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-----Original Message-----
From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles Wankel
Sent: 24 January 2007 13:14
To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Another fine mess!

I think the below article excerpt might spark discussion in some classes.

 

 

Sara Isaac, "Solange Dao wishes she were neater," <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Orlando</st1:place></st1:city> Sentinel, January 24, 2007.  From:

 http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-messy2407jan24,0,3784976.story

 

Her desk at her small engineering firm in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Orlando</st1:city></st1:place> has so many piles of paper on it that she has turned an adjacent chair into an additional "filing" area.

 

"This morning I had an interview come in, and he walked in and I kind of turned around and looked at my desk and I thought, 'He must think I'm crazy,' " Dao said.

 

Not only is Dao not crazy -- she's exhibiting good business sense, according to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Columbia</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> management professor Eric Abrahamson.

 

Yes, it's January -- National Get Organized Month and International Business Resolutions Month. But in their new book, A Perfect Mess, Abrahamson and co-author David H. Freedman say most people -- and businesses -- shouldn't waste time resolving to be more neat, efficient and orderly.

 

The authors have a better solution to mess:

 

"Don't feel guilty about it," Abrahamson said.

 

Forget cleanliness is next to godliness. If you take the emotion out of the messiness equation, much of what looks like mess -- like Dao's desk -- actually is quite orderly if you take a closer look ....

 

More importantly, organization has costs, in terms of time and resources. And the unrecognized benefits from mess include inventiveness, flexibility and even efficiency, they say.

 

A Perfect Mess carries that argument to the home as well. The price of order may be time spent nagging the kids or money spent on a housekeeping service. Meanwhile, a refrigerator cluttered with sports schedules and party invitations can be more efficient than a filing system where obligations may quickly be not only out of sight, but out of mind.

 

For many small businesses, messy offices, messy schedules and messy management systems can keep the company nimble and focused on important priorities such as customers and growth, Abrahamson said.

 

"People say, well, order is better," he said. "But how much is it costing you to get that order, and is it paying off?"

 

Busy entrepreneurs rightly spend their limited time where needed, he added.

 

"They're growing. They're producing. They're not sitting around at their desks organizing."

 

Abrahamson and Freedman's arguments in favor of mess include a myriad of examples that touch on everything from aircraft assembly to autism.

 

Penicillin, for example, was discovered because mold landed on an open petri dish in a messy lab. A Nobel Prize in medicine grew from a scientist drawing a connection between two unrelated documents on his stupendously messy desk.

 

Abrahamson knows that he is swimming upstream. Our culture highly values order, and it will take more than one book to change that.

 

But a survey in A Perfect Mess found that two-thirds of people reported being somewhat to very embarrassed about their messiness. That means <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a nation of messy people who are obsessed with the idea of being neat.

 

Abrahamson emphasized that the book is promoting moderate mess, and that the acceptable level of mess depends on individual personalities and business situations (you wouldn't want a disorganized brain surgeon, for example).

 

As for Dao, she confesses that her system works for her. She knows where everything is on her desk, and she doesn't have to get up and hunt through files for documents when clients call.

 

Besides, between running Dao Consultants and juggling a frenzied slate of volunteer commitments -- from serving on Orlando's Board of Zoning Adjustment to holding down the vice presidency of the Tau Beta Pi national engineering honor society -- Dao just doesn't have time to neatly label and file the deluge of documents that constantly pours across her desk.

 

Really, who does?

 

"Every time I walk into someone's office that's almost too neat, with no papers on the desk and the pencils all lined up, I think, 'When do you work?' " Dao said.

-------------- Original message --------------
From: George Downie <GDownie@BOURNEMOUTH.AC.UK>

Hi all,

 

I must say I agree. During the time I worked in the commercial world, and now I'm in academia, I've always held the view that a degree of untidiness actually helped me function more effectively. My productivity tends to drop off when trying to adhere to the clean desk policies so beloved of some colleagues. How much of this is down to individual personality and how much is generalisable however is I would suggest a moot point.

 

Sadly  my wife certainly doesn't subscribe to my "filling at your feet" paradigm.....

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Management Education and Development Discussion [mailto:MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles Wankel
Sent: 24 January 2007 13:14
To: MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Another fine mess!

I think the below article excerpt might spark discussion in some classes.

 

 

Sara Isaac, ?Solange Dao wishes she were neater,? <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Orlando</st1:place></st1:city> Sentinel, January 24, 2007.  From:

 http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-messy2407jan24,0,3784976.story

 

Her desk at her small engineering firm in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Orlando</st1:city></st1:place> has so many piles of paper on it that she has turned an adjacent chair into an additional "filing" area.

 

"This morning I had an interview come in, and he walked in and I kind of turned around and looked at my desk and I thought, 'He must think I'm crazy,' " Dao said.

 

Not only is Dao not crazy -- she's exhibiting good business sense, according to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Columbia</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> management professor Eric Abrahamson.

 

Yes, it's January -- National Get Organized Month and International Business Resolutions Month. But in their new book, A Perfect Mess, Abrahamson and co-author David H. Freedman say most people -- and businesses -- shouldn't waste time resolving to be more neat, efficient and orderly.

 

The authors have a better solution to mess:

 

"Don't feel guilty about it," Abrahamson said.

 

Forget cleanliness is next to godliness. If you take the emotion out of the messiness equation, much of what looks like mess -- like Dao's desk -- actually is quite orderly if you take a closer look ?.

 

More importantly, organization has costs, in terms of time and resources. And the unrecognized benefits from mess include inventiveness, flexibility and even efficiency, they say.

 

A Perfect Mess carries that argument to the home as well. The price of order may be time spent nagging the kids or money spent on a housekeeping service. Meanwhile, a refrigerator cluttered with sports schedules and party invitations can be more efficient than a filing system where obligations may quickly be not only out of sight, but out of mind.

 

For many small businesses, messy offices, messy schedules and messy management systems can keep the company nimble and focused on important priorities such as customers and growth, Abrahamson said.

 

"People say, well, order is better," he said. "But how much is it costing you to get that order, and is it paying off?"

 

Busy entrepreneurs rightly spend their limited time where needed, he added.

 

"They're growing. They're producing. They're not sitting around at their desks organizing."

 

Abrahamson and Freedman's arguments in favor of mess include a myriad of examples that touch on everything from aircraft assembly to autism.

 

Penicillin, for example, was discovered because mold landed on an open petri dish in a messy lab. A Nobel Prize in medicine grew from a scientist drawing a connection between two unrelated documents on his stupendously messy desk.

 

Abrahamson knows that he is swimming upstream. Our culture highly values order, and it will take more than one book to change that.

 

But a survey in A Perfect Mess found that two-thirds of people reported being somewhat to very embarrassed about their messiness. That means <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a nation of messy people who are obsessed with the idea of being neat.

 

Abrahamson emphasized that the book is promoting moderate mess, and that the acceptable level of mess depends on individual personalities and business situations (you wouldn't want a disorganized brain surgeon, for example).

 

As for Dao, she confesses that her system works for her. She knows where everything is on her desk, and she doesn't have to get up and hunt through files for documents when clients call.

 

Besides, between running Dao Consultants and juggling a frenzied slate of volunteer commitments -- from serving on Orlando's Board of Zoning Adjustment to holding down the vice presidency of the Tau Beta Pi national engineering honor society -- Dao just doesn't have time to neatly label and file the deluge of documents that constantly pours across her desk.

 

Really, who does?

 

"Every time I walk into someone's office that's almost too neat, with no papers on the desk and the pencils all lined up, I think, 'When do you work?' " Dao said.