Working With Others

Sometimes we take things way too seriously.  As winter drags on in some (actually all) parts of of the US, I thought it might be helpful to look on the lighter side.

I have a memory trace from my graduate school days of courses that I took in post-modern philosophy and ethics. I recall the professors developing the argument that that in a perfect world we would not need any laws because people would respect each other and get along just fine without them.  Last week I happened to be listening to Twin Cities talk show host Joe Soucheray on KSTP 1500AM.  The voice over at the beginning of Soucheray’s show talked about “Minnesota – the state where it is not legal to do anything”. There are certainly a lot of laws and local ordinances on the books here in Minnesota.  And as a rule things work pretty well here. However, after I heard that intro piece on the radio, I wondered if there were some laws that were originally intended to promote a civil society and help people safely work and play well with together, that were now unneeded or even absurd.  In my quick and dirty research I came across www.dumblaws.com.  Here is what I found:

In Minnesota…

• It is illegal to stand around any building without a good reason to be there. (I’m in trouble some days.)
• A person may not cross state lines with a duck atop his head. (I can’t imagine why one would want to!)
• It is illegal to sleep naked. (It does get cold here in the winter!)
• All men driving motorcycles must wear shirts. (N.B. This law says nothing about women.)
• Citizens may not enter Wisconsin with a chicken on their head. (I know that my Brazen Careerist friends in Madison will sleep better knowing this!)
• All bathtubs must have feet. (Good to know if you are remodeling your bathroom.)

And there are some amusing Minnesota city laws as well.  For example, in Minnetonka, driving a truck with dirty tires is considered a public nuisance. In St. Cloud, hamburgers may not be eaten on Sundays.  And in Minneapolis, red cars may not drive down Lake Street.  I wonder if my good friend, Laura Goodrich of Seeing Red Cars fame knows this!

At any rate, I got a good laugh out of doing this piece and hope you did, too.  Feel free to share any “dumb laws” in your city or state as well.

Yesterday I saw the most recent Minnesota Film Arts offering -Frederick Wiseman’s documentary, La Danse.  This film is a close-up portrayal of the Paris Opera Ballet from rehearsal to performance.  There is no narration.  Instead this is a cinema verite look at the ballet company.  It is certainly worth seeing, although as the comments to the New York Times review note, it is badly in need of editing and the choice of the featured ballets was – well – bizarre.

There are two things that even those uninitiated to ballet will notice. First, the physical demands of this art form are brutal. You see the rehearsals and the attention to detail in putting together a dance that during performance looks effortless. And you also witness dancers with their feet taped and their legs wrapped in ace bandages repeating segments of a dance over and over even when totally fatigued.  Then there is an extended discussion of about the life span of a ballet dancer and a provision in the pension laws of France that provides retirement funds to a dancer at the age of 40 because the demands of dancing professionally at this level prevent men and women from careers as dancers beyond that age.

Second, in a world of stars, what struck me after watching this documentary is that without a cast of thousands, the principals are nothing. You see everything from seamstresses meticulously sewing costumes, and janitors cleaning the performance hall after the audience has departed to the development staff trying to figure out how to pamper large scale donors to the company.  And then you realize why a ticket to the Paris Opera Ballet is $475!

How many people do you count on in order for you to do what you do for a living?

“I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it.

-Howard Beale from Network, 1976

I think I know how Howard Beale felt.

I am the owner of a 2009 Toyota Corolla and it is one of the models that this auto manufacturer has recalled for both the sticking accelerator problem and now the floor mat problem. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, but as someone who has owned multiple Toyota vehicles since 1986 – 24 trouble free years with only routine maintenance to deal with – I’m a little torqued.

I’m not upset that there is a recall notice on my vehicle. Stuff happens. In fact, through the years, Toyota has issued voluntary recall notices on a variety of relatively minor problems – seat belts that didn’t retract properly, parts that were not performing to their standards of quality, etc. When I have received such a notice, I would call the nearest Toyota Dealer, arrange an appointment – sometimes the same day – and be on my way in less than 30 minutes after visiting the dealer. What is upsetting in this case is that Toyota is stumped.

In the past, the press release concerning a recall would say something like “Toyota has issued a voluntary recall on X number of Corolla’s because of Y. Owners these vehicles will receive a recall notice within the next ten days. They are to make an appointment with the nearest Toyota dealer who will remedy the situation in a timely manner. This time, the press release announced the recall, but there is the troubling, “Toyota will determine the appropriate remedy as soon as possible. They still don’t know.

And may not for awhile. According to other news reports, Toyota claims the problem is due to “to worn pedal mechanisms that increase friction in certain conditions and cause the accelerator to stick sometimes. The manufacturer, CTS Corp in Elkhart, Indiana is saying it’s not true. They maintain that “the friction problem accounts for fewer than a dozen cases of stuck accelerators, and in no instance did the accelerator actually become stuck in a partially depressed condition.

What really torques me is that this is a situation when organizations and the people in them – in this case brilliant engineers – really need to “work and play well with others” to solve this problem. I have this image in my mind of a group of engineer’s from Toyota and CTS Corp sitting in a conference room in the Narita Hilton in Tokyo blaming each other for the problem instead of trying to solve it. This is a case where the inability to work and play well together could have dire consequences for the brand.