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Re: Midol Moment or National Tragedy? You decide...
Subject:Re: Midol Moment or National Tragedy? You decide... From:"Alan D. Miller" <"Alan D. Miller"@educate.com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Fri, 12 Nov 1999 09:04:55 -0500
Kathi Jan Knill wrote:
<snip>
"I suggest that if everyone on this list spent less time talking about what it
would mean if a manual isn't absolutely, 100% perfect, and spent more time
working to make their own manuals perfect, we'd all be better off. We are all
human and therefore, none of us is perfect! And that goes for what we write as
well. Believe me it is not going to bring the country down on its knees if we
don't all become perfect in the next 24 hours."
<snip>
For several years I was interred (actually, welded up in a steel pipe with a
nuclear reactor and submerged in a sphincter-tightening depth of water) in a
branch of the US Navy run by a somewhat authoritarian figure known
affectionately by those of us in the bilges as "Ricky Reactor." He had a
zero-defects policy and zero tolerance for error. His reasoning went something
like this: All persons are capable of zero-defect actions. We all go home to
the correct address every day without error. We all cash or deposit our pay
checks in the correct bank without error. We all give our names to acquaintances
without error. <several more examples snipped> Since we all are capable of
error-free activities in our personal lives, we are also capable of them in our
professional lives. He felt it was only a matter of training, attention and
commitment, which he demanded of all persons under his command. Human errors
WERE NOT TOLERATED. Period. No discussion. Punishment was swift and sure.
While the implementation was, well, draconian, the principle has validity. Just
ask yourself: Do I give as much care and attention to my professional tasks as
I do to my personal tasks?
Just a thought.
Al Miller
Sylvan Prometric
alan -dot- miller -at- educate -dot- com
