Expensive Mistakes
Posted on December 10, 2013 | posted by:Some corporations are ignorant. In Natural Capitalism, Paul Hawkin discusses how the winnings and failings of a corporation depend on its ability to function as a learning organization and practice checks and balances rather than not. [1] Hawkin shares an account of how a gas and electric company paid billions to correct an installation failure of pipe supports because of the pipe manufacturer’s incorrect labeling of its product. He also mentions another example about the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope into space (a twenty-year, $2.5 billion dollar project) with a misshapen mirror because of an error in the algebraic equation used to make it. There is a weighted insight here; mistakes are expensive.
Mistakes at least, have the potential to be expensive in the business world where everything costs. After reading Hawkin’s bit about corporate culture, I thought about a recent, unnerving and personal incident. I received a text message from my previous employer explaining how the millwork I designed to enclose a large safe was dysfunctional, and that the millwork had already been built…
I earned my bachelor of architecture after five years and practiced architecture for six before I started graduate school this past fall. In those years, I came to learn that mistakes in architecture are of great value. The value lies not only in monetary costs, but in functional use and user experience as well. When I measured the safe that the client requested to be placed in her newly constructed home, I accounted for its most exterior dimensions, door hinge and all. But little did I consider that the safe has different exterior dimensions when its door is open. The millwork works great for the safe box itself, but if you want to actually use the safe and pull out the drawers inside of it, the door must open more than ninety degrees, more than the millwork design allowed. I screwed up and I felt stupid. Someone has to pay to correct these kinds of mistakes and it usually falls on the disgruntled client.
Why was I ignorant to the simple fact that the safe will be doing more than sitting in a cabinet? Hawkins highlights that industries, corporations, and we as consumers of resources, should strive for sustainable, thoughtful and efficient practices.
Incidences like the pipe supports, the telescope, and the safe millwork should not happen. Maybe I was too busy or stressed when I designed the millwork, maybe I was subconsciously too scared to ask the client to open the safe for more thorough measurement, or maybe I just did not care enough about the safe (or architecture) to spend the time reevaluating my design. The mystery will remain unanswered. But what I will respond to is the feeling brought about by this incident. I failed and I don’t like the way failure feels, especially after six years of learning from similar mistakes.
As designers, as students, as citizens of our society, we are only helping ourselves by being mindful of the choices we make, the things we do, and learning from the mistakes we have made in the past. When others are at the mercy of our actions, we must take responsibility, battle ignorance, or resign from the role. And remember, when someone tells you “it’s not a huge deal,” it still is to someone.
[1] Hawken, Paul, Amory B. Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. Natural Capitalism: Creating the next Industrial Revolution. Boston: Little, Brown and, 1999. Page 68.