1. © Cotton Innovations Ltd 2016
For further information on this subject and other business tools contact:
Brad Cotton – brad@cottonci.com
Telephone +44 (0)7867 305 043
Other newsletters at cottonci.com/blogs
This statement was made by
George W. H. Bush in the 1988
US presidential campaign he
won on the promise of no new
taxes. After reaching office, he
renegaded on this promise
which became his downfall in the 1993 election won
by Bill Clinton.
I have strategically placed several very large and
prominent ‘HANDLE WITH CARE’ stickers on my suitcases.
This is mainly because I am often transporting equipment
like training laptops, visual aids or android tablets. Leaving
nothing to chance, I ‘triple wrap’ the delicate goods in
foam, to protect them from the rigours of transit.
”it is a waste of time making things idiot-proof,
as the idiots are so ingenious
they will still find a way to break it!”
Whilst sitting on the Boeing 767-300ER, waiting for it to be
loaded and pulled back from the gate, I noticed the
baggage cart draw up alongside the plane. With the plane
being a small aircraft, all the bags were manually loaded
off the cart onto the conveyer belts, and into the hold of
the plane.
Seeing my bags being loaded brought 2 interesting
thoughts:
 The first being, ‘great to know that at least my
bags and my wife’s bags are on our flight, so I
know we have fresh clothes to wear when we
land.’
 The second being, I wondered how they would be
handled, knowing that in one of them was a
bottle of Champaign, which we had been given as
a 30
th
wedding anniversary present, along with
precious gifts for the family which were carefully
packed.
With total disregard for the ‘fragile’ labels,
written in the international travel
languages of English and French and
having the international symbol of a
broken wine glass in bright red
background.
They were casually
dragged off the
cart and bundled,
with no care or
attention, onto the
transit belt.
I can only assume
they were bundled
with ‘equal care and concern’ as it was loaded into the
aircraft’s hold.
This led me to think, ‘how many times a day do we not
read or communicate important information, in the way
that we manage the products or services we provide?’
Examples being to name a few:-
 Double stacked boxes where they clearly say ‘do
not stack’, or on their side or upside down where
it states the orientation on the outside of the box.
 Goods crushed due to dropping or incorrect
loading
 Danger or warning signs being ignored
 Road side notifications we disregard
As a young engineer I remember being
given a list of cynical engineering rules,
and one of them said “it is a waste of
time making things idiot-proof, as the
idiots are so ingenious they will still find
a way to break it!”
So to my point:
We talk about continuous improvement and aim to be
better through raising standards in the projects we run,
demonstrating great benefits to all. Do we lead by
example, through setting the standard, raising the bar,
looking to take the lead and changing our behaviours? Or,
are we in the way of doing what everyone else is doing –
making it up as we go along, sliding back into bad habits
and forgetting the gains to be had by good and improved
practice?
I was relieved to find that my careful packing of the
Champaign bottle and gifts for the family was worthwhile,
as it resisted the neglect of the baggage handling crews.