I have not been able to find any evidence that the following actually happened, but I believe that it did. Or it could have. Or it might yet. No matter. It’s a good story. Here’s how it was told to me.

One of the people, known for being an originator of the human potential movement in the 1960s, became famous for his role and for some of the books he has written since then.

He was asked by Arizona Power & Light (officially known today as Arizona Public Service) to go into the organization and do an assessment.

Specifically, he was asked to make recommendations for ways they could reduce errors within the workforce especially amongst those who are working with nuclear power at such locations as the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station which is the largest nuclear generation facility in the US.

Long story short, he came back with two recommendations.

First, for those working in power facilities and out in the field, he recommended that they stand near their workstations or beside their trucks for one minute at the beginning of each shift. During that minute their ‘work’ was to think through the day and to see it coming to an error-free conclusion.

Secondly, for those working in offices and spending a lot of time in meetings, he recommended that everyone present take 30 seconds at the beginning of each meeting to silently think through the agenda to a successful conclusion.

And as the story goes, with the implementation of these simple acts of consciousness, errors were reduced by 99% and meeting times were cut in half.

It’s possible.

~~~~

Theo Wirth Forest, Minneapolis, MN.

Page 16 in the Kaleidoscope lens on Resilience.