Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Problem solving: elevator story

[Gary.Stewart (Gary.Stewart]

reminds me of the story, possibly apocryphal, about NASA commissioning the
development of a ball point pen that would work in zero gravity, upside
down, and in extremes of tempertaure, much money and time later they had
what they wanted - the Russians used a pencil

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn Nadeau" <welcome [at] olympus.net>
To: "cohousing L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 4:36 AM
Subject: [C-L]_Problem solving: elevator story


> >So the learning for us was: Sometimes it is better to start first with
the
> >concept, reach an understanding of what you want to accomplish and why,
> >before trying to figure out all the details.
> >
> >Rob Sandelin
>
> Well put, and a lead-in to another example.
>
> Here's a true story that was recently related to me by a retired
> aerospace engineer who had worked for NASA and big corporations. The
> corporate headquarters was in a tall building, in which the elevators
> were so slow that people were frustrated and angry and impatient about
> how slow the elevators were. This man says he was on a team of experts
> that was assigned to solve this problem. They did detailed analyses and
> learned that replacing the slow old elevators would cost vast amounts of
> money and cause major disruption. So they solved it with mirrors.
>
> Huh? They put mirrors in the elevators and people stopped complaining:
> they happily spent their time looking in the mirrors....
>
> The problem wasn't the slowness, but the dissatisfaction - ah, I wish I'd
> thought of that!!
>
>
> Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
> Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
> http://www.rosewind.org
> http://www.ptguide.com
>
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