Good performers always envisage the next line. Chess players must contemplate the next move. Karate experts must anticipate the next strike. Why are designers unable to think ahead? As I have described in my book, ‘How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People’, managers must be pre-emptive. This means ‘to think and plan ahead of the game’. Here is a perfect example of managers and designers not thinking ahead. The new housing units in Parramatta are part of a massive complex. The sails act as sun shades. Unfortunately, they have had to be repaired many times over. Sadly, tenants on the upper levels flick their cigarettes without giving any thought to litter, the neighbours below, or the fire hazards. A constant reminder is visible on the sails. If you look closely, you can see the hundreds of burn marks. Every few months, the sails are visited by a repairer who fuses patches to plug the holes which let in the rain.
DNA tests ought to be conducted to work out who owns each of those cigarette butts, and the existing $200 fines ought to be levelled at the litter bugs. However, one wonders if the designers had thought for one moment about the synthetic material that they ordered for these sails. Did they think this through? Did any of the design-meetings discuss this problem? Just as well the jolly material is not prone to instant combustion. Then again, maybe they ought to have been so that the matter is escalated and eliminated. It seems that only massively dramatic situations command attention. Smaller matters are tolerated for years on end.
Oh well, one more thing for the strata managers to discuss each month, and one more levy for the owners.
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