Embrace the Mess

Posted by Melissa Dylan Apr 1, 2007

I hate mess. This is one reason I really enjoy my current job: the filing system is efficient. The methods for sending, receiving, and tracking documents are foolproof. Making sure these procedures are followed, documents tracked, and paperwork filed away is my entire job.

Then I read A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder, by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman. Turns out the cost of having me employed is higher than the cost of the few lost documents that might occur if my job didn’t exist.

Check this out: there are two decks of cards, one shuffled, and one ordered by suit and rank. Someone calls out four cards, and two people must shuffle through their deck to find them. Who finds them faster? The person with the ordered deck, naturally.

But wait. Studies have shown that it takes roughly 140 seconds to order a deck of cards, plus another 16 seconds to locate four specific cards. That’s 156 seconds total.

It takes about 35 seconds to find four cards in a shuffled deck.

On a much larger scale, that’s what I do: constantly reorder a shuffled deck of cards so that people can quickly find a few cards. But here’s the thing: I spend my entire day ordering the deck, and cards (or documents, in my case) are only requested maybe twice per day.

Additionally, the procedures in place are elaborate. I once spent a half hour sending a single document via FedEx. If the document gets lost, we can track precisely when we sent it, and how, and who signed for it, etc. However, the consequence of a lost document is to reprint a copy and forward it, which, without the lengthy procedures, would take no more than a few moments. Therefore, the cost of a lost document is less than the initial cost (in salary) to me to track it to begin with.

The number of lost documents in the last three months: two. Both times because contractors accidentally walked off with original copies of documents. The low incidence of lost docs is not a result of the logging and filing system, but a result of the fact that I’m good at getting stuff where it needs to go, which takes up only a small portion of my time. And for the files that did disappear, they were not logged in the first place, therefore took as much time to locate as if the log didn’t even exist.

So why does it exist? Because the government, who owns our contract, is convinced that it’s the best way. Let’s not argue with the government, because we know they’re alllllllways right.

Read more about this cost of mess stuff in Stop Fighting the Office Mess! Messy people, stand up and be recognized.