“Suffering from Vagueness” – A Problem?

Posted February 17th, 2010

A 59-year old woman said she was “suffering from vagueness” when it came to controlling her compulsive shopping and spending.  Her statement was in an Atlanta Journal – Constitution article.  From years of Latin study(really), I know the root word for vagueness is vagus.  The original meaning is “wander, move around, unsettled.”   People have a vagus nerve, which wanders from the brain to several organs. Perhaps suffering from vagueness is part of being human.

I am not sure how one suffers from vagueness, but I think the woman is not the only sufferer.  Vagueness may lead to performance problems in operational control rooms.   Does this occur in your workplace, or home, or on your hard drive?  Is wandering required for you to locate something?

Working on shift one night, a controller was looking for an operating procedure.  There was a procedures manual online and a printed copy on a nearby shelf.  The  controller was looking elsewhere, sorting through e-mails he had saved for months in order to find the current operating instructions.  It took approximately thirty minutes to find the e-mail.  He may have been suffering from vagueness. because he needed the guidance of a procedure before performing a task.  How would you improve this situation and provide clarity?

If one does not have a procedure or a job aid or some type of guidance, could that cause suffering from vagueness?   I think so.   The worst case scenario for vagueness suffering is wandering around, looking for an answer, with no idea of where to find the right answer. That can cause errors and accidents in a hazardous industry workplace.

J.R.R Tolkien, in Lord of the Rings, has a phrase in a letter from Gandalf to the hobbits, “Not all who wander are lost.”   That proved true in that fantasy, but it is not good advice in an operational control room.  Performing operational tasks while suffering from vagueness can lead to loss of safety, profits, and jobs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Human Factors, In the News, Observations.