Scorpion Down, by Ed Offley, 2007, ISBN 0-465-05185-5
I am a submarine officer. Although I was only in the US Navy for six years, the experiences will remain with me for life.
We have only lost two boats in my lifetime: The Thresher in 1963 and Scorpion in 1968. When I was going through the Navy nuclear power training schools, we studied the Thresher. But the Scorpion was always a mystery. I recall reading Blind Man's Bluff (1998 by Sontag and Drew), where they suggested that a torpedo battery explosion caused the sinking of the Scorpion. It made sense to me, as those Mark 37 fish were never very reliable. I was impressed that Cdr. Bob Fountain, my first skipper, ordered a 180 degree change of direction in the sub simulator when given the scenario of a "hot run in the torpedo room." We were all taught to do that. The safety circuit gyroscopes would shut the fish down to keep it from attacking us.
Then I read Offley's book. He said at the end of chapter one that almost every part of the official navy account was a lie. He then went on to develop a very sound case that the Soviets deliberately launched a torpedo at the boat while it was spying on their activities in the Atlantic. This was "paybacks" for our subs colliding with several Soviet ships around the world during the middle 1960s. Our military brass knew about the sinking way before it was officially announced. The Kremlin told us! All the subsequent searching was a cover-up of the real thing.
So why didn't President Lyndon Johnson, his National Security Adviser, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff want the public to know? Because we were in a very intense cold war with the Soviets at the time. When I was on the boats in the early 1970s, we were doing some pretty hairy things. That was just four years after the Scorpion went down. If the public and politicians had known the sinking was deliberate, they would have demanded nuclear retaliation. Civilization would probably not have survived.
I don't believe the Kremlin bosses ordered the Scorpion attack. They did, however, let the ships conducting exercises off the Canary Islands know the Scorpion was coming their way. How did they know that? Because they had our crypto machines (from the Pueblo incident) and daily crypto codes (from the John Walker spy ring). It seems to me that the commander of one of the Soviet submarines was fed up by all the American harassment and took matters into his own hands. The Kremlin then told us a couple hours later, because a serious lapse of command and control had just taken place. They were embarrassed. They were also fearful of what we would do.
This all occurred 43 years ago. The information is still classified Top Secret and Codeword. Some of the people involved are still with us. It will probably take another 40 years before the details can be safely released.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Raising Awareness that Quality Works
In Paul Borawski's recent posting in View from the Q, he discussed the merits of the Baldrige Program. Paul expressed unhappiness that many folks don't get it. Quality works. But why is it misunderstood and not used to its full potential? We have great tools, professionals, and networks. How can we raise the global awareness of the benefits of quality?
Being in the profession, I have thought about this issue of several years now. I have tried to examine it from societal, economic, and technology forces. My thoughts have not achieved the excellence of Alvin Toffler, when he published The Third Wave back in 1980. But they have settled on three perceptions:
Quality is certification. Ever since the mid-1990s, when quality management system registration was perceived as the road to riches, people have associated our profession with ISO certification. Much like quality circles in the 1980s and the current interest in lean six sigma. We know that these are all useful applications of the quality principles. But our messages say something different. Sales of ISO 9001 books, standards, courses, and conferences, made the ASQ quite a lot of money as we transitioned into and through the new millennium. Many of our member leaders are earning a living by providing registration information and services. This topic continues to sell even after the Great Recession. My own analysis tells me that most of the ASQ Global countries (China, India, etc.) are focused on certification of people and businesses. My experiences with the European Organization for Quality and the Asian Network for Quality lead me to believe that much of their focus is on management system certification. While certification of people and organizations is not bad, I believe we have given the false impression that it is somehow magical.
Quality is inspection. We all know that the quality profession began with the industrialization of America. We started to realize the power of standardization and inspection to those requirements. Eventually, this was captured in our basic PDCA beliefs. As I discussed earlier in this blog, we also learned that inspection alone would not meet the increasing complexity of society. We made the transition from QC to QA in the 1960s and 1970s. We moved from QA to QM in the 1990s and 2000s. We are currently undergoing another shift to integration. Unfortunately, many leaders have not caught up with this evolution. In response to society's problems, those leaders conclude that the answer is more inspection. More FDA inspections of food. More TSA inspections of travelers. Our profession is well aware of the deficiencies of reliance on inspection only. Others do not see this bigger picture.
Quality is special. For as long as I have been in the workforce, we have always had redundant quality, safety, environment, and occupational health departments. Oh sure, occasionally the last three are combined into ESH or SHE or some other combo. But always separate from quality. And the poor worker is "audited" almost weekly by one or the other of these groups. Often, being asked the same questions. And then we wonder why we do not have the attention of the senior executives. My studies and recent speeches lead me to believe that there is no fundamental difference between quality, environment, safety, and security management systems. Perhaps even financial management. They are all variations of the basic principle of PDCA. But that still won't get us the attention of the Board of Directors and Cabinet Ministers. I am beginning to realize that all of this is tied to Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). Quality, environment, safety, security, finance, continuity, etc. are all components of GRC. And that is what the people in power are monitoring! I think it is time to break bread with the boys and girls in the Institute of Internal Auditors, Government Accountability Office, and others.
I realize that working on just one of the above three topics would be a tremendous drain on resources. Is it worth it? Don't know. But I do appreciate Paul's question. It caused me to extract my thoughts and share them with you.
“I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive a variety of quality resources as honorarium from ASQ in exchange for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own.”
Being in the profession, I have thought about this issue of several years now. I have tried to examine it from societal, economic, and technology forces. My thoughts have not achieved the excellence of Alvin Toffler, when he published The Third Wave back in 1980. But they have settled on three perceptions:
- People equate quality with certification.
- People equate quality with inspection.
- Our profession believes quality is unique from environment, safety, and health.
Quality is certification. Ever since the mid-1990s, when quality management system registration was perceived as the road to riches, people have associated our profession with ISO certification. Much like quality circles in the 1980s and the current interest in lean six sigma. We know that these are all useful applications of the quality principles. But our messages say something different. Sales of ISO 9001 books, standards, courses, and conferences, made the ASQ quite a lot of money as we transitioned into and through the new millennium. Many of our member leaders are earning a living by providing registration information and services. This topic continues to sell even after the Great Recession. My own analysis tells me that most of the ASQ Global countries (China, India, etc.) are focused on certification of people and businesses. My experiences with the European Organization for Quality and the Asian Network for Quality lead me to believe that much of their focus is on management system certification. While certification of people and organizations is not bad, I believe we have given the false impression that it is somehow magical.
Quality is inspection. We all know that the quality profession began with the industrialization of America. We started to realize the power of standardization and inspection to those requirements. Eventually, this was captured in our basic PDCA beliefs. As I discussed earlier in this blog, we also learned that inspection alone would not meet the increasing complexity of society. We made the transition from QC to QA in the 1960s and 1970s. We moved from QA to QM in the 1990s and 2000s. We are currently undergoing another shift to integration. Unfortunately, many leaders have not caught up with this evolution. In response to society's problems, those leaders conclude that the answer is more inspection. More FDA inspections of food. More TSA inspections of travelers. Our profession is well aware of the deficiencies of reliance on inspection only. Others do not see this bigger picture.
Quality is special. For as long as I have been in the workforce, we have always had redundant quality, safety, environment, and occupational health departments. Oh sure, occasionally the last three are combined into ESH or SHE or some other combo. But always separate from quality. And the poor worker is "audited" almost weekly by one or the other of these groups. Often, being asked the same questions. And then we wonder why we do not have the attention of the senior executives. My studies and recent speeches lead me to believe that there is no fundamental difference between quality, environment, safety, and security management systems. Perhaps even financial management. They are all variations of the basic principle of PDCA. But that still won't get us the attention of the Board of Directors and Cabinet Ministers. I am beginning to realize that all of this is tied to Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). Quality, environment, safety, security, finance, continuity, etc. are all components of GRC. And that is what the people in power are monitoring! I think it is time to break bread with the boys and girls in the Institute of Internal Auditors, Government Accountability Office, and others.
I realize that working on just one of the above three topics would be a tremendous drain on resources. Is it worth it? Don't know. But I do appreciate Paul's question. It caused me to extract my thoughts and share them with you.
“I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive a variety of quality resources as honorarium from ASQ in exchange for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own.”
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
A Day in the Life of a Trainer
Hilton Garden Inn, Austin
Monday was not a good day. Tuesday was much better.
When I checked in at the airport Monday morning, I learned that the Internet was down throughout eastern Washington. Probably another back hoe digging up a fiber optic cable. Since I had checked in on-line Sunday, this didn't affect me. Except for the bag. I had three pieces (laptop case, data projector, and clean clothes) and TSA allows two. When I packed Sunday night, I thought, "How could they screw up? Transfer one bag in Minneapolis from one plane to another with an hour to do it." So I packed my projector and clothes in one bag and checked it. Travel light. Since the network was down, they had to attach a handwritten bag tag. As you anticipated, the bag did not arrive in Houston when I did!
So I filled out the missed bag report at the Houston airport and went to the rental car facility. Enterprise had a nice Ford Focus awaiting. I then drove to the Houston Office Depot on US 290 to pick up my printing order. What order? It seems that all the remote printing jobs through the Internet for this area are being funneled through Dallas, and the truck had not delivered my job to the Houston store. Even though I received a message that my job was done and ready for pickup! So they printed it from scratch locally, which took about three hours for half the job.
I now had enough workbooks for my Austin class. I left the store about 8 p.m., for the three-hour drive to Austin. It took three hours. I checked into the hotel and asked if my boxes from ASQ were there. The front desk guy said, "Yes, they are in the luggage storage closet." I replied, "I will get them in the morning." I also asked the night manager too call me if my airline bag arrived. (I did not expect it until Tuesday afternoon.) At 2 a.m. she called to say it was there and she would deliver it outside my door. Yipee! I had my data projector and clean clothes.
When I went downstairs Tuesday morning, I asked about my UPS boxes in the storage closet around the corner from the front desk. What boxes? The only one was from my colleague, containing his workbooks and handouts for the Wednesday session. So I had to go online to get the UPS tracking data, to tell them who signed for it on Monday morning at 9:36. They called him and he said the boxes were in the sales office. Found em! I managed to get most of the room set up by the time folks started rolling in about 7:45.
Everyone on the registration lists showed up. There were no last-minute additions or walk-ins. The class went very well. All were attentive and asked good questions. Our lunch was served on time and the baked potato with soup and salad buffet went over nicely. We are the only meeting here, so we had complete staff attention. This is a very well-run property and I told the manager.
I slept in today (Wednesday) and will drive back to Houston. First stop will be Office Depot to pick up the rest of my print job, then on to the Fairfield Inn to drop off my stuff. Then I will return the rental car (saving a day's charges) and shuttle back to the hotel for Thursday's class. I fly home Thursday evening right after the class is finished.
Monday was not a good day. Tuesday was much better.
When I checked in at the airport Monday morning, I learned that the Internet was down throughout eastern Washington. Probably another back hoe digging up a fiber optic cable. Since I had checked in on-line Sunday, this didn't affect me. Except for the bag. I had three pieces (laptop case, data projector, and clean clothes) and TSA allows two. When I packed Sunday night, I thought, "How could they screw up? Transfer one bag in Minneapolis from one plane to another with an hour to do it." So I packed my projector and clothes in one bag and checked it. Travel light. Since the network was down, they had to attach a handwritten bag tag. As you anticipated, the bag did not arrive in Houston when I did!
So I filled out the missed bag report at the Houston airport and went to the rental car facility. Enterprise had a nice Ford Focus awaiting. I then drove to the Houston Office Depot on US 290 to pick up my printing order. What order? It seems that all the remote printing jobs through the Internet for this area are being funneled through Dallas, and the truck had not delivered my job to the Houston store. Even though I received a message that my job was done and ready for pickup! So they printed it from scratch locally, which took about three hours for half the job.
I now had enough workbooks for my Austin class. I left the store about 8 p.m., for the three-hour drive to Austin. It took three hours. I checked into the hotel and asked if my boxes from ASQ were there. The front desk guy said, "Yes, they are in the luggage storage closet." I replied, "I will get them in the morning." I also asked the night manager too call me if my airline bag arrived. (I did not expect it until Tuesday afternoon.) At 2 a.m. she called to say it was there and she would deliver it outside my door. Yipee! I had my data projector and clean clothes.
When I went downstairs Tuesday morning, I asked about my UPS boxes in the storage closet around the corner from the front desk. What boxes? The only one was from my colleague, containing his workbooks and handouts for the Wednesday session. So I had to go online to get the UPS tracking data, to tell them who signed for it on Monday morning at 9:36. They called him and he said the boxes were in the sales office. Found em! I managed to get most of the room set up by the time folks started rolling in about 7:45.
Everyone on the registration lists showed up. There were no last-minute additions or walk-ins. The class went very well. All were attentive and asked good questions. Our lunch was served on time and the baked potato with soup and salad buffet went over nicely. We are the only meeting here, so we had complete staff attention. This is a very well-run property and I told the manager.
I slept in today (Wednesday) and will drive back to Houston. First stop will be Office Depot to pick up the rest of my print job, then on to the Fairfield Inn to drop off my stuff. Then I will return the rental car (saving a day's charges) and shuttle back to the hotel for Thursday's class. I fly home Thursday evening right after the class is finished.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
ASQ Division Web Sites
I am part of the ASQ advisory team for Internet activities. Here is my recent contribution to the group:
You asked about "must haves" for Division websites (portals). I reflected on my past experiences with member unit sites (both Division and Section). I also thought about member units as a service business. Why do we exist?
Our fundamental reasons for being are 1) companionship (aka networking and community), and 2) knowledge. We provide a sense of place and association. We also generate and distribute knowledge. Some are better at the former; some are better at the latter.
Here's my list of the topics every Division should cover on their Internet portal:
As we roll out our new presence on the dotnetnukes platform, two human factors forces need some thought:
You asked about "must haves" for Division websites (portals). I reflected on my past experiences with member unit sites (both Division and Section). I also thought about member units as a service business. Why do we exist?
Our fundamental reasons for being are 1) companionship (aka networking and community), and 2) knowledge. We provide a sense of place and association. We also generate and distribute knowledge. Some are better at the former; some are better at the latter.
Here's my list of the topics every Division should cover on their Internet portal:
- About Us: What is our focus and why do we exist?
- Administration: Who are our leaders and how can you contact us?
- Content: What do we make and how can you get it? This would cover our library of QBoK(tm) stuff.
- Education: What do we have to make you smarter? This would include conferences, symposia, courses, and other opportunities to interact with others.
- Outreach and Inreach: How can you form a deeper relationship with us and contribute to our success? This would, of course, include blogs, wikis, social networking, and other collaboration platforms. Most of this area would be short descriptions and links.
As we roll out our new presence on the dotnetnukes platform, two human factors forces need some thought:
- People will pay attention and click the links on whatever is in the middle of the screen and close to the top. As our Division activities change throughout the year, we need the ability to say to our visitors, "This is important right now." It won't be static all year long.
- Everything is converging toward tablet machines and smart phones. Right now, these are both small and lightweight. I think they will remain small. Processing power will, of course, increase. This means our information must fit on small screens. It will be challenging as we shift from desktop to mobile platforms.
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