02.05.08 Treating Symptoms Rather Than Root Causes Is a Waste of Resources – The Disease Will Recur (Orig Ng 17)
17. Couch Grass Nuisance
Mikaeli checked his watch as he waited patiently in the long bank queue. He had asked for just a few hours to go to cash his cheque which he had collected from the SACCOS treasurer the day before. His boss had been emphatic that Mikaeli spends a short time at the Bank, as there were urgent issues to address. But Mikaeli was prepared to stay a bit longer, in the hope that his boss would understand. He (Mikaeli) needed the money urgently, as he had to buy some inputs for his maize-farming project.
Mikaeli’s involvement in farming had marked some milestones in his life. Looking back, agriculture was one thing that he had never contemplated. As the son of a university professor, he had been brought up in the city, enjoying the privileges of his father’s status and all that goes with it.
But after getting employed, life had been difficult as the salary from the company where he worked was minimal.
This was when he had met Luka, an old classmate working for another organization. Amazingly, Luka, a staunch believer in ethics, had worked for only a few years, but already had a car and was almost finishing building his house. “How does he make his money?” Mikaeli had often wondered.
One day, Mikaeli had braved to ask Luka for some advice regarding ‘how to make things work’; explaining that he (Mikaeli) was having problems with ‘making ends meet’.
Luka had revealed that he was involved in some small-scale commercial farming. Apparently, he had hired a piece of land in the village; and grown tomatoes which he would sell to supplement his income. Luka had gone further to explain that if Mikaeli was interested, he would do well with something like maize as it did not require constant monitoring. “I could introduce you to someone (Mzee James) who has some land for hiring out”, Luka had offered.
Mikaeli was excited by the idea; and, given his ‘form four’ biology, it would be quite easy… ‘till the land, plant seed, reap harvest, sell maize…’
During the weekend that followed, Luka introduced Mikaeli to Mzee James, who hired out a piece of land to Mikaeli. They also agreed that James’ son, Sam, would be employed to look after the maize.
After one week, Sam called Mikaeli, informing him that the land had been tilled. Mikaeli went to inspect the work, and was pleased that the task had been neatly done. The land was ‘spik and span’, ready for the next step. Mikaeli gave Sam the money for planting then left.
Soon after returning to the office, Mikaeli got an overseas trip. Agreeing with Sam that he (Mikaeli) would be sending money for the project through Western Union, Mikaeli left for the trip.
But when Mikaeli returned after three months, he was shocked to find that the maize crop had been heavily infested with couch grass weeds. No amount of hand-weeding could address the situation, as weeds would be removed today only to find others sprouting out tomorrow!
This was when Mikaeli consulted Luka, who told him that the cause of the problem was that the land had not been dug deep enough before the maize seed was planted. “Couch grass is a very stubborn weed… one has to dig very deep to make sure that the roots are removed, as these can grow to amazing depths”, Luka had advised.
Needless to say, Mikaeli did not reap the harvest that he had expected. For not only did he have to pay continuously for weeders, but the yield from the crop was low due to the effect of the couch grass.
Good enough, Mikaeli had learnt his lesson. In the seasons that followed, he always made sure that weeders had dug out all the roots of the couch grass before planting the maize seed. Since that day, the problem of couch grass had become history.
I narrated this story to a group of executives who were meeting to discuss solutions to some chronic complaints that had been raised by external and internal customers.
I pointed out the critical importance of researching the depths of a problem before proposing any solutions.
I cautioned that going into ‘problem-solving mode’ before studying root causes could be very expensive, as they could deploy resources thinking that they are removing the problem only to find the problem sprouting out repeatedly, in future.
“Always go for the root causes of the problems” I warned, “otherwise you run the risk of treating symptoms rather than the actual problems”.