Cohousing-L Mailing List: Problem solving: elevator story

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

>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

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l