[Ailist] (no subject)

Thu Oct 2 05:49:00 MDT 2008

I also agree... And as we're talking about cleaning... I have been working
on a community development project in a small town in Rajasthan, India. Over
there cleaning is done by people known as *harijans,* *dalits* and less
commonly today 'untouchables'. They are the people at the very bottom of the
Hindu caste hierarchy - so just imagine what the psychological and cultural
implications...

Part of the  work I have been doing, has been the effort to deepen respect
within the community for the work that the cleaners do. This posed a real
problem. Ages of ugly hierarchical caste-based discrimination positioned the
cleaners more as 'somewhat desirable parasites' than as 'people who keep our
town beautiful'. People with more money paid for services, which kept the
area just outside their own homes clean. People with less, often couldn't be
bothered. Public spaces were completely neglected. One short stretch of road
leading straight from the bus stand to the girls' college was so thickly
covered in waste that it had literally turned into a public toilet. People
would just get off the bus, walk down the road and do their business amongst
the heaps of trash. People from nearby households would take their children
their for the same purpose early in the morning, as many lack their own
toilets at home. The girls had to take a long detour in order to get to
their college. And all this was happening just metres from the town's main
water source...

The main focus of our work is really on rebuilding fragmented communities
and empowering them - as individuals and collectives - to take
responsibility for their own destiny. But sometimes, things need a little
push!

When we got that are cleaned, it completely

2008/10/1 Cooper, Sid <sid.cooper at oregonstate.edu>

> Lionel, that is absolutely right.  It has been my dream no matter where
> I took up work to see that the people who clean and maintain our work
> environments consider themselves as professionals, not second class
> citizens.  Allowing themselves to dream is where enormous reserves of
> capacity are tapped and become available for conservation and for
> innovation.
>
> Sid Cooper
> Asst. Director, Building Services
> Memorial Union
> Oregon State University
> Corvallis, Oregon  97331-5004
>
> (541) 737-4350  (campus)
> (541) 979-2928   (cell)
> (541) 737-2774 (fax)
> sid.cooper at oregonstate.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lionel Boxer [mailto:lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 1:29 PM
> To: CHobbins at ccint.net; ailist at lists.business.utah.edu; Cooper, Sid
> Subject: RE: [Ailist] (no subject)
>
> I recall the CFO sitting in a presentation with the maintenance guys
> describing how they proved that their data formed a normal distribution,
> which meant that the statistical analysis they had conducted was valid.
> They then showed how to eliminate the pollution by running the equipment
> properly (as proved by the statistical analysis results).  The look on
> the CFO's face was amazing - he had been convinced that these guys were
> idiots - I said to him, "look in the mirror and ask yourself who is the
> idiot".
>
> Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - +1-416-482-3203
> Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
> Graduate School of Business
> "I like action - moral courage is much less common than intelligence"
> Prof Major Charles Boxer, Lincolnshire Regiment
> The Sustainable Way: http://intergon.net/tsw
> >>> "Cooper, Sid" <sid.cooper at oregonstate.edu> 02/10/08 4:36 AM >>>
> Charlotte,
>
> I will never forget the impact of an example of positive action by my
> custodial staff.  This is something they did on their own.  In 1994,
> while working with Hewlett Packard, I and my custodial staff were
> perplexed by what to do in cleaning and maintenance of a particular grey
> space (Class 1,000 in this case)wafer manufacturing area of around
> 40,000 sqft.  Inside the space, itself, particle counts were too high
> and a lot of product scrap was being made.  Various TQM, TQC,
> Kepner-Tragoe and other process engineering groups analyzed problems and
> formulated causes and came up with no concrete process to move the
> process back into specification.  Months elapsed.
>
> The custodial staff, a contract outfit, and their project manager were
> unaware of this problem until I shared it with them at a staff meeting
> one day.  They reacted to the news with their opinion that the problem
> was related to general area cleaning and were frustrated that despite
> their best efforts they had been completely unable to get the
> manufacturing staff to see the problem or change their habits of
> occupancy, which caused the surrounding support space to look a bit like
> a teenager's room, which complicated cleaning.  No one felt good about
> this problem and this area scored consistently low on inspections.
>
> Then one of the area lead custodians arranged staff time on a weekend
> for her and the area crew to come in and do a baseline cleaning.  But
> they went one step further.  They reorganized the support area, making
> it consistent with the needs of people and things.  So a place was made
> for coffee mugs and soda bottles, lunch bags and coats, shipping and
> receiving cartons, long term paper and documentation and shorter term
> memos.  Then they gave the area a thorough baseline cleaning, including
> stripping and re-finishing with a specialized ESD finish.
>
> Needless to say, when the workers walked in at 0615 am that following
> Monday, they could not believe their eyes.  The radical change in
> appearance was applauded by staff and management at all levels and
> people were even going out of their way to see the area.  Light levels
> and illumination were raised, area clutter was reduced to the point that
> a semblance of organization caught hold and the process line staff
> became very protective over the quality of appearance of their work
> space.  Wafer build rates went up and the good news is that this area
> stayed this way throughout the remaining life of that production
> facility.  The staff I talked to could not believe what the custodians
> had accomplished and that they could care so much about their work and
> the people they clean for.
>
> I asked the person responsible for organizing this effort what had
> prompted her to do this and she said she was tired of existing in a
> negative environment, and that she believed she could make a difference
> and change the place she worked into a positive place to be.
>
> What I didn't realize at the time, but know now, is that this person was
> practicing the AI process by asking herself how she could make a
> difference through innovation while still valuing those things that were
> necessary to keep and maintain.  The proof is that she was able to turn
> around mass negativity by positive dreaming and positive action.  Though
> this occurred almost 15 years ago, it is still one of my prime examples
> in presentations about the power of positive action and that anybody,
> including custodians, has a profession and a contribution to make.
>
> I tend to look to TQC and SQC for answers when parameters are
> established to allow these methods to be successful.  But they are
> really negative processes looking at problems and trying to suggest
> answers, which is not what AI is all about.
>
> Hope this helps...
>
>
> Sid Cooper
> Asst. Director, Building Services
> Memorial Union
> Oregon State University
> Corvallis, Oregon  97331-5004
>
> (541) 737-4350  (campus)
> (541) 979-2928   (cell)
> (541) 737-2774 (fax)
> sid.cooper at oregonstate.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
> [mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Lionel
> Boxer
> Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 6:35 AM
> To: CHobbins at ccint.net; ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
> Subject: Re: [Ailist] (no subject)
>
> Have a look at this article:
> http://intergon.net/phd/BoxerTQMEnv1991.html
>
> It is typical of what can be achieved through giving ordinary people
> access to enabling situations.
>
> Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - +1-416-482-3203
> Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
> Graduate School of Business
> "I like action - moral courage is much less common than intelligence"
> Prof Major Charles Boxer, Lincolnshire Regiment
> The Sustainable Way: http://intergon.net/tsw
> >>> "CHobbins" <CHobbins at ccint.net> 01/10/08 11:27 PM >>>
> At work we are working on a video project to present to a conference in
> November.
>
> We would like to portray the message of " the strength and impacts of
> ordinary people who achieve extra ordinary achievements in their
> organisations."
>
> Does anyone have any tips, stories or examples of people who through
> something fairly small, have performed or produced great things?
> Especially
> in a manufacturing or industrial industry.
>
> If anyone has anything to share it would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks very much
>
> Charlotte E-H
>
>
> Kind Regards
> Charlotte Egerton-Hobbins
>
> Competitive Capabilities International (Pty) Ltd
> Cape Town, South Africa
>
> Tel: +27 21 555 3610
> Fax: +27 21 555 0922
> Cell: +27 82 297 7810
> Skype: chobbins_cci
>
>  <mailto:CHobbins at ccint.net> CHobbins at ccint.net
>  <http://www.ccint.net/> www.ccint.net
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> NOTICE - This message contains privileged and confidential information
> intended only for the use of the addressee named above. If you are not
> the
> intended recipient of this message, you are hereby notified that you
> must
> not disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it. If you have
> received this message in error, please notify Competitive Capabilities
> International.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List is hosted by the David Eccles
> School of Business at the University of Utah. Jack Brittain is the list
> administrator. For subscription information, go to:
> http://mailman.business.utah.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/ailist
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List is hosted by the David Eccles
> School of Business at the University of Utah. Jack Brittain is the list
> administrator. For subscription information, go to:
> http://mailman.business.utah.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/ailist
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List is hosted by the David Eccles
> School of Business at the University of Utah. Jack Brittain is the list
> administrator. For subscription information, go to:
> http://mailman.business.utah.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/ailist
>