[Ailist] (no subject)

Thu Oct 2 06:19:04 MDT 2008

My apologies, I hit the send button by mistake before finishing this!

The story, goes on to talk about how a focus on ensuring quality cleaning,
enabled a transformation within the community on multiple levels. When the
soiled road was cleaned, it transformed the space - people stopped using it
as a public toilet and the girls could take the direct route to their
college. The activeness of the local neighbourhood committee also increased,
and they played an important role in making sure that it didn't fall back
into its previous squalor. The community eventually got mobilised around the
issue and has pressured the local government to transform what had
previously been a waste dump by the side of that road into a community
platform that will be used as a vegetable market, thereby addressing traffic
problems on the busy road that leads into the town from the highway.

More generally, public spaces that had not been cleaned in years almost
seemed to shine. Visitors from neighbouring towns and cities would comment
on how clean the town had become. People wanted to know how they could
replicate the work in their own communities. People began to feel proud of
their town. Every now and again one would overhear conversations between
people about how changed the town had become.

But one of the major challenges - collecting user fees - remained
unresolved. Local government showed no interest whatsoever and argued that
no-one would ever pay. It was not so much that people were not prepared to
pay for the cleaning but rather that no-one was prepared to do the
collection of the money. Involving the cleaners, though apparently a simple
solution, had exacerbated many conflicts in the past and the still fragile
positive changes that had been brought about in attitudes could easily be
broken if the cleaners were given the responsibility to the collect the
money. The cleaning supervisor (not a *harijan*), because of his caste
affiliation, was facing social pressure from his community not to collect
the cleaning money '*for the harijans*'. For him, it was a big step to use
the same pen as a *harijan*.

A series of workshops were organised for the citizens of this town. One
focused on exploring the current reality (dirty town) and talking about
dreams of how it could be (clean town). Who did the realisation of this
dream depend on? How could it be made real? Later ones focused on more
specific issues: securing the long-term sustainability of the cleaning work.
This focused not only on individual and collective visions but made a
special focus on involving participants in linking their own behaviour to
the realisation of the vision and of recognising that no-one 'else' is
responsible. We make the reality that we want through our own actions. I
like to think of this as revealing the hidden agency in each individual. One
woman pledged to begin collection of cleaning fees in her own neighbourhood.

This woman, a Muslim lady whose husband had lost both his arms in an
accident at work several years ago, was an active member of her
neighbourhood committee (each caste/religious group has its own
neighbourhood). Muslim women in India usually face serious restrictions in
their mobility and so, in many ways, her activeness was frowned upon. But
she somehow must have known that because of her husband's plight she also
had freedom and an excuse to go out and about. And so she began the task of
going house to house to convince people to collect the cleaning fees,
convincing people that having a clean neighbourhood was worth Rs.10 a month.
Half of the houses contributed. The remainder accused her of being
dishonest, of doing it only for her own interest or said that they were not
satisfied with the cleaner's work and did not want to give any money.
Nonetheless, she persisted. Her neighbourhood was the first of 18 such
neighbourhoods in the town to collect any money. No action had been taken in
any of the other neighbourhoods.

In one of the monthly meetings of the Citizen's Development Forum (a newly
formed community platform, of which the lady was a member), her efforts were
highlighted and she received praise and applause for her efforts. Within the
next month, citizen leaders from three more neighbourhoods had started
collecting the money. Within a few more months half of the neighbourhoods
were on board. The  Citizen's Development Forum then passed an order saying
that cleaning would only be done in those areas where the monthly
contributions were coming in. Most people could hardly believe the change
that had happened. When a relative of someone in the *harijan*'s family
passed away, a number of people from the community - from all castes and
religions - went to their home to offer condolences. This may be the first
time anyone from a higher caste has set foot in their homes.

Well, sorry for the length of the story... but the talk of cleaning brought
it up. I found myself thinking that the cleaning of a physical space can
lead to the cleaning of people's hearts and the building up of a new kind of
community... Just one of the fascinating stories of change that a positive,
appreciative inquiry inspired outlook can help to engender!

Best wishes,

Andre

2008/10/2 Andre Ling <thelingus at gmail.com>

> 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
>>
>>
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