Читать книгу NEXT STOP: UNSTOPPABLE - Malte Stöckert - Страница 10

Situations You’re Probably Not Familiar With

Our actions always have consequences. My action triggers something and I’m doing it consciously, in the positive sense. I plant flower bulbs in the spring, for example, because I want to enjoy the beautiful blooming flowers later in the year.

In the same way, however, doing nothing also has consequences. Because we’ve been looking the other way for decades when it comes to plastic waste, to name another example, we’re now stuck with the consequences of a huge mountain of plastic floating on the ocean. Everyone appreciates a nice result. But no one really likes to hear about not-so-nice, negative consequences.

Companies disappear from the market because they cannot cope with the negative consequences of their actions. Think about Nokia, the cell phone manufacturing company I mentioned earlier. Before Nokia was completely out of the business, they assumed that smartphones would never catch on. But did they ever pay the price for their misjudgment: today, they no longer exist on the market.

Everyone knows that, with exercise and good nutrition, they can age well and enjoy a better life when they’re older. Yet millions of people still smoke, eat fast food, and barely exercise. They’ll probably have to bear the consequences of their inaction in the form of health complications in their old age.

Another example: Boeing’s attempt to cheat on the agency’s acceptance process probably cost not only thousands of jobs but the life quality of hundreds of people. Everything has consequences.

I have seen many projects where the project manager didn’t dare mention that the project’s given time or resources wouldn’t be enough. But that's his job, and he was happy to be in that position regardless, so he should take responsibility and tell his team, right? An astonishing 60% of project managers don’t believe in the success of their projects, either. The consequence? Team members are kept in the dark, important details aren’t communicated, and the project ultimately fails.

The auto industry is rife with examples where the late completion of product development led to significant impacts down the line. An unbelievable number of injection molds have never been used because they couldn’t function properly or because the chief designer changed his mind again shortly before the start of production, thus frustrating all efforts to bring the product to market in the desired time and with the desired quality.

There are halls full of seat sets that were never installed in cars due to qualitative defects: the consequence of a lax quality policy or not stringently adhering to design rules. Perhaps all this wouldn’t have been so bad if it were just a small production and a bit of time spent on the seats, but so many working hours went into it, material for the leather sets came from living creatures, etc. It’s a shamefully massive waste of time, money, and materials.

Let’s think about budgets and say that a manager has prepared his budget to the best of his knowledge, explaining how he needs all the staff he can get to fulfill the tasks. And then he hears that he needs to cut costs again by x percent. What consequences will this have for the manager? If he’s smart, he’ll run his costs higher before the next budget round, giving himself a nice cushion. In any case, he must put a lot of energy into making the budget work on paper before he can implement it. So, preparing the budget will become a burden for him because he realizes that under these circumstances, he won’t be able to get the necessary performance out of his department anyway. The main consequence? The manager is only moderately motivated to implement company interests, and he starts seriously thinking about changing jobs.

I have seen many a project where the budget was simply too low and although this was known to everyone and clearly presented as such, in the end, everyone acted surprised when the money ran out. With extra effort, the situation is halfway cleaned up. But by then the costs are usually much higher than what they could have been if they were properly accounted for in the first place.

I even know examples where penny products ended up costing lives because people were too greedy to spend a reasonable amount on something so vital. If a newborn is separated from the umbilicus, then the umbilical cord needs to be clamped. Simple clamps get the job done. But what if the clamps aren’t properly made due to a lazy, inadequate budget or an avoidable production error? It’s horrible to think about. But the nurse needs those clamps to be 100% reliable because she’ll be using them hundreds of times. Everything has consequences.

Sure, the vast majority of the day-to-day tasks on our plate don't have THESE kinds of dire consequences, but it certainly makes sense to carefully think about HOW you’re performing the job you’ve in fact chosen to do. Being guided by truly high values is one thing, but if you’re only concerned with fulfilling your basic obligations, hoping that no one is watching, then you might let something slip under the radar. It’s a bad habit to develop and only ends up hurting your reputation, the company, and the customer.