Knee-Jerk Reactions Won’t Solve Quality Problems

Overcoming root cause analysis avoidance

Last month a New Delhi taxi driver allegedly committed a sexual assault on a woman rider. Reacting to the public outcry that followed, the Delhi government decided to ban Uber, the taxi company that contracted the taxi driver.

This startling news reminds me of some companies’ reactions to quality problems, defects, or customer complaints. And unfortunately, such reactions aren’t rare.

As noted in a Dec. 9, 2014, Mid-Day article, “The core issue is rape, not regulation of taxi companies, which is secondary.” Similarly, when it comes to customer complaints or defects, have you seen companies react by going through the motions with some peripheral issue and doing everything except taking the core issue head on?

Is banning one taxi company the solution? What about other taxi companies? Can we ban all of them? Will this prevent rapes? Or could this actually increase criminal activity, since more taxi drivers will be rendered idle?

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Comments

Jerks - - Some Times They're in Control

Thought provoking presentation on "knee-jerk" reactions. And, my thinking had me thinking of the JERKS involved in making some of the important decisions. Possibly my morning, as an older retired guy, has had too much coffee already but I wondered about JERKS given responsibilities for important programs.

How can we help the JERKS get back on track? What can we do to support continued improvement which might involve changes in leaders & decision makers?

We have important work to do as we share responsibilities to help everyone be on a positive path to successes.

Jerry Brong - - Retired Writer & Educator

Good thought but wrong example

I agree with your view that knee jerk reactions may not solve prevailing issues, but the example you quoted about rape and the taxi company is not justifying the same.

The taxi service (not company) mentioned here doesn't have any mechanism to regulate taxis and keep record of taxi drivers. So their action of banning such out of control services (in my opinion)is a right step to avoid such incidents in future.

Also, I think it is difficult to draw a thin line between preventive actions and Knee-Jerk reactions which you want to highlight.