The best laid schemes o' mice and men
Gang aft a-gley;
And leave us naught but grief and pain
For promised joy. (Robert Burns)
So much for plans.
Plans and planning enjoy (if that is the proper term) very little in the way of respect in our culture. We seem to be in far too great a hurry to ever enjoy -- or even see a need for -- planning. Dwight D. Eisenhower said,
"Plans are nothing; planning is everything."
Measure twice, cut once. This a carpenter's maxim that probably predates Noah.
If you can't take the time to do it right, how will you find the time to do it over. This one undoubtedly dates from the era of the craftsman, when a person's work was his or hers for as long as they lived.
In our era, these pieces of folk wisdom have less force because the one who doesn't take the time to do it right is usually not the one who has to find time to do it over. Unless the "one" is a corporation. For a [your comapny here], these maxims are every bit as valid as they ever were -- even while, for individuals within the community, they carry less and less meaning.
If we only stop to think about it, the entire quality movement, founded by Deming and Juran, has immense meaning for the corporate community and virtually none for the individual within. We can have a situation in which every individual is highly knowledgeable, skilled, motivated and doing his/her absolute best, but the result to the corporation is less than expected.
What can throw a monkey wrench into the wheels of synergy? For an answer, we only have to consider the example of a team of horses. Each horse is big, powerful, capable of pulling a great weight and eager to do so. If you have ever been to a horse pull, you will know what happens on the occasions when the horses don't pull together, matching their efforts, or when one horse pulls in a direction that is not parallel to the other, or when the horses begin pulling before the driver has them hooked up to the load. It's not pretty, as you can imagine.
The analogy shows what can happen to a team when the members don't work in concert, or when the members are aimed at different goals, or when the team either fails to heed the directions it is getting or is not receiving adequate direction.
Any major problem or issue provides a testbed for assessing our ability to function as a team. We can beat the deadline with a quality outcome if we function as a team. We need only have a common goal and clear direction. If, however, we each believe that we can solve the problem by independently solving our own little piece of it, we will have a result comparable to that of the horses.
None of us can solve a big problem alone. It may be that the total effort required is more than the total available hours we can devote. This is especially true if each of us, in solving our little piece, makes additional work for the others. The only way to ensure that we do it right the first time, with the resources available, is to allow ourselves to be directed by an overall plan. That is the only way we can become a team big enough to pull this weight.
If you want to lead the team or to help in preparing the plan, step forward now. If not, then please prepare to follow the plan as it is made known to you. Each of us will have the opprtunity to be a leader or a follower. We can be both, but not at the same time.
So, maybe you don't need planning, but we do. Maybe you don't need quality assurance, but we do. Can we work as a team? We'd better find out now because we will have to be a team to make (for example) the EMR a reality in an integrated health system.
Questions, Suggestions or Comments may be addressed to WhiteLake Data Management
Last update Jan-09