If you have not read Charles Handy's book 'The Age of
Unreason' then I heavily recommend it. In a nutshell it turns
things upside down and tries to change our perspective on
situations. One situation that Handy writes about is the issue
of Consultants in our National Health Service.
As most
people realise, these are the most skilled and highly paid
professionals.
They often like to have time away from work, sometimes on
holiday, sometimes playing golf and sometimes in lucrative
private practice. Problems arise with their ever rising
salaries. Handy's solution is to keep paying them the same
salary but allow them to work less time for the NHS. Their
hourly or daily rate thus rises but the cost to the taxpayer
does not. This leaves our consultants free to play golf (not
earning any further money) or work in private practice and
earn even more money.
Now this solution may not be ideal but it is a
possible solution and it comes about by turning the situation
upside down i.e. by not sticking to reason, hence the idea of
Unreason. In the current world economic situation many rules
have been discarded and hence reason has gone or been
suspended. There is a new world order (possibly devoid of
bankers) where new rules apply, or possibly where no rules
apply. The situation is ripe for people with a fertile
imagination and brimming with confidence to make an
impact.
This course of action builds upon our banana
observations and tries to examine the boundaries of a problem.
First of all let us ask some questions:
- Is the aim to increase the cost of consultants to the
NHS?
- Do we actually have to pay them more?
- How might consultants like to spend their time?
- Are there other ways for consultants to earn more?
- Can we still make use of consultants for teaching
training purposes?
Probing of the boundaries of the problem often reveals
previously hidden courses of action. Some of these may be
conditional e.g. we can have consultants working less time but
only if we safeguard some teaching time. OK, so lets do
that.
A company supplying parts to the automotive industry was
having a tough time. They did not like spending money on
repairing equipment but needed to do something. Faults were
usually reported to the factory manager who either did
something about it or not (the more likely scenario). Control
was taken away from the production line
workers.
Luckily Unreason prevailed and the workers
were empowered (grudgingly at first). So what happened?
- Leaks were fixed in air hoses
- Less leaks meant not running all of the air compressors
- Air compressor running could be alternated this
decreasing service bills
- A total annual saving in running costs of £10,000 per
annum
And the improvements did not stop there. Their colleagues
who worked on an electro plating line began experimenting and
found ways to double the throughput of the plating process
simply by reorganising the positioning of components on the
hangers that immersed them in the plating baths.
This is not quite so dramatic as Handy's NHS solution
but is a practical illustration of a burst of Unreason
helping. Next time you get stuck, try asking 'why do we have
to do it this way?' or 'can we try doing it this way?' and see
what happens. You'll be
surprised.
September 2009 
