SEIRI

The government of the day must be commended for officially launching the “Make Zambia Clean and Healthy Campaign.”  It is my sincere hope that our leaders will not merely pay lip service to this important campaign but demonstrate it by first applying it in their homes and surroundings.  We would like to see houses occupied by our leaders appearing attractive from the outside and inside.  They must be spotlessly clean with tidy and green surroundings throughout the year.  The surroundings at State House should appear better than Holiday Inn.  The staff houses in the State House compound should be painted occasionally and there should be no unsightly uncollected garbage heaps around the compound.  Charity, they say, begins at home.

The ‘Make Zambia Clean and Healthy Campaign’ should just be the initial part of a consistent and permanent programme that should eventually be changed to ‘Keep Zambia Clean’ which we used to have before at district and town level.  The program should be incorporated in homes, schools, churches, trading places, industry and wherever there is life.  This is not to say we should neglect the dead – the program should also be extended to cemeteries.  Surely we can look after the holy grounds where our departed beloved lay!   The concept should be supported by every right thinking individual and passed on from generation to generation because it is a good thing. Such a program must not be affected by a change in leadership.  Whoever takes over from Sylvia Masebo or Levy Mwanawasa, in the future, should continue with the program.  We should graduate from the mentality of changing or stopping whatever has been initiated by our predecessors even if it is good, simply for the sake of change. I’ll write more about cleanliness when I come to the third ‘S’.  Today and next week, I’d like to focus on the first ‘S’ – SEIRI.

Seiri is Japanese for ‘Sort Out’.  It means that one should distinguish what they need from what they do not need. After I moved from Boart Longyear back to Prince Construction, where I had served earlier before joining Boart, I convinced our Managing Director Ramdas Patel to let everyone in the organisation undergo training in Total Quality Management and we invited the Training Department of Boart Longyear to come and conduct the training.  One of the key topics covered was the Japanese Five ‘S’ System and it was delivered by Lastone Hamoonga.  He stunned everyone during the initial stage of the session when he asked all the participants, who included our Managing Director (M.D.), all departmental heads, senior and middle management staff, to take out their wallets, handbags and purses and empty all the contents onto the tables in front of everyone else.  The seating arrangement was horse-shoe and we could therefore all see each other.  At first dead silence befell the room as we all stared at Lastone with amazement.  He repeated the instruction and when we realized that he was serious, the amazement turned into amusement as participants began to hesitate to take out their wallets, handbags and purses.  Gradually the M.D. removed his wallet from his pocket and emptied the contents onto the table in front of him and we all followed suit.  Before long there were heaps of all sorts of items in front of each one of us, driving most of us to laughter.  I shall not reveal what came out of some of the handbags, wallets and purses.  All I can say is that the exercise was as amusing as it was educative.  One by one Lastone went through the contents of the handbags, wallets and purses asking the owner the purpose of each item.  A few individuals would only have some cash notes, business cards and bank cards.  The majority had all sorts of items – from till slips to expired bus tickets to empty cases of make-up.  After the exercise, we appreciated the fact that although some people could not help getting embarrassed, the purpose of the exercise was not to embarrass anyone but to help us realize how much rubbish we carry around everyday of our lives.

I challenge you reader, to do this on your own at your earliest opportunity.  Go through all your bags, wallets and purses and look at the contents.  Do you need everything that you either carry around or keep in a bag or wallet that you rarely use?  Go through your business cards holder, go through your folder, go through your drawers, go through your trunk, go through your cupboards, lockers and drawers – you will be amazed how much junk you may be holding onto.

Some of the common things you may find in bags are paper clips, crumbled twenty, fifty and one hundred kwacha notes, finished pens, used tooth picks, scratched scratch cards, slips from ATMs, bus tickets, receipts, business cards for people in companies that are no longer in existence or for colleagues who have gone to the other side.  You may also find empty worn out envelopes and pieces of paper with names and phone numbers that you may not remember where, when or why you obtained them.  Women will most likely find, in addition to the above, more than one hair comb, finished lipstick cases and pieces of toilet tissue.  Assorted tablets that have made their way out of the packets may not be a rare sight.  For those with a sweet tooth, sweet and bubble gum wraps or actual sweets will most likely be found in their bags.  The list is endless.  All these are usually small items but when you put them together, you will be amazed how much space they take up in your wallet, purse or handbag.  Not only that, all this junk makes you inefficient as you lose valuable time going through a lot of stuff to find what you want.  It is not uncommon, to find an executive struggling to find their own business card among a bunch of business cards belonging to other people.  The seiri exercise gets more complicated and even more amusing when you apply it to the other parts of your office or home.  Read more about seiri next week.