CONTROLLING THE DOMINO EFFECT , CHAIN REACTION, SNOW BALL EFFECT, CASCADE EFFECT, BUTTERFLY EFFECT , AVALANCHE EFFECT - WITHOUT TEARS -- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL
Two decades ago, I was coming back to the ship after taking my wife and son ashore, for some shopping.
My ship was due for a crew "articles of agreement" renewal and I was running 15 minutes late, as my cab got stuck in a traffic snarl.
I saw my Chief Officer and Purser coming down the gangway, as soon as they saw me—and then I knew that something was cooking.
Purser was the first to break the news .
" Sir, there are three forces who want to meet me, and they have been waiting for 10 minutes in a single confined space . One is the Shipping Master, the Crew Union boss, and the Company Crewing manager !"
Chief Officer said that they are right now in his day room, waiting for me .
The Purser with 30 years of experience told me “ It is very rare that these diverse "cobra and mongoose" forces sit together , so something important will be discussed?
My Container ship had just come back from USA East Coast , Canada and Mediterranean. It was an uneventful voyage.
Pretty soon , I had the gentlemen in my cabin .
All the three accepted a chilled beer. This does NOT happen at sea. For the crew will think that they have been sold out.
In this public sector undertaking shipping company ( SCI ), the crew is highly unionized and pretty rotten. It was almost impossible to sack a sailor as the unions were militant and too strong—coupled with weak resistance.
This was one of the sole reasons why many Captains left the company and went to foreign companies, where your word is law –you are more powerful than a dictator. One bad report and the sailor is OUT.
I really cannot explain how bad this situation was those days.
I was a Captain for 9 years in this bullshit system where the PRAJA literally rules over the RAJA.
They wrangled excessive overtime ( money ) for doing little or NO work. If it was denied they would go slow while shutting the hatch covers in rain or cleaning a hold or tank for the next cargo.
The unions terrorized the company with flash strikes. Nobody dared to call the bluff.
The unions even poured acid on the face of one of the Shipping Masters' in front of a crowd and nothing happened to them, as they had political support.
Really I should NOT be telling all this. So I wont add anymore.
We had a system of “disciplinary loggings” – which every Captain exercised . But all these loggings had no value. The Official log book was full of disciplinary log entries. The Captain could NOT make any adverse remarks on the sailor's CDC in the ability and conduct column
So it was the shipping master show spoke first “ Captain, you have NOT logged down a single sailor for 9 years. Yet, we know that your ship is the most efficient one in the SCI fleet . Your alleyways are cleaner , your crew output is more, they say you give them good food , take care of them -- so much they even refuse to pay HAFTA to the unions ( usual thing )”
So the union leader chips in “ Captain saab, your crew is happy with you though you do NOT allow them to ARYAA bond ( cigarettes , whisky etc ) to smuggler boats who come in by the droves at the anchorage. We have this information from the Customs as you have put checks and stoppers.”
And then the company crewing manager asks me “ What do you do that the other Captains do NOT do. It is almost impossible to figure out why your crew works more when you give them just 25% of the overtime the other Captains give . As you can see it is impossible for the 3 of us to sit together with any other Captain having a beer just before article change , when fake grievances will come forth from crew for financial compensation ?”
Hard pressed for an answer I just told them “ I learnt early in life as a young officer that thatsweetness is mistaken for weakness at sea. And another thing to go with this is –knowledge is power”
I was at sea during times of huge CHANGE. The dry cargo ships were getting phased out and new sophisticated oil tankers were coming in.
None of the old timers had experience on tankers. So in my young days we cadets ran the ship, as our officers and Captain did NOT have any tanker experience . We were bright and young and fast on the uptake. Knowing more than others was a habit , out of compulsion.
For if something went wrong during loading –say—a hydraulic valve got stuck, we young cadets had to solve the problem, by reading the manual. And we were good at it, as we went on board ships by merit, after passing an all India exam ( Dufferin ).
This can be projected by a simple example. I was just 2 months at sea, log promoted to Third Mate. The ship was discharging 90,000 tonnes of Iranian crude oil at Bharati Dock Chennai.
At 1800 hours I handed over watch to the 2ndOfficer ( via his cadet ). Things got delayed a bit and I was in the shore leave boat after a quick bath by 1835.
Later on, the next day evening the Captain’s wife told me this story.
It seems Chief officer told the boatman to shove off the quay. There were 3 ladies in the boat— Captain’s , Chief Engineer’s and of course Chief Officers’s wife. All of them had been sitting for 15 minutes already and the boat was supposed to leave the ship at 1815.
The boatman just told the Chief Officer off “The young 18 year old cadet saab (Third Officer ) will come down soon. I will wait till he gets into the boat”
Chief Officer tried to twist his arm by saying that the Cadet is the smallest rank on the ship, and the top ranks are waiting with their wives—so he must shove off –or else BLAH BLAH ”
The Tamilian boatman then went to the Captain and told him on the face “ Saar, we all know who runs that ship. The Cadet may be small in rank, but he knows the ship better than all of you. Patience!”
And then there was sullen silence all around, you could cut the air in the boat with a knife -- with some crew sniggering .
So what I meant to say is that I grew up in an atmosphere of constant CHANGE. And I can say that change was very poorly managed, causing most of the crew and officers severe problems at sea.
I have put a post on change already.
Read it, for it will come in handy for what follows.
Punch into Google search CHANGE MANAGEMENT VADAKAYIL
If you just Google "change management" you will see 1.3 BILLION ( 1300 million ) posts on change management. The above post will be better by miles, than all of them.
No, I am NOT being cocky.
I have deliberately omitted DOMINO EFFECT in above post , for it requires some amount of wisdom, or it will be like giving a match stick to a dang monkey.
What is domino effect?
Watch this video, first.
As you can see a tiny finger push can down something as big as a World Trade Centre, building.
As you can see a tiny finger push can down something as big as a World Trade Centre, building.
TO BE CONTINUED-