DO YOU SUFFER FROM THE CHRONIC SYNDROME?
James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
REFERENCE:
A short missive of explanation with chronic problems as experienced in industry by this writer will be followed by a questionnaire survey the reader may find interesting, and hopefully, helpful.
* * *
When I was an organizational development (OD) psychologist with a high tech company, I came face to face with the nature of chronic problems and how we avoid the simplicity of their origin at the expense of complexity in which they often hide.
One of my roles was to direct the Quality Control Circle program, which was mainly designed for hourly workers.
There were some two hundred of such workers on an important program. One of the common complaints I heard from these workers in these QCC meetings was that it would be much simpler if the procedural instructions with their constant changes were explained in pictures rather than tech writing verbiage.
This gnawed at my conscience but it didn’t set off any alarm bells at the time. That happened when a team of product assurance people was sent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to attend a seminar by MIT’s quality guru, Myron Tribus.
The reason for this connection was that this program was experiencing a $5 million scrap problem, which didn’t seem to be going away.
The product assurance team returned with a complex approach to resolving the scrap problem that made Hillary Clinton’s Health Care initiative in the Clinton Administration look sensible in comparison.
It made me think of those workers on the program who were obsessed (my word) with having visual rather than written instructions.
About the same time, I attended a J.M. Juran seminar on chronic problems in complex systems in New York City, which made me think again about those workers on the line.
On a whim, and I can say on little else, I created a short confidential questionnaire in which I asked these workers if they could read, if they could read well, if they liked to read, and if they had trouble interpreting written text in their work.
I was astonished to learn that better than fifty percent could not read well enough to answer the questionnaire. Rather than get excited, and cause an emotional brouhaha, I created an after hours GED (General Education Diploma) program in which the carrot was for those in attendance to work towards their high school diploma, although it was ostensibly to improve their reading skills.
Of the some one hundred workers that should have responded to this opportunity, eighteen women and two men did. It was going on when I was promoted to director of human resources planning & development for the high tech company in Europe.
What I learned in my intervention was that nobody read (and I say that advisedly) the ever changing procedural text, but relied on veterans in the program to tell them what to do as these veterans had done it in the past.
It turned out that these veterans, some of whom could hardly read, were responsible in part or in full for the chronic errors that manifested themselves in the front end contributing to the scrap at the end
Moreover, to show how reluctant those in charge were to admit that human training and human error were the contributing factors, a program manager who worked closely with me nearly lost his job for seeing the chronic problem in human rather than engineering terms.
My reason for displaying this before introducing my questionnaire is to illustrate how chronic problems can own a system and fight any attempt to dislodge them. This is especially true if they inveigh the status quo and the powers that be.
* * *
DO YOU SUFFER FROM THE CHRONIC SYNDROME?
This is not a scientific questionnaire but is meant to alert the reader to how chronic problems are central to all phases of existence, especially those of a human nature.
SCALES:
Assign 0 to never; 2 to some of the time; 5 to most of the time; 10 to all the time
DO YOU FIND YOURSELF COMPLAINING ABOUT THE SAME THINGS?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU TELL THE SAME STORIES OR SHARE THE SAME IDEAS OVER AND OVER AGAIN WITH OTHERS?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU GOSSIP?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
.
DO YOU REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKES?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU ARGUE WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER ABOUT THE SAME THINGS?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL OF THE TIME
DO YOU PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW WHAT YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD DO TODAY?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL OF THE TIME
DO FRIENDS TELL YOU THAT YOU NEED HELP?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU WORRY CONSTANTLY ABOUT THE SAME THINGS?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU BLAME OTHERS FOR YOUR PREDICAMENT?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A MIRACULOUS BAIL OUT?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU JUMP FROM ONE ANSWER TO YOUR SITUATION TO ANOTHER?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL OF THE TIME
DO YOU DESIRE WHAT YOU CANNOT AFFORD?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU PUT DOWN PEOPLE BETTER EDUCATED AND SITUATED THAN YOU ARE?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU THINK PEOPLE FAIL TO RESPECT YOU?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
ARE YOU AFRAID TO TAKE CALCULATED RISKS?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
ARE YOU UNHAPPY WHERE YOU ARE?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
ARE YOU YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU LIKE YOURSELF?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU FOLLOW YOUR BLISS?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
ARE YOU A STATUS SEEKER?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU FEEL STUCK?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU THINK MOST PEOPLE ARE STUCK?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AS A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU FEEL LIFE HAS BEEN UNFAIR TO YOU?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
DO YOU SEE A CHRONIC PROBLEM IN YOUR CONSTRUCTION?
(1) NEVER
(2) SOME OF THE TIME
(3) MOST OF THE TIME
(4) ALL THE TIME
* * *
EVALUATION OF CHRONIC SYNDROME
0 – 50: It is obvious you are lying or denying a chronic disorder, or possibly, not taking this exercise seriously.
50 – 125: You are where most of us live, and we live with chronic problems if not a disorder that irritates us and sometimes tests the patience of our friends.
125 – 250: Chronic problems have become part of your modus operandi, so much so that you wouldn’t know what to do without them. You need help but it won’t be found in a self-help book.
You may not need a professional consultant such as a psychologist or psychiatrist, but could benefit from a friend whom you respect, will listen to, and take his or her counsel seriously.
Chronic problems are gnawing problems because they dictate how we problem solve in life, and often at our disadvantage. If this helps to clarify your mind, it has met its objective. It doesn’t claim to be scientific.
Incidentally, the created of this instrument is constantly coping with his own chronic disorders.
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