A few years ago, there were some terror attacks in Bangalore, as a knee jerk reaction, all the top hotels and clubs implemented safety measures. Even malls had security measures in place. Today, years later, I went to a hotel in my car, they stopped me at the entrance and checked the underneath of the front with a mirror on wheels, another guy peeped into the hatchback and satisfied, they allowed me to go.
My question is - If I was a terrorist planning to blow up the hotel, will I just waltz in with a bomb sticking out of the bottom or a bag full of grenades in the boot???
Obviously, I will be more prepared, obviously those things will be better concealed.... So then, what is the purpose of going through the ritual of checking .
Once I was stopped from entering my own office building because I was wearing a Pathani Suit and had about 2 weeks of beard on my face. I was carrying my backpack with me.
At the mall, they have a metal detector and manually check all the bags. I was carrying my lunch box, while patting down the bag, the person looked at my lunch box and I just said what it was, he didn't check any further.
When the project was started, it was decided to have a daily report by generating a status, analysing each item and updating the status. A few weeks later, the person preparing the report was only updating the exceptional items. Another few weeks later, the report was just a copy paste from the earlier day.
The Finance Controller was supposed analyse and sign each of the invoices before approving. He did that for the first few years, but now, its just a formality where the accountant brings all the invoices, in less than 5 minutes, over a hundred invoices get approved.
I used to go for an audit. Everytime I entered the building's parking area, the security guard would note down my vehicle number and time of entry. After a few years, they upgraded the security systems, now there was a security camera at the entrance of the parking area. Guess what, I still see the security guard standing there diligently noting the in and out times of each and every vehicle.
By the way, I'm yet to read a news article saying that a threat was avoided because of the hand held metal detector.
This is exactly what is called a System Entropy... System Decay...
Every process, Every system is bound to decay over a period of time.
People become casual, circumstances change, people change... a complete knowledge and purpose of the original system is never transferred to the next generation. As a result, the next person doesn't see things the same way.
Every system discussed above and every single system around you and me was setup by some smart people. Every system was designed with a lot of thinking an planning. The problem is that every single system designed was suitable for that time.
When I introduce any system, I will follow it 100%. The next person will follow only 80% of that. Next one to come will only 80% of what he learnt from the earlier person. Over a period of time, the original purpose of the process has already been lost.
By now, people are only following the steps without knowing why.
Think about it...
The only way I can see to avoid such System Entropy is to:
1. Constantly review the existing systems.
2. Never allow the steps to become mechanical.
3. Most importantly, never do anything without knowing why you do it...
Let's rediscover the lost purpose...
My question is - If I was a terrorist planning to blow up the hotel, will I just waltz in with a bomb sticking out of the bottom or a bag full of grenades in the boot???
Obviously, I will be more prepared, obviously those things will be better concealed.... So then, what is the purpose of going through the ritual of checking .
Once I was stopped from entering my own office building because I was wearing a Pathani Suit and had about 2 weeks of beard on my face. I was carrying my backpack with me.
At the mall, they have a metal detector and manually check all the bags. I was carrying my lunch box, while patting down the bag, the person looked at my lunch box and I just said what it was, he didn't check any further.
When the project was started, it was decided to have a daily report by generating a status, analysing each item and updating the status. A few weeks later, the person preparing the report was only updating the exceptional items. Another few weeks later, the report was just a copy paste from the earlier day.
The Finance Controller was supposed analyse and sign each of the invoices before approving. He did that for the first few years, but now, its just a formality where the accountant brings all the invoices, in less than 5 minutes, over a hundred invoices get approved.
I used to go for an audit. Everytime I entered the building's parking area, the security guard would note down my vehicle number and time of entry. After a few years, they upgraded the security systems, now there was a security camera at the entrance of the parking area. Guess what, I still see the security guard standing there diligently noting the in and out times of each and every vehicle.
By the way, I'm yet to read a news article saying that a threat was avoided because of the hand held metal detector.
This is exactly what is called a System Entropy... System Decay...
Every process, Every system is bound to decay over a period of time.
People become casual, circumstances change, people change... a complete knowledge and purpose of the original system is never transferred to the next generation. As a result, the next person doesn't see things the same way.
Every system discussed above and every single system around you and me was setup by some smart people. Every system was designed with a lot of thinking an planning. The problem is that every single system designed was suitable for that time.
When I introduce any system, I will follow it 100%. The next person will follow only 80% of that. Next one to come will only 80% of what he learnt from the earlier person. Over a period of time, the original purpose of the process has already been lost.
By now, people are only following the steps without knowing why.
Think about it...
The only way I can see to avoid such System Entropy is to:
1. Constantly review the existing systems.
2. Never allow the steps to become mechanical.
3. Most importantly, never do anything without knowing why you do it...
Let's rediscover the lost purpose...
Super
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