A couple of weeks ago, I had an email dialogue with a couple of close friends. This sounds stupid, but as a lark, we chatted about what it would be like to follow around some guy whose job description has to do with process improvement.
Many people have jobs in this area, so we fully recognized the need for SOMEONE to do this type of tedious, repetitive, mind-numbing work. Oh wait, you mean some people find it exciting and seek careers in the process improvement field? No way.
Follow us down this trail as we wonder what it would be like each day looking at how work is done by others, what the paper trail is so-to-speak, and figuring out ways to shorten it, make it faster and more efficient. You have to be nuts like the three of us on the email dialogue to even consider following someone around on this type of job.
To start the day, our fictitious process improvement engineer either clocks in, or gets to his desk and turns on his computer to check emails and see what type of progress was made overnight on all his projects and what meetings he will attend today to give updates and find out what new systems aren’t working and require his attention. As we sit with him, staring at the screen, we know an extra dose of coffee will be imperative to keep from nodding off in the course of the day.
After the quick morning prep time, our PIE (Process Improvement Engineer) is off to the warehouse floor, where he checks in with the manager to see how the trucks are running, which pallets didn’t fit properly into their receptacles and whether the forklifts need to be adjusted to raise materials to 12 feet rather than 10. This issue puzzles PIE, as it may mean having to purchase a new fleet of forklifts.
Writing a note to his boss later that morning, he wants to enliven the day and add an emoticon to make his point, but can’t find one that fits. There are all kinds of smiles, and frowns, but nothing that indicates what he wants to say, which is, “This is messed up.”
This causes him to start thinking about how difficult it is to express what is going on without emoticons. In turn, he wants to improve this process, so he realizes there is a need for a whole new set of emoticons to fully describe what happens to people rather than tears, giggles and anger. He decides to improve this process.
Once he gets started and realizes he’ll be messing around all day rather than working, he knows there’s a dose of irony involved. He looks for the irony emoticon. None there. He chalks up it up and sends a note to the Emoticon Manager, “Please create ‘irony’ emoticon.”
Immediately he is struck by remorse. He knows what he did is silly and not right, so he looks for the “regret” emoticon. Again, none of the faces fits, so his quandary continues.
We need more emoticons to describe our lives and work, regardless of whether we are tracking a PIE or just emailing a friend. Those extra descriptions will enliven our day, and help us better capture the specificity of what we felt.
For example, think how much better we could relate to people, their jobs and what they do socially if we had emoticons for “tongue in cheek,” “I’m messing with you,” “didn’t really mean it,” “I’ve been drinking” or “I want a ham sandwich.” You could just look at the picture, sigh, and move on because you’d know exactly what the other person meant and what s/he was feeling.
Let’s build the emoticon base. We can follow the PIE around on this task. It might actually prove interesting.
Many people have jobs in this area, so we fully recognized the need for SOMEONE to do this type of tedious, repetitive, mind-numbing work. Oh wait, you mean some people find it exciting and seek careers in the process improvement field? No way.
Follow us down this trail as we wonder what it would be like each day looking at how work is done by others, what the paper trail is so-to-speak, and figuring out ways to shorten it, make it faster and more efficient. You have to be nuts like the three of us on the email dialogue to even consider following someone around on this type of job.
To start the day, our fictitious process improvement engineer either clocks in, or gets to his desk and turns on his computer to check emails and see what type of progress was made overnight on all his projects and what meetings he will attend today to give updates and find out what new systems aren’t working and require his attention. As we sit with him, staring at the screen, we know an extra dose of coffee will be imperative to keep from nodding off in the course of the day.
After the quick morning prep time, our PIE (Process Improvement Engineer) is off to the warehouse floor, where he checks in with the manager to see how the trucks are running, which pallets didn’t fit properly into their receptacles and whether the forklifts need to be adjusted to raise materials to 12 feet rather than 10. This issue puzzles PIE, as it may mean having to purchase a new fleet of forklifts.
Writing a note to his boss later that morning, he wants to enliven the day and add an emoticon to make his point, but can’t find one that fits. There are all kinds of smiles, and frowns, but nothing that indicates what he wants to say, which is, “This is messed up.”
This causes him to start thinking about how difficult it is to express what is going on without emoticons. In turn, he wants to improve this process, so he realizes there is a need for a whole new set of emoticons to fully describe what happens to people rather than tears, giggles and anger. He decides to improve this process.
Once he gets started and realizes he’ll be messing around all day rather than working, he knows there’s a dose of irony involved. He looks for the irony emoticon. None there. He chalks up it up and sends a note to the Emoticon Manager, “Please create ‘irony’ emoticon.”
Immediately he is struck by remorse. He knows what he did is silly and not right, so he looks for the “regret” emoticon. Again, none of the faces fits, so his quandary continues.
We need more emoticons to describe our lives and work, regardless of whether we are tracking a PIE or just emailing a friend. Those extra descriptions will enliven our day, and help us better capture the specificity of what we felt.
For example, think how much better we could relate to people, their jobs and what they do socially if we had emoticons for “tongue in cheek,” “I’m messing with you,” “didn’t really mean it,” “I’ve been drinking” or “I want a ham sandwich.” You could just look at the picture, sigh, and move on because you’d know exactly what the other person meant and what s/he was feeling.
Let’s build the emoticon base. We can follow the PIE around on this task. It might actually prove interesting.