Reference no: EM133652993

Question

When approaching problem solving, one thing to be wary of is jumping to solutions without fully looking at the ramifications. The city of Hanoi was being overrun with rats in 1902. The rats were becoming a health hazard and were creating all sorts of problems. Local officials came up with what they thought was a foolproof plan to lessen the number of rats in the city. They created a bounty program, where money was being paid for rat tails. Any citizen bringing in rat tails would receive a bonus. What could possibly go wrong? Surely the number of rats would diminish under this new program. Rather than decreasing, the rat population actually increased! The residents of the city not only learned how to remove the rat tails without killing the rats, but they figured out that breeding them for their tails would increase the amount of money they would receive. (Search on line for "1902 Hanoi rats" for more info) When looking at process improvements, think about the entire process. Would the solution help and improve? Or would it hinder and make the problem worse. Nobody likes to pay for parking on campus. If parking was free, would more people.