| |
 |
March
Issue |
|
Throw
out the rubbish
I remember when I was young, my grandfather paid us grandchildren one cent
for every fly we killed. There were so many flies around. Each afternoon,
I took a fly swatter and went after the flies, carefully keeping each dead
fly to claim payment.
My grandfather’s reward system meant that it was better for me to
have more flies around. I did not care where the flies came from. Certainly
I did not try to clean up the place. There would then be fewer flies. Having
rubbish and rotting food is good business for me - it means more flies
for me to kill!
Today there are few flies around our homes. The Ministry of the Environment
has done a good job of keeping Singapore clean with the active support
of Singaporeans.
But let us think a little bit about our work.
Every so often I hear a public officer say, “All our time is spent
putting out fires.”
I ask, “What is the cause of the fires? Why not work to prevent the
fires?”
He replies, “We are so busy putting out the fires. We have no time
to study the problem to prevent the fires. Anyway, we can’t change
the rules ourselves. That is something for our supervisor to do.”
In my first WIT (Work Improvement Team) training lesson, the instructor
said, “Think of a garden with a lot of weeds. How do you get the
garden to look nice? You can cut the grass every week. Or you can kill
the weeds, after which you do not need to cut the grass so often. Killing
the weeds requires more work. But once it is done, the effort required
to keep the garden nice is much less.”
The instructor continued, “This is how WIT projects are like. Find
out what is the actual problem. Then solve the problem.”
There are many improvements we can make to our work. Get rid of rules.
Simplify procedures. Make things more convenient. Use fewer forms. Move
away from cash payments.…
Don’t just take things as they are. If there is a better way, let
us find it.
Don’t just chase the flies. Throw away the rubbish. Then there will
be fewer flies, and we can spend our time doing more useful things.
Lim Siong Guan Head, Civil Service |
|
|
|
|
| - |
| 2004
Archives |
|
| - |
| 2003
Archives |
|
|
| - |
| 2002
Archives |
|
|
| - |
| 2001
Archives |
|
|
| - |
| 2000
Archives |
|
| - |
| 1999
Archives |
|
|
|
|
|
