It's aimed at the #NoEstimates movement. But DDSTOP doesn't seem to originate from that (if you read the post, at least).
DDSTOP sounds good at a first glance. We should actually not do stupid things on purpose. And sometimes it kind of feels like we do, at least I feel that. It happened today actually. We were requested to estimate a change request that wasn't really thought through. At least we had quite low confidence in giving a credible estimate on the effort required. So for a while we talked about how we could give an estimate and what it should be at. Then it struck me; "Wait a minute! Customer collaboration! Let's book a meeting instead and go through this together with them. Why not even let them hear what we think, directly, instead of 'delivering' the estimate." Everyone in the team agreed. Meeting is now booked. To be continued... :-) I call this approach "no estimates", because we made a decision without estimates - we decided to *not* provide an estimate, i.e. "no estimates". We *will* give an estimate. And that leaves me with: "no estimates" is not "never estimate". And we also avoided a "misuse" of them; we avoided a "guesstimate". And doing the estimate in collaboration with customer at the same time as we look at what is to be done, is also much better, in my opinion. But now I'm really off-topic...
I don't really like DDSTOP as an approach or mindset or whatever it is. I feel it has a "blame" tone. Like: "I/You/He/She did a stupid thing, shame on me/you/him/her!". And even if we don't actually say that, we might implicitly set a culture of not wanting to try new stuff; "Oh, I don't dare to try/do this, it might be stupid, someone might even interpret it as me being stupid on purpose... That banner over there says that and all, oh well...". In my opinion, that is not a culture we should foster. In fact, quite the contrary.
I claim we actually *should* do stupid things! It reminds me of a movie quote I love. From The Three Musketeers. D'Artagnan is about to leave his parents to meet the world and seek adventures:
D'Artagnan's Father: There's one more piece of advice.D'Artagnan: I know, I know. Don't get into any trouble.D'Artagnan's Father: Wrong. Get into trouble. Make mistakes. Fight, love, live. And remember, always, you're a Gascon and our son. Now go. Go.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1509767/quotes?item=qt1793828)
A wonderful advice!
My take: Try! Fail! Learn! Be creative! Ignore stupid!
And when someone makes an obvious stupid thing, shame on *us* (as a system or organization) for allowing it to happen. See it as something positive! A chance of learning - and improvement - in the organization. And not just wag it off as "that was just X doing a stupid thing, and furthermore on purpose". There is no learning and improvement in that mindset (or whatever it is).
Taking the example from Glen's blog above; a foam filler was used without reading the directions on its applicable.
"Stupid! And on purpose; not reading the directions."And when someone makes an obvious stupid thing, shame on *us* (as a system or organization) for allowing it to happen. See it as something positive! A chance of learning - and improvement - in the organization. And not just wag it off as "that was just X doing a stupid thing, and furthermore on purpose". There is no learning and improvement in that mindset (or whatever it is).
Taking the example from Glen's blog above; a foam filler was used without reading the directions on its applicable.
Well I'd say: "Shame on *us* for not educating people on how to use the foam filler instead, and other safety equipment. Maybe we should even arrange other courses on how to perform CPR as well?"
It's "culturally" important to not put any blame on employees. Not even a slight indication that we do. Not even open up for misinterpretation of the concept that might lead in that direction (I obviously might have misinterpreted DDSTOP. But if I have, others will as well). Because it might lessen (or even kill?) the company's most precious recourses; creativity, innovation and learning.
I think that banner was actually a rather bad idea. I think DDSTOP as a way of thinking is a bad idea. Not stupid though... ;-)
Your claim we should do stupid things on purpose needs to be tested with those paying you.
ReplyDeleteThe people who set fire to the elevator shaft with the filler had all the training they needed, were certified for nuclear building two-phase-commit. They ignored their training and they ignored common sense. Any casual user of the foam should read the instructions. These were not casual users, these were Journeyman Nuclear and Chemical Works.
It is critically important to find the root cause of all serious errors or poor performance. That was what was done. The "blame" is clearly on the worker for not following the "work instructions" for the job and the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for the product and the protocol to double check the application, with your "paired" colleague.
You have misinterpreted DDSTOP. It says it's name. Don't intentionally waste your customer's money by trying things that a know not to work. This has nothing to do with innovation and creativity. Those same steel works (not the same people, but the same culture), created solutions to very difficult nuclear waste handling problems that saved 100's of Millions in cost, reduced handling risks and accelerated the program by months.
This notion of putting "no" blame on employees is very idealistic in anything but the smallest environment. 5,000 works on a site, many associated with IT, working in a full OSHA/EPA/RCRA certifies safety environment for nuclear safety and safeguards that don't follow the safety, engineering and process rules (OSHA 1910.119) by which they were certified to perform their work are the Root Cause. They are to Blame.