I was at a pharmacy at about 7:30 this morning to get prescriptions filled that Lynn was given at urgent care in the middle of the night. We are a small community of 24,000 in an area of 50,000 so there is not a big call for urgent care on a weeknight. There isn’t really a fully staffed all-night pharmacy in our community. Being in one of the pharmacies that opens earlier in the day, it is clear that the demand for such services is low.
A pharmacist and an assistant arrived separately and casually. No one but me appeared to need them and only 1 or 2 other customers were in the whole store. The business situation reminded me of the time in August of 1968 when I boarded a good sized airplane to travel the Washington, DC area for my orals. At that time, the plane landed, the stairs were rolled up to the door while it was being opened. A stewardess welcomed me and only me into the plane. I felt like I was the President as seen in news clips.
The pharmacist, the assistant today, the stewardess, the flight crewman and pilot back then, all are working with their knowledge of themselves, their supervisors and administrators, their understanding of the operative laws, regulations and rules relating to their work, their own bodies and emotional states. I knew none of that and I had never met any of them before. I do know that each of us is living in a complex world of history, current pressures and rules,and hopes, goals and plans for the future. Deming’s principle has been very valuable in helping me stay focused on the influence of all of that on behavior I see and experience in others. The old alternative, assuming from the beginning that people’s behavior is unguided or inattentive or is negative emotion in action always stands a very good chance of simply being a wrong explanation.
Mental illness and poor school performance are just two areas in which more explanatory light is continually being shed on causes and conditions. In the new light, better explanations are being found and they have less and less to do with shame, weakness or guilt. As better understandings of causes and conditions emerge, admonitions to try harder become dumber comments.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
