Domain

Explanation

Are u nutz or what?!

• Are nuts those seeds inside shells that burst open upon pressure?
• Or
• Are nutz those sick's inside wells that explode upon crises?

What island? Thought no man is an island?!

• Is it so?
• If it is, why the need for this famous phrase?
• That makes everyone feel for it
• Doesn't any of U feel like carving out an island for yourself, sometimes?
• To shun those that despise, shun or blatantly ignore your best efforts?
• And
• Judging by your behaviour, those people in turn aggravate the relationships & worsen their attitudes?
• Does this sound like a spiral?
• A vicious spiral?

Hope it's not a black hole …

• Do black holes need to be in existence?
• Can't they be created, generated & strengthened over them?
• While the black holes in space are physical,
• The black holes of relationships are artificial
• They are the vicious spirals that thoroughly crush all relationships, successes, efforts & even heroics between groups of like-minded people
• Just like the theoretically infinite gravity that exist inside cosmological black holes
• The irony is …
• People most probably did not set out to destroy one another
• Neither do babies land & say they are the one
• In fact (proven by research)
• People set out to make a worthy contribution, put in effort for that future harvest, that promised land, make very personal sacrifices for the cause, mindless of the hardships & just, do their very best
• Because they like it, because they believe in it, because they want it to go on
• Sadly,
• The opposite happens more often than not
• That's why the famous phrase
• The good would always suffer

What r U driving at? Seems to be driving me nutz …

• This is the true story, aptly named Nut Island Effect
• It is a story about two groups of people - both doing the right things in their views, yet ended with nothing less than absolute failure
• Focus not on how they do things right,
• Rather, focus on how the relationships between the two groups as well as with external parties evolve & deteriorate

The Nut Island Effect

• Nut Island is an island located south of the Boston Harbour, USA
• Between 1960-1997, Nut Island was used as an offshore sewage treatment facility
• Its purpose was to treat sewage (domestic wastes, toilet urine & dung, industrial wastes & commercial ones) to comply with the statutory standards before discharging the effluent (the end-product of the treatment) into Boston Harbour
• Needless to say, the effluent must be treated & clean enough
• The facility equipment were aging, especially in the 90's - note all equipment suffer from wear & tear, so must be maintained regularly & properly
• The incoming sewage must be treated properly without overflows (untreated sewage leakage into harbour) - note that rainy days might surcharge the inflow by three times
• In this setting, emerges two distinct groups of people
• The first group is the Team - a group of dedicated, hardworking, uncomplaining, resourceful, satisfied & like-minded workmen who shun the spotlight - they are the strong, quiet kind
• Team is every plant manager's dream come true, so it is natural to expect them to be given a deal of autonomy in how they run the Nut Island sewage plant
• They are the best, why bother?
• The second group is the Management - a group of senior managers overseeing the running of entire organisation of which Nut Island plant is just one of many - they always looking for obvious trouble, resolving the most difficult issues & problems - hey, they are the top management
• They are distracted from actual happenings by several layers of management (tall corporate structure), assumed superficial results presented but never checking (top management, remember) & are pleased to leave it to the men for vital, behind-the-scene tasks - the Nut Island setting
• They are top management, why bother?
• Seems like a rosy picture? Read on …
• Team took on the job like heroes, operating, repairing & replacing equipment all the time
• Overtime is the norm, everyone works for one another - if it's good for u, it's good for me
• Touching? Read on …
• Management places trust on Team to run everything on Nut Island & gradually expected it to be so
• They are distracted from Nut Island due to more visible problems elsewhere, like Deer Island reported breakdowns
• As corporate care-takers, they ensure that funds go to popular investments
• And the sewage treatment can't be anywhere near that, hence funds are lacking
• Now that Deer Island had absorbed all that, Management began to reject all requests & petitions from Team for funds, urgently needed for repair & replacement
• Management takes Team for granted, but Team feels betrayed and began to shun all contacts with Management
• The truth is that all equipment are breaking down and it took Team heroics and ingenuity to improvise and repair them - they even pooled their pockets for funds
• Team decouples from Management, went into isolation, became self-delusion & counter-productive leading eventually to failure
• Team began fabricating test results on the effluent to pass regulations, ignored warning signs (since no use asking funds to repair - that's the best anyone can do), neglected warnings from visiting consultants & focus entirely on tasks
• If sewage not treated, pour lots of chlorine
• If overflows too much, divert incoming flows such that the monitoring points do not detect overflows, so no overflows?
• If test results are too acidic, pour in alkaline
• If testing not good, pick only the satisfactory ones
• Team took to a distorted picture of reality - that of fabricating results, concentrating on task-orientation & busy keeping the plant going
• Management feels no news is good news & happily thought all's going well & continued to ignore Team
• Eventually, an external crisis came - the equipment suffer total failure and the entire plant broke down
• Team and Management were disbanded & replaced, just the Nut Island (it is now 2002 a sewage transfer facility to send sewage to the northern vast new sewage treatment centre on none other than Deer Island)
• The Nut Island Effect is how two seemingly desirable groups can degenerate & produce such catastrophic failure
• It is a slow, gradual, almost-undetectable leakage of efforts

Causes of Nut Island Effect

• Vicious spiral left unchecked, unmonitored, undetected & unattended
• Mutual mistrust between Team & Management
• Incomprehension on issues of task-orientation & mission-orientation (that of ensuring plant serviceability for proper treatment)
• Management does not recognise, hence not aware and not able to take decisive remedial actions to counteract the Nut Island Effect

5 steps to failure - Nut Island Effect

1. Focus on issues of high visibility & gives great autonomy
2. Takes self-sufficiency for granted & ignores help
3. Puts up radar screen & willing to take silence as things are going well
4. Does not expose Team to external perspectives (like regulations) & practices (BMP - best management practices)
5. No news is good news & continues to ignore

1. Self-select, shun spotlight & checks; manage themselves; takes on distinct identity (the ones)
2. Feels betrayed & reacts with resentment
3. Takes on us-against-the-world mentality; isolation; feels like heroic outcasts (too bad heroes die young); disguise problems, ingenious improvisation
4. Invents & follows own rules & own mission (counter to external, statutory public health missions); masks grave deficiencies
5. Form distorted picture of reality; refuse to listen when helped

• Requires external events or crises as wake-up call

How to stop the Nut Island Effect

• Proper accounting, funding & cost-controls
• Install performance measures & reward structures
• Internal: local responsibilities & camaraderie
• External: goals & missions
• Management establish hands-on presence:
• Frequent, regular visits: not intended as spot-checks (these people shun the spotlight)
• Keenly listening (like Prudential)
• Recognising: detect warning signs & dangers early
• Guided tours
• Ensures team feels they matter
• Team integration with other parts of organisation: expose team to new ideas & practices
• Rotation of outside people into the team: regular feature, not intended as spotchecks

Last words

• The Nut Island Effect is a kind of under-current
• Remember, still waters run deep
• Constant, consistent & careful checking on all fronts needed
• Heroics should not only be measured by task-orientation, but also by mission-orientation
• In other words, if U want to do something, don't do it for the sake of doing it, but do it for the furtherment of macro-entity