| October 3, 1999 | 03 00050 61 99100301 |
Mr. R. Max Wideman
max_wideman@sfu.ca
Wideman, R. Max
2216 West 21st Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6L 1J5
Canada
| Subject: | Risk management communication |
Dear Max,
The answere to the question in your letter is yes, the letter on a knee examination pertains to me. The only way to get people to overcome denial and interact with "intelligence" is to engage them in their work. So a doctor looking at my knees provides a crucible to present new management tools and methods that are otherwise difficult to explain, like CPM. It is a huge battle. The larger issue pertains to a series of articles published nationally on the high cost of medical mistakes, which I explain is worse in other professions. Back to our old friend "cost savings." You might note the recent example of how small mistakes multiply over time is the crash this past week of a space craft on Mars. A small mistake grew over time and ended in catastrophy, losing $125M.
The Project Summary and the section on Identification and Significance of Innovation explain how "intelligence" supports Enterprise Management, which you asked about some time ago. Turns out "intelligence" reduces mistakes, although it needs to be supported to avoid overwhelming people, as you, also, pointed out last year.
Sincerely,
THE WELCH COMPANY
Rod Welch
rowelch@ibm.net