SanitationSystemsForOrganizations

Cities have well engineered sewage systems because smart people recognized that if the water supply became contaminated by human waste, waterborne disease, such as cholera, would spread quickly.

A city that can't remove it's human waste will die. I think the same thing is true for organizations, although the sewage is different.

What is your organization's sewage?
How does it's sanitation system work?

SteveSmith 2005.06.04

One of the most dangerous pieces of sewage is any stuff that's not discussable, and even worse when it's discussability is not discussable, as Argyris points out. Stuff like that sickens an organization because it can never be flushed. - JerryWeinberg 2005.06.04

I propose that an organization's waste material consists in large part of constraints. Constraints arise from procedures, rules, habits, norms, definitions, titles, etc. These are initially thought up to make things more regular, less chaotic, and therefore easier to arrange in effective ways. With time, and as new rules (etc.) pile up and interact, their effectiveness lapses. Only the rigidity remains.

For instance, one of my friend wants to install a Wiki for a work group, but he is not allowed to install anything on a server that's not on a corporate list of approved software. There is one thing remotely like a Wiki, that costs a few thousand euros a year, that he was told they'd be glad to install for him if he but asked.

One sanitation system consists of collective purpose - people decide that there are some results they value more than they value the stale constraints they operate under, and negotiate the constraints away.

LaurentBossavit 2005.06.07

I believe that large organizations refer to the sanitation system as "layoffs."

WillSargent 6/7/05

Not that layoffs get rid of constraints. If anything, they tend to reinforce them - that's a part of Survivor's Syndrome. -- lb

I think rumors are a major component of organizational sewage. They are a major disease in dysfunctional organizations. Always available. Always mutating. Always intriguing.

I think this disease jumps from person-to-person quickly because the rumor comments about things that aren't ordinarily discussable (See Jerry's comment above). Healthy organizations flush rumors quickly. Sick organization swim in them.

SteveSmith 2005.06.14

A form of sewage where I work are meetings. Endless meetings that don't have much of a purpose.

. People get stuck in them

. They wear you out.

. It takes a while to clean the residue of the meeting off of you

. No one likes the meetings, but they are still there.

DwaynePhillips 15 June 2005

It is interesting that meetings seem to be a perpetual source of dis-ease for people, including me. I have yet to find a way to get people to try different ways of holding a meeting to get rid of dis-ease. We have so-called stand ups. I suggested we all stand up. They said, "Sit down!" CharlesAdams 2005.06.15

Some African tribes hold their meetings standing on one leg, or at least require that the speaker stand on one leg and stop speaking when the second foot touches the ground. You might try that, Charles, then compromise on just standing on two feet. - JerryWeinberg 2005.06.16

Another part of the sewage is the caustic interactions between members of the organization. The sanitation method used in a healthy organizations is a sincere apology and each person answering: What was happening for me/you when the interaction went bad? And the healthier the organization the faster the question is asked and answered.

I'm intrigued that the root of the words sanity and sanitation is the Latin word sanus, which means healthy, and whole, sound.

SteveSmith 2005.06.19

Another part of the sewage is the stern belief the future will be like the past. Regardless of whether times are good or bad, the sanitation system of a healthy organization flushs that concept and chooses to direct and shape its future by preseving the things that are going well and changing the things that aren't.

SteveSmith 2005.06.19

It's difficult for any organization, healthy or not, to consider change. Part of the problem is the delays in the system. If the delays are long enough, how can you tell what's going well and what's not? -- JohannaRothman 2005.06.21

ThingsGoingWellThingsGoingPoorly -- New Thread

Updated: Friday, August 26, 2005