven adults standing or dancing on the fabricated structure.

The principle of 'triangulation' and the principle of 'putting small things together to change performance' come in handy to engineers to find creative solutions to their problems.

Organisational Awareness

Today I conducted a Review Test on System Reliability at Phoenix Yule. My idea was to test the participants on their understanding of the concepts, which might be realized from their individual scores. That is what I thought.

But the participants did something more intelligent than that. They put down all the scores (question wise) for all participants on an Excel worksheet and tried to look for some emerging patterns.

And soon they found many. I was simply amazed by the way they critically and openly examined their own shortcomings and organizational loopholes. They realised all by themselves that they and the organisation as a whole did not realize that keen and good quality observation was the key to solve 80 % of their problems.

They didn't stop at that. They then went forward to create a simple plan (I am a great believer of simple plans) to take care of their problems.

The lesson I learnt was that a group of eager and empowered people would go to any extent to make them and their organisation successful.

The other important lesson I took to heart is to freely part with your knowledge but not to thrust your ideas upon others. Only then people feel empowered and act on their new found knowledge.

Goodbye for now!

Why Maintenance module in SAP does not work?

Some of the primary reasons are the following:

1. When management uses it as a control mechanism rather than an empowering tool.

2. When the design of the module is too complicated or complex.

3. When it is designed more as a financial record keeping book

On Bees and Mobiles

A scientist from from the southern most state of India, Kerela, says that with the present rate of growth of mobile towers has not only lowered the growth rate of bees but also threatens their survival. When exposed to mobile waves the bees lose their orientation so much so that they fail to return to their hives.

He estimates that at this rate, entire population of bees would be wiped out in Kerala within the next five to ten years.

This is a fine example of 'system interaction'. In this example, we have at least two elements: mobile towers and bees. And they interact with each other in a special way that would wipe out the population of bees. It is interesting to note that when in a system no individual element is important by itself. In our case neither the bee nor the tower is important and the both lose their individual identities when they are within a system. When viewed from this perspective there is neither the bees nor the towers but a new entity emerges.

In this manner everything in our universe belongs to one system or the other or belong to multiple systems, simultaneously. Hence none of the element retains any individual identity but their real- time- behaviour is solely determined by the constant interactions of elements within various systems within which the elements survive.