You must have read about the problems some people had when they went to cast their vote in the recent election. Some polling stations ran out of ballot papers and, at others, more voters turned up than they could handle. Were you as surprised as me? In my experience, voting is a very straightforward process - and I've rarely seen more than a handful of people in a polling station.
So what went wrong and who would you think would be more likely to have the answer - David Monks, the leader of Britain's returning officers - or the stand-up comic, Jack Dee?
You'd probably favour the expert, wouldn't you? But here's what David Monks said:
"This is an immensely Victorian system that's way past it's sell-by date, and here we are flogging it in the 21st Century. It's a system that's not suitable for our lifestyle in the 21st Century. We need to look afresh at this and start a new system."
Now read what Jack Dee said on The News Quiz the day after the election. "Anyone any good at maths here?"
Who do you think really got to the root of the problem?
TECHNOLOGY ISN'T ALWAYS THE ANSWER
Of course, information technology has transformed the way we live and work. But David Monks has fallen into the trap of saying:
"technology's the answer - now what's the problem?"
Technology isn't an answer, it's a tool. And that means you have to understand your problem before you can decide whether new technology will solve it.
If we're talking about voting, think about this. In 1950 - 28,771,124 people cast a vote without (as far as I can find out) having to queue up for hours. And in 2010 - 29,653,638 people cast a vote in exactly the same way - but with the difficulties we all read about.
So what's more likely? That although we managed to run an election without technology in 1950, it' now impossible to do without it - or that some returning officers didn't do their jobs as well this time?
I know what I think - I'm with Jack Dee on this one!
QUEUES ARE A DANGER SIGN
The reports of the problems at the polling station all mentioned one of the classic signs of a process that's failing - a queue.
A queue is never just one of those things. It's always a sign that your process hasn't got enough capacity. And don't make the mistake of thinking that a small queue is a small problem. It isn't. If you don't take action, a queue will keep growing. Then before you know it, your process is overwhelmed, and fails completely.
So here's another lesson you can learn - if you've got queues in any of your processes, don't wait - take action now.
DO THE MATHS
The third lesson you can learn is simply the question Jack Dee asked - "anybody any good at maths here"?
Managing logistics is all about counting - and then using those numbers to plan and make decisions. Would this work in a polling station? Yes, it would - and it's not really difficult to work out how.
When you decide how many clerks and how many polling booths to have, you can't just guess.
You need to know how many people may come and vote, when they will come during the day, and how long it takes one person to vote.
None of this is complicated, and most of it should be easily available (or at least easy to estimate).
Once you have this information it's straightforward. For example, if you have 120 people coming to vote every hour, and it takes each one 3 minutes to cast their vote, you need (120x3) /60 - or 6 - booths (if there's anyone from the Electoral Commission out there - give me a call - I'm happy to help you!).
That's the third lesson you can learn - do the arithmetic!
What's this month's message?
First, when things go wrong, don't jump to the conclusion that technology must be the answer. Find out what your problem really is - only then will you know if technology will solve it.
Second, a small queue isn't a small problem. Any queue is a sign of a process that's liable to fail. Take action now!
And third, do the arithmetic. Logistics is all about the numbers, get them right, and all the rest will follow.
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