The Exception is the Rule
Recently, I was trying to help a client (let me call them
"StartupCompany") mired in conflicts, exceptions, errors, anomalies,
lapses, modifications and other deviations from the norm. These
annoying exceptions were playing tricks with my blood pressure, so I
had to be wired to a wearable blood pressure computer for twenty-four
hours. As if StartupCompany didn't have enough interruptions, now my
wearable computer was inflating a blood pressure cuff at random
intervals throughout the day.
Every time the cuff inflated, I petulantly asked myself: Why can't
they run a project like real people living run-of-the-mill,
low-blood-pressure lives?
That night, I was using the Yellow Pages, and in the A categories in
the Yellow Pages index, I chanced to notice a curious pattern. Here
are the first few items:
Abortion Services and Alternatives. These were the first two entries
in the index. I decided to skip them both, so as not to take sides in
the pro-choice/pro-life conflict. I had enough conflicts within
StartupCompany.
Abuse - Men, Women, Children. I decided to continue my scan of the
index, and this was the next entry. The normal process of family
living involves people loving and respecting each other, communicating
well, and behaving appropriately according to societal norms. But when
people start behaving inappropriately, they need Abuse Services. In
StartupCompany, people normally respected one another, communicated
well, and behaved appropriately according to societal norms. But they
sometimes didn't, and they lacked "abuse services" for coping.
Academies (including private schools and special education). When the
formal education system doesn't provide special knowledge or handle
special cases, private academies and special education are called for.
People within StartupCompany often needed to know things they hadn't
learned in the public schools, but StartupCompany had no provision for
special education.
Accident Prevention. Accidents aren't "supposed" to happen,
StartupCompany had accidents. In order to improve, they needed
processes to prevent accidents and to mitigate their consequences.
Accordions. Despite what some people think, accordions are perfectly
normal, though not everybody learns to play them or appreciate them.
Still, StartupCompany could have used some entertainment to lighten
the mood once in a while.
Accountants. Accounting is also normal, but, if everything always went
according to plan, we wouldn't need to account for things so
carefully. We have to protect our financial well-being from mistakes
and misbehavior, and that's what accountants do - and also what they
should have been doing in StartupCompany.
Acetylene Welding. Some welding is normal, and some is for repairing
things that are not supposed to break - but do anyway. StartupCompany
lacked a "welding team" to handle lots of stuff that broke.
Acrylic Nails. Most normal people have fingernails, so why is there a
nail business? Oh, yes, it's the human interface, and StartupCompany
had to cope with conflicting ideas of what made a system beautiful -
but they had no special beauty experts to resolve the conflicts.
Acting Instruction. We all need to "put on an act" now and then when
we're caught by surprise. StartupCompany's people certainly needed
training in how to behave in improvisational situations, but there was
no acting instruction.
Acupressure/Acupuncture. If we were all healthy all the time, we
wouldn't need medical services, and if "normal" Western medical
services worked all the time, we wouldn't need acupressure and
acupuncture. So, there are not only abnormal services, but
meta-abnormal services - the services when the normal abnormal
services fail - certainly true in StartupCompany.
Addressing Service. Have you ever tried to maintain a mailing list?
Almost all the work is not the mailing itself, but maintaining the
addresses. It's even worse for email, because email services haven't
yet evolved "normal" ways of dealing with changes. Gee, neither had
StartupCompany.
Adjusters. Adjusters, of course, are an abnormal service from the
get-go. Without accidents, we wouldn't need insurance, and if things
stayed on course, StartupCompany wouldn't have needed risk analysis.
But they did.
Adobe Materials and Contractors. Adobe materials may not be "normal"
where you live, but here in New Mexico, adobe is a normal building
method. StartupCompany, too, has its idiosyncratic processes that are
not normal in other projects - and newcomers have to learn about them
or pay the price. But StartupCompany had no special services to bring
newcomers up to speed.
Adoption Services. Yes, sometimes people are not wanted by their
parents, and StartupCompany certainly had some unwanted people. But,
they lacked "adoption" services for moving unwanted people around.
Adult Supervisory Care. "Normal" adults can take care of themselves
without supervision, and normal workers wouldn't need much managing at
all. But StartupCompany had two adults who could not take proper care
of themselves, and the managers spent an inordinate amount of time on
these two out of a hundred.
I stopped there, sobered by my reading. It was now clear to me that
StartupCompany, being a startup, had an overly simplistic picture of
what it takes to run a company. I needed an adjustor to adjust my
blood pressure - I needed to see that my job as their consultant was
to teach them that deviations are normal, and that they (and I) could
do what real people do:
o stop whining and deal with them
o create systems to deal with them
o create systems to prevent them
And, of course, I have to do these three things in my own company -
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