by Jeff Kirsch

If you have ever driven through a farming community, you are sure to have seen large silos seeming to tower over the serene fields and pastures. Some of you who live in large cities may find the vast expanse of nothingness more jarring than the silos, while others who are used to open spaces find those silos just as jarring. It all lies in the perception of serenity, and what you place in that silo.

The term “silo” has meaning to both farmers and business people, but each places different meaning on how they use it. A farm likely uses the silo to store grains, while the businesses use silos to segregate lines of business or business expertise. In the farmers’ case, the storage of the grain is only temporary, while in the business world those silos may house their store for years to come. Although segregation can make good business sense, shouldn’t we look to refresh our stock periodically?

A Birthday Wish

I recently had a combined birthday party for three of my children. Since it was my daughter’s first birthday, we decided to have an animal show as entertainment. This proved to be a huge success with all the friends and family who were there, from my grandmother to my little one year old. After the animal show we all ate our fair share of party food, opened presents, and ended with the grand finale of cake. In an effort to show she could hold her own, my daughter created more of a mess with her smashed cake than her three brothers before her. Amid the chaos of animals, food, family and friends, there was little time for the kids to play with their gifts, as is usually the case.

I waited until all the guests left and then began the process of getting the little ones’ new birthday wishes out of their packages. Anyone with little kids knows you don’t just open a box and say, “Go have fun.” No, this means untangling twist ties, loosening screws that shouldn’t be there, and of course putting some toys together. The first problem I ran into required a jeweler’s phillips head screwdriver on a factory tightened screw. Once I found a sufficiently small tool, I struggled to get the screw to loosen without stripping it completely.

I must say overall toys have gotten better with using snap-together technology, but some screws are still required, which resulted in my second roadblock.The design of the toy was such that, when I put the screw in, the screw driver went at a 30 degree angle to tighten it. I know they make special tools to make this sufficiently easy, but how hard would it have been to line  the screw hole up with how the screwdriver needed to go?

Build it, Test it, then Build It Again

However minor this nuisance may seem, we allow these “small” design flaws to creep into our everyday lives without thinking about their consequences. We think in terms of our silo, instead of taking the bigger picture of the serene fields into consideration. Are we doing our jobs if the perception of what we do is “security for security’s sake”? And have we really protected anything if it is just seen as “security theater”?

I suggest that we need to listen to what we are being asked to do, execute on that, and then go back to the user and see if it accomplished their goals. If we do not accomplish the goal the first time, make the improvements or changes needed and go back to the end user again. This is much like the way the farmer empties the store from his silo periodically. Silos have their use when used properly, but if you leave grain in there too long, it spoils.

Time and budget limit the number of iterations of this process; not allowing ourselves to be complacent improves our end result. I spent a few semesters pretending to be a computer science major in college, and if I took away one important lesson it was this: You can build the best product or invent the best service, but if it isn’t useful to someone, you have failed. If you can make my one-year old happier by making it easier for me to get her shiny new toy in her hands, you are a hero to me.

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