Anyone that's read my blog regularly knows I advocate thinking broadly, staying fluid and not compartmentalizing knowledge and - when push comes to shove - breadth over depth - all prerequisites to innovation. Reading this article has me seething - and it's an unfortunate reminder that over-specialization is dangerous not just in business:
The earthquake centre had been inundated with calls since 8.05am when tremors were felt in Bangkok and the northern capital of Chiang Mai.... Burin Vejbanterng, the duty officer [for the government-run Earthquake Bureau in Thailand] at the time [of the Sumatra earthquake] said: “To be honest I did not think of the waves because my speciality is earthquakes.”
Um, er, well, I guess I'll have to say yes and no to your claim of breadth is better than depth. Given the quote, I must say that the guy didn't have enough depth of vision or understanding of the *consequences* of earthquakes.
Posted by: John D. Mitchell | Jan 07, 2005 at 04:21 PM
John, that's a good point....
In so many cases one subject area/discipline trickles into another and the idea that boundaries actually exist between things mostly arises out of convenience, not reality. Almost any real problem is multi-disciplinary in its nature in the real world. It feels from this story that the meteorologists were too fixated on one narrow segment to see the big picture of the problem.
Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez | Jan 07, 2005 at 06:07 PM
Indeed. Though, I'd say the "fixation" was on escaping blame/guilt. Reality, as it were, is about consequences and his job was understanding the consequences of the earthquakes and, presumably, to communicate and otherwise inform people of those consequences so that they could better prepare. Incompetence is no more or less of an excuse than is ignorance.
Posted by: John D. Mitchell | Jan 07, 2005 at 06:14 PM
Consequences - yes, in this particular case it should have been more obvious. But that we were cognizant of all the consequences of our actions and inactions - that's the trick, isn't it? Seems to go beyond even being a "systems thinker."
Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez | Jan 07, 2005 at 07:25 PM
It's funny I always get my best ideas when I look outside of my current industry.
most problems seem to have been solved but in different ways for different industries. Adapting them is the key.
How many people would think of using the anti-contamination protocols of a meat packing plant to computer security? The particulars are different but the objective is the same. Keep your stuff clean. Keep the bad stuff in one place and handle it carefully as you take it away from the good stuff. Clean everything often.
Posted by: Stephan F | Jan 21, 2005 at 10:53 AM