{"id":674,"date":"2022-08-02T00:18:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T00:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/sarahlethbridgelean\/?p=674"},"modified":"2024-09-08T19:39:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T19:39:05","slug":"peaceful-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/sarahlethbridgelean\/peaceful-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Peaceful Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of you might remember that I went viral on Twitter once when I was miffed at a 5 men panel on Good Morning Britain passing judgement on whether or not Meghan Markle was a bully. You can read about my moment in the sun here – \u00a0A Tweet\u2019s Tale – Sarah Lethbridge’s Lean Blog – Cardiff University<\/a>.\u00a0 Not quite as exciting (but almost as dramatic) last night, I got 111 likes on my Instagram comment in response to Gary Lineker\u2019s post of the epochal image of Chloe Kelly\u2019s European Championship final goal celebration<\/a>. Gary, who I like enough to follow on Instagram, proclaimed that Chloe was the best \u201cbra none\u201d.\u00a0 Erm Gary, this is a moment of celebration! How about NOT referring to a device designed to help us manage two appendages that are really quite problematic in sporting scenarios within your celebratory declaration! I was cross. The Lionesses have achieved so much.\u00a0 DO NOT MENTION BRAS OR BOOBS OR INDEED ANY \u2018WOMEN\u2019S THINGS\u2019. \u00a0Just talk about the team as successful people please!!!<\/p>\n

My post wasn\u2019t without sacrifice. I had to deal with one Snowflake emoji, one \u2018shut up\u2019 and I was called a \u2018Karen\u2019 by about 5 extremely vexed males. \u00a0(By the way, I really feel for all of the Karens out there.\u00a0 Even Queen Beyonce used your name in vain in her new hit record Renaissance. Beyonce – #notallKarens. Please. My Auntie Karen is kindness personified).<\/p>\n

Anyway\u2026. after a couple of hours Gary deleted the \u2018bra none\u2019 on Twitter and Instagram.\u00a0 Come to think about it, I haven\u2019t seen a ‘manel’ on GMB since my viral tweet either?!\u00a0 I can only reach the conclusion that I possess social media superpowers. *Beyoncehairtoss gif*<\/p>\n

Now, I absolutely know that my tweet and Instagram post were not THE ONLY reason to make Piers quit or make the most famous British crisp eating footballer edit his posts, I did contribute though, albeit in a small way, to a movement<\/a> – a wave of criticism, which yes, had power.<\/p>\n

Cardiff University has come under its own wave of criticism recently because of the monumental almighty task that was Graduation. \u00a0Of the millions of different pandemic disappointments, it was noble and right of Cardiff to commit to running ceremonies for the Class of 2020, Class of 2021 and the Class of 2022 – but that\u2019s a lot of students that need a Graduation ceremony.<\/p>\n

With so many students to look after, the temptation of course (and some would say necessity) is TO GO LARGE seeking Economies of Scale as opposed to Economies of Flow.<\/a>\u00a0 I honestly don’t believe that ‘economies of scale’ was selected as an approach to save money in this instance, the range of celebrations put on puts paid to that notion, more that economies of scale were sought as a means to deal with the very large numbers of graduates.\u00a0 But as I discuss in the blog post, sometimes economies of scale can be tricky beasts and come with their own set of problems…\u00a0 often \u2018little and often\u2019 economies of flow can win in the battle for service experience.<\/p>\n

The first wave of criticism came when students learned that the scale of the event meant that they wouldn\u2019t individually get the opportunity to hear their name out loud and walk across the stage. (I completely see why this act wasn\u2019t a part of the ceremony. I cannot imagine sitting down listening to 6795 names being read aloud \u2013 how long would it take? 4 hours?! Plus how sore would my (already eczema ridden) hands be from clapping for all of those graduates!?) But the University listened, and School ceremonies were organised in response which enabled the graduates to have a more personal celebration within their home School.<\/p>\n

I was mightily impressed that the concerns were listened to and acted upon. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t at the Principality Stadium but I have heard several accounts and people loved the grandeur and all agreed how much effort the University had put in to make the event emotional and memorable and that they had really enjoyed the ceremony.\u00a0 The Business School and Central University also put a lot of time and trouble into making sure that our students felt individually recognised and celebrated with Business School celebrations too.\u00a0 The problem, by all accounts, came from the mega queues that formed when so many people were trying to get gowns and photographs.<\/p>\n

And you know how I feel about queues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now. I confess that I have never completely understood Little\u2019s Law<\/a> and Kingman\u2019s Equation<\/a> to be able to quote the equations off the top of my head (although I can always remember x = -b + or \u2013 the square root of b squared minus 4 ab all over 2a – thanks GCSE Maths), but what John Bicheno taught me (South African accent \u201cKingman\u2019s Equation is the Equation of Lean!\u201d) was that there is a direct relationship between the arrival rate, the capacity within a system, the amount of \u2018work in progress\u2019 in a system, the time taken to process the task in the queue.\u00a0 The only way you can deal with variation is through TIME, INVENTORY and CAPACITY and IN NO OTHER WAY. \u00a0If you overload a system and don\u2019t have a buffer of spare capacity (hundreds of people at the gown table), or work in progress (ample gowns), or tons of time to spare (“my school ceremony is in 50 minutes!!!”) very quickly A QUEUE FORMS.\u00a0 Put in even more simple terms, if you don\u2019t have any gowns to give out because they haven\u2019t been returned and loads of people arrive to pick up the gowns at the same time, you\u2019re going to have a problem.<\/p>\n

So many people had a wonderful day with their families and friends, but it is a great shame for the people that had to queue so long on the second day of the festivities.\u00a0 The good news is though, that protests have power.\u00a0 The University will listen and even though, please God, we hopefully won\u2019t have to graduate so many students at the same time in the future, lessons will be learned, suppliers will be negotiated with, and I guarantee the gown and photo queues seen in 2022 won\u2019t be allowed to ever happen again.<\/p>\n

And so we move …. Davide and Ekin Su have just won Love Island \u2013 the first time in 12 years that I have agreed with a public vote! Maybe there is hope after all!<\/p>\n

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