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Howdy, Pardners…
“Red Cup – Blue Cup”
It’s a fictional story that I used as a training tool back in the days when I taught Root Cause Analysis in the Corporations. It goes something like this (it changes with every telling)….
The International Red Cup Company hires you to figure out why their assembly line keeps kicking out blue cups. The Red Cup Company is famous for its red cups, and they don’t want blue cups. It all seems pretty simple.
So with pad and pencil in hand, you meet with the executives of the company. Without any hesitation, they show you their Corporate Mission Statement, and regale you with theories about what the problem is. You listen politely, and then say, “The problem is that you have blue cups coming off of your assembly line.”
“No! No!” they say. “The problem is with our Corporate Culture. We’ve had several consultants tell us this. We’ve instituted several new organizational initiatives to correct this. We’ve spent several hundred thousand dollars on these studies and initiatives.”
“No.” You say. “Your problem is that you have blue cups coming off of your assembly line.”
This conversation will sometimes takes days… perhaps even weeks. Eventually, they admit that there might be a small problem with the blue cups, but that your job is to figure out the organizational issues, which will solve the blue cup problem.
You go to the Engineering section of the company, and the engineers angrily explain that their design for the assembly line is perfect. They show you their policies and procedures for double-checking every single calculation, and then they trot out their various degrees and certifications. And if they are real engineers, they’ll show you that mathematically, there couldn’t possibly be a problem. “Besides.” They say. “If the maintenance people were doing their jobs, there wouldn’t be a problem.”
You go talk to the Maintenance Department… “Hell, if they’d give us the people and budget we need, we could maintain this equipment perfectly. The problem is that upper management doesn’t understand what it’s like down in the real world of factory maintenance.”
You stop by the Quality Assurance Department… You walk away with six boxes of audit reports. Each of these reports starts with the words… “The process for making red cups is being satisfactorily implemented.”
“How can you say this?” I ask.
“Because all of the procedures and policies are being followed.”
“But there’s blue cups coming off of the assembly line. How can you say that this is satisfactory?”
“Our job doesn’t involve the final product. We’re here to make sure that everyone is following policy and procedure.”
You chat with the first-line supervisors, who won’t say anything. The last thing they want to do is say something that might jeopardize their jobs.
You chat with the workers… a whine-fest of every real or imagined grievance that has ever been heaped upon them.
Next stop? The Corrective Action Department….
“Do the workers report problems?”
“Oh, yes! We have over 30,000 problem reports, and we also have two computer servers fully committed to organizing and prioritizing these reports. We have six people on staff who analyze these problems, and we have a quarterly report that summarizes all of the problems and then reports them to management.”
They then show you reams of graphs, reports, and printouts. They also walk you through the problem reporting system, and tell you about the various benchmarking trips that they’ve made to other cup manufacturing companies. It’s an impressive show of intellect and fortitude.
“What about all of the blue cups that are coming off of the assembly line?”
“Well, we don’t actually report on that. Off the record (right?), management doesn’t like to hear about the blue cup thing. One sure way to get fired is to tell management what they don’t want to hear.”
Finally, you sit down with the executives again….. “Did you find the problem?”
“Yes. I did.”
“And?”
“Your problem is that you have blue cups coming off of the assembly line.”
“That’s not what we hired you for! You’re fired!”
&&&&&&
Those of you who have worked in the Corporations long enough know that this pretend story is too close to the truth to be laughed at. It’s the way organizations work. Not because the people are evil or dishonest, but because they haven’t been taught how to think in a logical way. Human beings just aren’t that good at solving problems, because they confuse problems with causes. And until you can logically state the problem, all of the solutions will be meaningless (and expensive).
It sounds easy, but it’s not. Problems are a matter of perspective. For instance, a lot of Americans talk about the problems with our education system. If you listen to President Obama, the problem is that we don’t have enough college graduates. If you listen to Conservatives, the problem is overpaid teachers, tenure, and throwing too much money into the system. If you listen to Progressives and Liberals, the problem is too little money being spent to improve our schools.
Of course, none of those “problems” are problems. They are all causes for a perceived problem. What is that problem? No one is really sure. It depends upon your perception. College level institutions don’t see any problem, because they are absolutely rolling in money, and if Obama has his way, there will be even more taxpayer cash coming through the student loan pipeline in the near future. The Corporations see no problem, because the largest majority of workers don’t need much more than an eighth-grade education to perform their duties. In fact, what the Corporations fear most is a well-educated workforce that has critical thinking skills. Thinking is dangerous.
Some politicians don’t see a problem, because the sheer ignorance of the voting citizenry is the key to re-election. Again, thinking is dangerous.
Teachers in the K-12 system DO see a problem… they’re being blamed for all of the perceived ills in the educational system.
Do I perceive a problem? Sure. Our higher education system is pumping out ignorant semi-literate graduates. There’s a large amount of data that supports that conclusion. This isn’t just dangerous for America. It’s dangerous for the future of our world.
But America doesn’t want to see that problem. They want to rabble-rouse around their pet perceived causes. They want to argue and blame.
Academia certainly doesn’t want to hear my perceived problem, because it ignores everything they’ve done, and everything that they are planning to do. They have blue cups coming off of their assembly line, and they don’t want to admit it. If they do, they become irrelevant and the academic status quo swirls down the historical drain.
But that’s just an example.
Life is full of examples… immigration… gay marriage… racism… wars… budget deficits... Sarah Palin… the death penalty… ground zero…
&&&&&
A problem is the last bad thing that happened. Wrap your head around that before you start trying to come up with solutions. Think about that when you’re watching the news or listening to the talking heads. With our 24/7 news cycle, political and economic news is not much more than filler. When you report every little inconsequential item as news, then nothing becomes news. Ignore all of the bullshit in-between, and try to focus on what the “problem” really is.
The International Red Cup Company’s problem was blue cups. The American education problem is ignorant semi-literate graduates.
Get to the core of things. Mexicans coming over the border is not a problem. Gay folks getting married is not a problem. Sarah Palin is not a problem. They are all causes for things that we perceive to be problems.
Get it?
&&&&&
My students never liked my “Red Cup – Blue Cup” story. They saw it as brutally unfair.
Which was my point. Nobody likes to be told that they are failing. Messengers are indeed killed on a regular basis… usually by the very people who need the message the most.
Have a day.
Riley
Yes, I do have a Facebook page (RILEY ROYCE SMITH). Drop on in and say, Howdy!
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