Over Solutioned
Tom McLeod
"One of the deepest thinkers in our profession" | Reimagining risk and internal audit | Mentor
Despite putting man on the moon, decoding DNA and inventing the internet I do wonder whether there are times where we as a society over solution a problem.
Last week as the autumnal leaves fell on the suburban footpaths of Melbourne I came across a case in point.
As we walked to school we were confronted by a cacophony of three fluorescently attired men with powerful leaf blowers pushing onto the road the fallen reminders of a summer now past.
(Interestingly those holding the leaf blowers had ear protection; everyone walking by - including the young school children - had to hold their hands to their ears).
Add to this was the cyclone of dust being swirled into unappreciative eyes and mouths or landing on the enamel of freshly washed cars.
But it was what came next that was the real over solutioning (if that is indeed a word!) moment.
The local council had decided that there needed to be a specific leaf catching machine designed, procured, trained in, maintained and operated for those couple of weeks a year when winter announces her arrival.
As it wound its way around the labyrinth of streets its girth was such that it stopped traffic in both directions and - because it couldn’t appear to cope with the natural curvature of the asphalted road - it was only scooping up about two thirds of the debris that awaited.
**
Later on that day as I returned to a street carpeted afresh with disobedient late falling leaves I saw an elderly couple quietly and diligently cleaning the leaves from their garden and those of their neighbour.
All they needed was a rake!
Partner, Data Assurance at PwC Australia
7 年Hi Tom, streetsweeping is actually not about suburban beautification; it is a preventative step to protect the storm water network. If lots of leaves fall at once then you have a short amount of time to get them before they might get flushed down towards a 100 year old set of pipes and maybe cause problems that result in loss of property or even life if it rains hard enough before you manage to collect the leaves. Not a big issue when the system was designed but now that we have more hard surfaces the leaves are much more likely to find their way to the pipes. I didn't know this a few years ago, but the more I learn about local government the more I am learning to respect the way they (mostly quietly) get things done so that nothing happens! Of course, everyone can always improve, and find more elegant solutions to problems. Like the local councils from Australia and New Zealand that participate in the PwC/ LG professionals performance excellence program! https://goo.gl/XHPeUv
Head of Internal Audit at Fusion for Energy
7 年It would have been interesting to go beyond and, as we internal auditors all (should) do, try to find out the root cause for this obviously inefficient use of taxpayers money. You might have found that, for example: they are struggling to attract and retain maintenance people and have decided to "upgrade" their jobs with such high-tech machines (making the jobs quite expensive, indeed- maybe a salary hike would have been better), or maybe the trade unions pushed in that direction, or maybe the City hall person who made the decision had a vested interest in having the City buy such machines... starting from small findings like this one, and investigating them to the very bottom, you can sometimes find out very interesting things !
Author | Risk Management Expert | Podcaster | NED | Speaker
7 年Good point Tom McLeod - creating a solution for a problem we didn't know we had!