Unstick fearful stiction

Learning about control and automation isn’t simple because their common aspects are historically deep in the backgrounds of the process industries they serve. Even today, with data at everyone’s fingertips, control and automation still seem largely invisible to most of their beneficiaries.

This is why I’m still grateful for a long-ago report by Merrill Lynch’s Donna Takeda that took a rare and possibly unprecedented look at control and automation. It gave me a much-appreciated overview, but I recall some colleagues being unhappy that Wall Street apparently greeted it with a big shrug.

In any case, Takeda’s report was prefaced by Lord Kelvin’s foundational quote, “When you can measure what you’re speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.” This statement has been stamped on multiple articles over the years, and serves as a frequent reminder that process control starts with sensing and measurement. This procedure continues with analysis and decisions, of course, but it can’t stop there. All the effort that goes into sensing, measurement and analysis is only worthwhile if it produces action—and the only way for it to qualify as control.

Pretty obvious, but the accompanying and persistent problem is it’s hard to get moving. Just as physical force must overcome static friction in valves, motors and pickle jars, it’s difficult to overcome inertia in pretty much every area of human endeavor. Despite their size difference, it always looked to me like locomotives and playground swings experienced a similar struggle to build momentum.

The volume and variety of these many struggles are no doubt the reason for more-famous quotes, such as “Well begun is half done” and Lao Tzu’s “A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step."

Unfortunately, despite all this inspiration, many efforts still get stuck at the measure and study stages, which can look like action but really aren’t. I know I’ve watched more videos and TV shows about exercise and diet than I've actually exercised and dieted.

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Likewise, many graduate students remain all-but-degree (ABD), plenty of academic research goes nowhere, most blue-ribbon studies get shelved, and even many court-ordered consent decrees result in little or no reform. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is management consultant Peter Drucker’s well-known quote for this sorry situation.

But why? Fear, of course. Fear of speaking up, fear of disagreement and conflict, fear of change, and worst of all, fear of possibly being uncomfortable. Oh, and don’t forget fear of failure and fear of success at the same time. Talk about some serious mental stiction. In this case, partial-stroke test probably means checking for a burst blood vessel!

What to do? Well, even if we’re doomed, we might as well have a little faith, take a little risk, stand up for what we believe in, and try to actuate some useful changes. Vote with your vote and wallet whenever available. Show up and make your voice heard in official and unofficial gatherings, but try to do some data gathering to support informed decisions. It can be an entertaining evening out once or twice per month because simply attending has an outsized impact, and elected officials and bureaucrats always sit up straighter and generally behave more responsibly when residents are in the audience.

But again, don’t stop there. If your particular officials are obviously no good and aren’t willing to improve, recruit and support better candidates, or even run for local office. Making more elections contested further improves everyone’s behavior. Two of the famous quotes here are, “You must do the things you think you can’t” by Eleanor Roosevelt, and “Be the change you wish to see in the world” by Mahatma Gandhi. They would know.