This was a blog post that was going to start out as criticism, but as time has progressed, the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation has addressed the problem admirably and taken the wind out of those critical sails, so you will get to hear the story of what they did to improve the quality of one of BC’s freeway overpasses to prevent accidents and protect infrastructure.
The story
In the 1960s, the overpasses above Highway 1 were built to similar design and varying clearance. Perhaps in those days it was inconceivable that trucks would stretch 4.4 Meters (almost 15 feet) into the air, or perhaps years of additional paving shaved inches off of that clearance. Whatever the case, we find clearance signs with various “heights” recorded on most of the overpasses East of Vancouver 4.6 Meters being the most common I’ve observed.
Overpass Clearance (one of many)
Overpass clearance - 2
Overpass clearance - 3
Year before last, some surprised trucker plowed into the Glover Road freeway overpass Eastbound on Highway 1 in Langley. That particular overpass was a little lower than some of the others, so conceivably he might have driven quite some way before having his big rig stopped (the hard way). The damage to the overpass was significant enough that traffic on Glover Road was reduced to 1 way alternating traffic for the several months it took for repairs.
I’m sure someone in the Ministry of Transportation thought “Wow, that was shocking, that guy’s truck just hit the overpass. Hope that doesn’t happen again…”
Last year, another surprised trucker plowed into the same Glover Road overpass. Same damage, same road closure with alternating traffic. The repairs made one side of the overpass solid, presumably to lend additional strength to the bridge (under siege). Since that second repair, there have been additional precautions taken, which together have formed a system to try and prevent this from happening again.
Overpass under siege (repaired again)
Preventing the collisions
First there were 2 signs positioned further up the road on either side which re-stated the clearance information printed on the bridge. With advance warning a trucker could conceivably stop before hitting the bridge. The signs used bright contrasting colours to draw attention.
Bright clearance signs (with enough room to stop)
Next, a bunch of yellow and black reflective signs were added to the bridge to draw attention to the bridge.
So if a trucker was overheight, knew he was overheight, read the signs, did the math and stopped in time he could avoid hitting the bridge. But what if he didn’t know he was overheight?
A series of bright yellow warning / informational signs were deployed, starting with a sign warning trucks to use the right lane for the overheight detection system.
Truckers Keep Right for overheight detection system
Then the overheight detection system which triggers a flashing overhead sign that would warn when a truck was overheight.
Glover Road Overheight detection system uses beams (of light) when interupted, flashing signals are triggered.
When flashing give that overheight truck that isn't stopping lots of room
Then a small pull-out was built where trucks could pull off the freeway to check their loads. It had a large bright yellow “pull-out” sign for easy identification, and a series of bright yellow signs warning that the pullout was approaching. At the pullout there is an informational sign intended for those who have used the pull-out (my eyes are good, but at 100km/h that font is too small even for me 🙂 )
overheight truck pullout ahead
overheight truck pullout ahead (getting closer)
overheight truck pullout NOW! (no seriously, NOW)
So now overheight trucks can be detected and “flashed”, and there is an illuminated pullout available for these trucks. Assuming that works and the driver notices he is overheight, this challenge remains for a driver who is overheight. He either needs to back up the freeway for 2-3 miles, or he needs a crane to unload him so he can drive underneath the bridge.
Now the Ministry has added a “detour route” informational sign West of the 200th street interchange in the same bright yellow colour, warning drivers of overheight vehicles to detour off of the freeway.
Good job guys, hopefully we don’t see another accident at that freeway overpass like the last two.
The unmeasured cost
Glover road was reduced to single lane alternating traffic next to a university on the main road leading from Langley to the Albion ferry crossing (on the Fraser river). Thousands of people had to wait each day while traffic changed direction to cross the freeway. This took them away from their families, their jobs, their volunteer engagements. This time was simply lost. Add to that unmeasured cost, the construction costs and the real cost of not putting signage up after the first incident becomes more apparent. The albion ferry is reported to have moved about 4,500 people per day, so this number would be reasonable for forming an estimate. Assuming a 1 minute delay for 4500 cars per day for 180 days (2 years 3 months out of service each year), with commuters earning $25/hour, the inconvenience could have cost citizens. $337,500 over 2 years. That number will never appear in a government balance sheet, but it is a cost that was paid by citizens, and it is a cost we may be able to avoid paying in the future thanks to the improvements brought by the Ministry of Transportation.
Traffic congestion HWY 1 Eastbound
I find it ironic that the train bridge overpass to the East of Glover Road (bearing scars from previous impacts) is even lower… We’ll wait and see if that has been taken into account.
The "even lower" railway overpass to the East (notice the repairs from past collisions...)
Things are designed for their beauty, their cost, their useability and sometimes just for fun. It is surprising how often we come across things that seem badly designed given the possibility for greatness in design.
At my work we have all struggled to use our very beautiful entry doors. They are polished and shiny with hidden hinges. They are completely symetrical, so that from either side of the door, the door appears the same. So we are all pushing and pulling when we should be pulling and pushing. I expect some designer won an award for the doors, but it wouldn’t be a useability award. Here they are:
My co-worker tackled the challenging doors with an office labeler and some discretely placed hints that have so far not been disturbed by the interior design police.
Sometimes the ingenious methods people come up with to deal with bad design are as enjoyable as good design would be. How many cents did it take to solve the design problem. 5?
In this next photo, can you spot the problem with the card swipe instructions here:
Thats right, the diagram adjacent to the cardswipe indicates that the magnetic strip needs to be on the left… BUT in the digital image on the right, the orange screen clearly displays the magnetic strip on the right. Left? or Right? Well I assumed the hardware was more closely tied to the diagram attached to it and believed the diagram. “wrong!” It was the digital image on the orange screen that got it right.
Now how many thousands of dollars go into deploying something like a gas pump, and how many people reviewed the design etc. before it got to me the customer. (And how many thousands of people a year have to re-swipe their card because of this bad design?)
I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did, I’ll post more as I find them, so be sure to check back.
I wrote about the BC-STV the other day. I continue to learn more good things about STV and am determined to do my part in informing other voters in my sphere of influence so they can make an informed choice on May 12th.
I heard some really compelling arguments in favour of the STV written by Arthur here: http://Ansak.blogspot.com
And today in the paper “Dave” from Castlegar BC offered a letter comparing First Past the Post (FPTP) with Single Transferable Vote (STV):
… First past the Post:
Fails to accurately reflect voter’s choices (percentage of votes case is not accurately represented by seats in government)
Allows a minortity of votes to elect majority governments
Restricts new parties and independent candidates from fair competition
Entrenches power in established political parties
Narrows voter choice <not wanting to “waste votes”>
Single Transferable Vote:
Accurately reflects voters choices by seats in government
ensures that majority governements are not formed without a morjoity of voter support
Allows new parties and independent candidates to fairly compete
Increases voter choice.
As a footnote Dave went on to mention that in Ireland where STV is used, the politicians held two referendums in an effort to get rid of STV and both times the public voted to keep it. As more people become educated about STV, its support increases…
Vote with me on May 12 2009 to implement the “Single Transferable Vote” and redeem the opportunity of a lifetime to improve your democracy in a significant way.
British Columbians have a unique opportunity to improve the quality of our electoral system on May 12th when our province holds its next provincial election. Under the slogan “Power up the vote”, the BC Citizen’s Assembly is advocating the “Single Transferable Vote” this may be the single most significant opportunity to improve how we vote. Their website tries to anticipate and answer questions about the STV.
The Citizen’s Assembly was charged with making a recommendation directly to the citizens of BC, to improve our voting system. through a process detailed on their website, the BC Citizen’s Assembly determined that the BC-STV system would bring us the most advantages.
Current system
In British Columbia currently there is the system of “first past the pole” the candidate with the most votes wins. Truly it is the simplest system, but upon comparison with other options it is clearly far from perfect. Consider a hypothetical situation with the current system where in a riding there were 4 candidates each receiving 24%, 24%, 25% and 27% of the vote. It is clear that the candidate with 27% of the vote is the winner. However, it is also clear that 73% of the votes were “wasted” / “unrepresented in government” and that the majority of voters preferred someone other than the winner. Here is how the BC Citizen’s Assembly put it…
British Columbians believe that it isn’t fair that a party can form government without having the most votes, or that our province could be left without an official opposition – even if we voted for one. We don’t think its fair that a party can govern as if it had majority support when it doesn’t, or that a majority of votes do not elect anybody, or that some regions may have no representation in government at all.
Regardless of how we vote, British Columbians think elections should be about fair results, greater choice, effective local representation and accountable government.
Basically you only get to vote once, but your vote is more powerful. If you picked a losing candidate, your vote keeps on working to better represent your vote. Check out the 4.5 minute video below. It is brilliant.
Why is there another referendum after the one held in 2005?
In the referendum in May 2005, STV received 57.7% of the total vote and a clear majority in 77 of 79 electoral districts. Although it far exceeded the first bar of receiving majority support in at least 48 constituencies, it narrowly missed the second unprecedented 60% province wide threshold. Clearly this created a problem because only 42.3% supported retaining the current system. Given the results it was entirely appropriate that the people of BC be further more opportunity to explore STV. The question will be put to all the voters in BC in a second referendum, held on May 12, 2009, in conjunction with the next provincial election. If the voters clearly endorse the Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendation, the government has promised it will introduce legislation so that the new electoral system could be in place for the following provincial election in May 2013. http://www.bc-stv.ca/
Vote for the BC-STV
From what I’ve learned in my research, the BC-STV is an improvement that would give British Columbian voters better representation by popular vote. It seems like a brilliant idea, let me encourage you to;
1. Vote for the BC -STV on May 19th 12th. [Updated, Thanks!]
2. Explain the BC-STV to at least 3 other eligible voters so they can be informed.
Happy Voting! Oh, and check out these related videos on Proportional Representation featuring John Cleese and one of the Royal Canadian Air Farce: https://stv.ca/humour
Greg.
I grew up in a world where the price on the price tag was the price you paid. Being a shrewd consumer involved shopping around for the same product with a lower sticker price. Although I did attend an auction or two in my childhood, that was an experience far removed from our weekly shopping trips. I grew up learning that price was important, but quality was also important so the product would last and not need replacement or repair. So sometimes paying a little more for better quality meant conserving money in the long run. I want to pay the least and conserve my money for use elsewhere, but with a growing understanding of where our products come from, I won’t knowingly choose a low price at the expense of others or the natural environment. In this journey from fact to face negotiation, to automated Internet transactions and corporate marketing strategies, It is easy to lose sight of the people on the other sided of the transaction whose welfare must remain a part of the equation.
(flickr credit: sharpstick's photos)
In married life, the Internet has allowed us to compare prices without actually having to visit stores (much like the telephone allows), in fact we can compare prices without actually interacting with another person. It feels like a safe anonymous inexpensive activity. Ebay started introducing us to live on the wild side by bidding for things at “less than” the asking price. Until recently this was the extent of our financial education until I met my friend Cindy at work and she introduced me to the idea of “asking for a better price”. “The worst they can say is no” she explained. So in small ways I began to assert my desire for fairer prices. Saving $200 on fees associated with buying a car, saving $15 off the price of a pair of shoes. Spotting inconsequential defects and asking the cashier for a deduction.
Experience has eroded my confidence that retail prices accurately reflect value
I remember being shocked to observe retail markup first hand when i worked at the garden centre. I saw two things that forever changed my view on pricing.
1. The first was observing products coming in at a wholesale price and immediately being marked up to a retail price that was 2 times the wholesale. The $4 items became $8 items, and the $40 items became $80 items. I was alarmed that at the garden centre 1/2 of every price was basically profit.
2. The second was re-potting plants. When a plant outgrew its 1 gallon pot, we would pull it out and place it in a 2 gallon pot surrounded with fresh dirt. So on Friday the shrub was a 1 gallon plant for $4 and on Saturday it was a 2 gallon plant for $7. In some cases the re-potting would only be half complete, and customers would pass over the 1 gallon shrubs to purchase a 2 gallon shrub (the plants were identical).
I think you will share some of the other experiences I’ve had;
Gas wars where 2 gas stations compete on price and the cost of a litre of fuel drops and drops to ridiculous prices (like 1cent for a litre).
(flickr caption: Micah Maziar)
Electronics where the retail price drops month after month, while other electronics like the Nintendo Wii where the retail price remains constant for years.
Recently crude oil prices plummeted while gasoline prices remained at record high levels for over a year.
Clearly the retail price is not a reflection of value in all cases. The prices rise and fall despite constant demand and identical products. The prices you see are not the direct result of a “market effect” but rather the contrived price of marketeers. In some cases, nobody pays the same price, such as in the case of “yield management” where the airlines use complex formulas in their attempt to extract as much money as possible from each customer for a seat on the same plane.
Very recently on a trip to Mexico, I saw how a silver right for $80 could be purchased for $35. How? by haggling. A bead bracelet for $5 becomes 2 for $7 at a cost of $3.50 each. Now there are the long faces and the sad stories of large families at home in need of money, but don’t tear up, it is a game. In the 5 minutes it took you to pay $7, you supplied 1/3 of the average Mexicans daily wage. This whole process of haggling over prices felt uncomfortable to me. As someone accustomed to paying sticker price. I feel awkward haggling or arguing over price. Because the “price tag” is what the man asked, I feel compelled to pay it. After the face I am faced with the tension (maybe unhappiness) that results from having options in the price I pay. My joy at “finding a good price” is robbed from me when I realize that I could have negotiated a “better price”. When I do haggle for a “better price” I wonder if I got he best price, or did I settle too high?
(flickr credit: Pandiyan)
The only solution I have found to this unhappiness with the prices I’ve paid is the value proposition. What is the value of this to me and given this value am I content with the price I paid for this product. For me the value proposition includes; the price I must pay, the quality of the product, the level of customer service I receive and the social impact of the product through its manufacture and associated labour and waste (explained clearly in “the story of stuff“). If I am content, then it does not matter that someone else got a better price or that the price dropped the next week. I am content, I make my purchase and (unless there is a deal to refund my money when the price drops) I walk away secure that I made a choice and paid a price I was content with.
I wish you success in leveraging the “value proposition” for your own peace of mind in purchasing.
I love the freeway. I get on it, I drive as far as I want and I get off. It isn’t like some of the other roads we have around here. You know the ones where you stop every block or two because there is a single car pulling out of some mini-mall. In fact there are some pretty hillarious roads around here. One of them is the “Langley Bypass”. Historically most of the vehicle traffic going through Langley travelled on Fraser Highway, which was 1 lane in each direction with businesses down both sides of the street (the typical downtown for a small town). People on Fraser Highway were stopping at stored, looking for parking, backing out of parking spots and basically making this road a very poor choice for anything other than shopping. A plan was designed to bypass langley (appropriate name). As a provincial highway it connected Fraser Highway to itself, bypassing the city as well as connecting to glover road 200th street, the route to the ferries. With 2 lanes in either direction, it moved traffic quite well. At first. Then the township decided to allow zoning all along the bypass for shopping. 3 starbucks, countless restaurants, RV dealerships, audio video stores, and of course we will need some traffic lights to let the shoppers in and out. So rather than this area being a “bypass” to allow through traffic to flow efficiently, it became a traffic magnet attracting more vehicles, and disrupting the flow of the traffic.
What happened? The planners forgot what they were doing. They forgot the purpose of the road. To “bypass” Langley.
Often there will be a visionary who will present a great idea like a “bypass road” if it remains true to its vision it works well. BUT somebody always wants to make plans work for their own interests. The land owners won’t make as much money selling farmland as they would selling land with potential for “retail development”… so they lobby government to change the zoning. If the city / municipality doesn’t have a zoning plan (or doesn’t stick to the plan) “good luck”. If we could stay “on vision” we would have roads that performed their designed function well, instead of doing a mediocre job of many contradictory functions.
Freeways work so very well because they are “limited access” (You can only get on or off at certain points), because they have no “at level” intersections (meaning the traffic can carry on at speed despite the presence of other roads crossing), and they are built to a very consistent standard (meaning the road is predictable in signage and design). Can you imagine if Freeways started having pedestrian crosswalks installed? or if a business was forced to have their driveway onto the freeway? It’s the wrong road for those purposes.
We need to classify our roads, and we need to build them to meet their function, and protect them from those who would dilute their function.
From my limited experience I’m familiear with the following types of roads;
Residential
Collectors
Non-Commercial Arterial
Commercial Arterial
Limited Access
Highways
Service
You look for a Residential street when you are ready to buy your first house and you are ready to settle down and have children, you want to avoid a “busy street”. You are essentially choosing to avoid living on a “collector” or “arterial” road. A road fit for the purpose of living on.
Collector roads have more traffic and bring folks in from residential areas to the higher speed roads that actually go someplace.
Non-commercial Arterial roads are urban roads that act as the main routes for carrying traffic through a city. Their focus is on the efficient flow of traffic through a city. If you want to go somewhere quickly get on a non-commercial arterial road.
Commercial arterial roads provide easy access to businesses, with mini malls, mom and pop shops, big box stores and any number of opportunities to stop your car and spend your money. The flow of traffic is less efficient because of the abundant access to businesses. If you want to buy something get on a commercial arterial road.
Limited access roads such as free-ways, seriously limit where traffic can get on or off, which makes for very efficient travel on these roads. This is why the freeway moves so well, there is little turbulence from new traffic entering, and in this case, no interference to the flow of traffic caused by traffic lights. I remember a number of years ago, the embarassment that was expressed in North Vancouver, that they had the only traffic light on the transcanada highway. (It isn’t true, there are traffic lights along the highway in towns like Golden BC or Revelstoke BC, but perhaps North Van was the last in a developed urban area.
Highways allow for travelling further, without significant business or residential access, but they often do allow more access to collector roads.
Service roads provide a unique function with highways. Where highways come into town (like in Rocky Mountain House AB) “service roads” are employed to provide access to businesses such that the function of the highway isn’t impaired by the business access. Its a smart idea.
Understanding why Business Frontage is only of benefit sometimes
When a motorist wants to get from point A to point B in a timely manner, Business frontage or access on the streets the motorist drives on, has no advantage for the motorist or the business owner. For the business owner, he is NOT a potential customer. For the motorist, the buesiness access just slows things down by congesting traffic and introducing more traffic lights where he needs to wait on his trip. So a word of wisdom to the cities and municipalities that consider introducing commercial development on non-commercial arterial roads. Don’t. The old fashioned idea that business frontage is good for property value and taxes does not hold on these roads. It is a compromise of the road’s primary purpose which is to move traffic efficiently. That thinking only holds when you are considering a commercial arterial road. In Abbotsford, there is an commercial arterial road called “South Fraser Way” which has shopping malls and auto centres, and strip malls, and car dealerships, and it is a place where people go to buy things. Maclure is a non-commercial arterial road in Abbotsford which stretches almost the entire length of the city, with almost no commercial at all. It is limited access (every 1/2 mile or so, rather than every block) and it is 2 lanes with a median. It is the most efficient road in Abbotsford for travelling across town and a testament to the prior city leaders who had the vision for a road with no drive-ways.
The different types of roads above look different. residential and collector are likely to have sidewalks, arterial might, but limited access, highways and service are unlikely to have sidewalks. Speed limits are different too. A commercial arterial road should have lower speed limits than a non-commercial arterial road that is limited access.
I see anomolies. Perhaps someone is working on our behalf to keep things simple, but in our cities, a standard speed limit of 50 Km/h applies unless it is otherwise posted. South Fraser way is a major 2-3 laned commercial road with a speed limit of 50, and my small dead end residential road full of young families with children has no posted limit meaning that it’s limit is also 50. This does not make sense. Perhaps there should be a sliding scale based on road classification;
Residential 40 KM/H
Collector 50 KM/H
Non-Commercial Arterial 60 KM/H
Limited Access 70-100 KM/H
Now I’ll introduce you to a radical idea of which I am quite an advocate… Ready? Roads are for driving on. They exist only to move people from place to place. They are not for parking or any other purpose. They are to provide space for people to move from one location to the next. With the context of this truly revolutionary idea the next points will fall into line.
The idea of allowing car parking on roads is silly. Regardless of what has happened in the past, why do we need to build roads 4 lanes wide just because somebody decided to leave their car “out” on the street? We see car parking on some commercial. arterial and collector roads as well as residential. The idea that people view this as a right rather than a privilege, that people don’t consider whether they have space to park a car before they buy one is bizarre. Since the roads are built with your tax dollars, and you are forced to go work to earn that money I think this should be a point that is dear to you. In progressive countries like Japan, you need to prove that you have room to park your vehicle before you are allowed to purchase one. (Smart)
In Canada we have very wide lanes. Our lanes are much wider than our vehicles. Most vehicles will have an extra 1-2 meters of space beside them in their lane. Its hard to estimate exact distances while driving on the freeway, and no I’m not walking out there with a tape measure. We also (at least in the lower mainland of BC) have this annoying habit of making roads wide enough for 2 lanes and then not putting lane markings on them. So where you could safely have people passing each other allowing for a smoother flow of traffic, you have this ambiguity.
Or there might be times where you want to restrict people from passing to make a safer stretch of road, or where you could have a bike lane that is then swept clean where bikes would be safe to travel with less interference from cars. Often there is just a single lane and then there are 2 lanes, with no sign or warning. the dotted lines come out of nowhere, making the road and the traffic on the road unpredictable and therefore less safe. Plus if you need to increase the capacity of a road, a can of paint is a pretty cheap way to improve your road’s carrying capacity.
So this post feels like a plane circling in the air looking for a place to land, and I think it will have to be a work in progress. It holds some examples of the need for design, but isn’t really a comprehensive treatment… yet.
There is a great article over at “HomelessTales.com” addressing the challenges and barriers that sometimes keep homeless folks from receiving the benefits of shelters. Having had the opportunity to twice visit PLOW (Portland Learning Outreach and Worship) with teams of youth where we could learn firsthand about the issues facing homeless folks I can start to appreciate what is being said in this article.
Clearly it is a tough arena to examine and improve. With many of the organizations providing support on a voluntary basis from their own altruism, from their own budget, it just doesn’t make sense to insist on a certain “quality of service”. Certainly the customers they serve don’t have circumstances that make serving them easy and the work can be thankless.
Since “something” is better than nothing (an incremental improvement but not a perfect situation). Organizations meeting the social needs of the homeless receive thanks, and the clients are not generally in a position where they necessarily feel safe suggesting improvements… With the needs of the homeless being so immediate, the idea of feeding someone is measurable and can be achieved. With limited resources, the idea of feeding less people to make the meal experience more humanized seems foolish.
Given the creativity and dedication of the staff I’ve encountered serving the homeless, I can’t help but wonder if some kind of “Council of Best Practices” couldn’t be established to provide a code of excellence in addressing the needs of the homeless. Like a Kaizen Practical framework for evaluating the quality of services provided to the homeless folks. Not some “far removed” academic bureaucratic regulatory agency imposing unrealistic standards on overworked volunteers who are already stretched thin… My 2 cents. If that concept interests you, please comment below.
Anyways back to me recommending you read the other article…
Honda has some beautifully produced short films addressing quality issues in production. They consist of a series of exerpts from interviews with quotes from Honda engineers as well as others you might recognize for their vision for the future like, Orson Scott Card.
There are 3 short films ranging between 6 and8 minutes with the following themes;
It’s encouraging to see a large corporation thoughtfully discussing important issues like quality and sustainability. My cynical side sees this simply as effective marketing, but we have certainly enjoyed Honda quality when we owned one of their cars. Enjoy the informative eye-candy.
Have you seen other really well produced videos on Sustainable living and social issues or Quality and excellence in design that you would recommend? Let me know in the comments.
Greg
OK my lifehacking friends, head on over to Lifehacker.com and pick yourself up a copy of Texter their free text replacement tool. Think about the way you use your computer and the way that you end up repeating yourself as you type.
Texter replaces text snippets to save you time.
Unlike software-specific text replacement features, Texter runs in the Windows system tray and works in any application you’re typing in. Texter can also set return-to markers for your cursor and insert clipboard contents into your replacement text, in addition to more advanced keyboard macros. Did we mention it’s free?
By way of example, while in a support capacity, I had to explain (in great detail) how customers could take a screenshot and send it to us, so with texter, I defined a “hotstring” called “screenshot.” that results in the detailed instructions being filled in. So now, instead of trying to remember all the steps for creating a screenshot, texter remembers for me. AND for the quality nuts in the audience, if I realize my instructions are unclear, I can improve them and consequently EVERY time I use it in the future, they get the improved instructions. So there is a consistency benefit, a memory benefit, a typing less while communicating more benefit and a quality benefit.
In another capacity we had customers calling to ask for intranet services, and we needed to ask them a number of questions. (pcname, user’s network login, deadline, manager’s approval etc.) So for each of these requests we would send back an email asking all of these questions. You guessed it, texter to the rescue, saving us most of the effort in each of those emails. 10 minutes of careful wording was replaced with “cmsrequest.” Brilliant!
Let me add that texter works almost everywhere. I’ve seen it work in dos based applications, in browsers, on webpages, in office applications and more. But you are wondering, how much time does that save? Well from my experience, while working in a capacity where very little work was repeated, in a little over a year texter estimates that it saved me 2 days of typing. Thanks Texter!
So don’t delay, head on over to Lifehacker.com and pick yourself up a copy of Texter their free text replacement tool.
In improving Quality, continual improvement through the practice of incremental refinement is a powerful approach.
For example, as I drive home I have a route that works quite well. It is the most direct path between two points or the fastest path between two points. As I go along I start to notice things. Hey, people are turning off here, I wonder why or hey, Google disagrees with me and thinks it knows it better route. (Google maps that is, Google doesn’t talk to me yet…) Or hey, I wonder where that road goes it comes out at an intersection and looks busier than the road I took previously. Through experience we don’t become experts at driving down new roads but we become experts driving down the roads that we know. So with each opportunity to observe a contrary point of view each opportunity to experience the effect of plans. We are in a position to improve and to do better.
I believe in continual refinement. Let’s draft a document, present it to some other knowledgeable people and have them critique it. Then lets present it to our customers and have them shoot it full of holes. After each critique and review, we see problems and we fix them, so it becomes better and better and better until we have a really good document. The alternative is to try and get things perfect before we benefit from the insight and correction we might be offered. Producing PERFECT work is the realm of those who fear that the customer will discover they are not perfect. In producing PERFECT work (which is really just unreviewed work) Those doing the writing will tend to overthink second guess and overcorrect the work in the hopes that it will not fail, this extra “dilligence” will result in an increased cost that may or may not pay off in acceptance by the customer.
So, let’s put it out so the customers can test it. Every time the work encounters a problem, we hear about it and we’re able to improve our documentation. Things that we anticipated would be a problem, are not. However those that we never would have anticipated become problems. We let our customers help us achieve quality through continual and repeated refinement.
In the case of a business process that is being refined, where incremental change is possible (and it isn’t always) staff experience less disruption, maintain more productivity and generally experience less stress caused by change.
Some customers I worked with had been drafting some webpages which would represent their department and department’s initiatives. They had these pages in draft form for 3 years, during which time, none of their customers could read the information they had been thoughtfully compiling. The information by that point, ironically was out of date and would require updating. Their desire to get the information absolutely perfect had effectively removed the entire benefit of compiling the information in the first place.
Often in the IT environment where I work, we wrestle with the need for information that should be documeted, but which has not been. Even if we had partial information, outdated information, or incorrect information that would be preferable to NO INFORMATION. At least partial information gives you a place to start. A contact, a server name, a vendor’s 1800 number. So I am through my experience a fan of work that is created imperfect, and then refined as opportunity presents itself.
Well, this document has been sitting in draft for a while, so I’m going to kick it out there. Maybe though it it incomplete, it will be of some benefit. Let me know what you think, and I’ll improve it as we go.
Quality In Life - Living Smarter... 