Compressed Air Best Practices - February 2008 - (Page 40)

| 02/08 Compressed Air Industry BULK HANDLING | D o Yo u r BY DON SCHMINCKE MEETINGS success of Toyota. For example, one manager at the Toyota Georgetown plant used his time in management meetings to demonstrate his good performance on projects he was assigned until plant manager Mr. Fujio Cho (now the Chairman of Toyota worldwide) said to him, “We all know you are a good manager, otherwise we would not have hired you. But please talk to us about your problems so we can all work on them together.” Of course, the rest is history now that Toyota has surpassed GM. Could it be that Toyota’s meetings were different than GM’s? It’s yet another weekly management meeting. Everyone shows up, sits down and takes their turn in reporting progress on assigned projects. At first glance, this looks like a great way to ensure accountability for performance, but could it be sabotaging your company’s future success? Don Schmincke How can this be? Surely something as simple as meeting to track performance is basic MBA 101 on how to run a company, right? Well, some CEOs disagree. By challenging the assumption about these types of meetings they’ve found something remarkable — competitive advantage. It’s not that tracking performance is wrong, but there are other ways to issue status reports on projects more efficiently. Email, intranets and old-fashioned paper can allow data to be absorbed more quickly than verbal presentations at meetings. Why not use the invaluable time in management meetings for what we wish we had more time for — solving problems? This sounds great except for one snag — the problem is we don’t like revealing problems! We’d rather reveal our “great performance.” Divulging our problems could make us look weak or incompetent, or diminish our demonstration of “brilliance” to those who could promote us. More so, it could open us up for retaliation or manipulation! Of course there are organizations where these could be real fears, but cultures like these have deeper problems than ineffective use of management meetings. For the rest of us, using meetings to share and solve problems versus displaying our “great performance” may offer a better opportunity to improve such performance. Examples of organizational successes using this methodology are buried in the literature, from examples of “skunk-works” projects to the recent Focus Meetings on Problems Versus Performance Meetings which focus on problem-solving versus reporting on good performance seems to offer companies key benefits such as: More efficient use of time: Time is scarce and getting scarcer. Companies that use face-to-face time for problem-solving exploit the power of human dialogue versus wasting it on monologues. They create solutions and address decisions on the issues that matter. Project status reports are important but this one-way data can be transferred using other more efficient means. Time is money. Where do you want to spend it? Higher motivation: Solving problems generates more positive energy than status reports do. Celebration and acknowledgement of good performance should be done, but in more meaningful ways then selfproclamation in short slots of meeting agendas. When a strong staff is free to expose real issues and work on them, it pulls the team together and lessens the effect of demoralizing egos on the organizational agenda. Profits: It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how Toyota got to the top. Continuously seeking improvements by finding and resolving problems enhances competitive advantage in any market. Tolerating a culture that avoids this in order to “look good” or satisfy personal interests guarantees a dramatic financial failure. This has toppled the largest of companies, some whose executives are now facing prison time. 40 www.airbestpractices.com http://www.airbestpractices.com

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Compressed Air Best Practices - February 2008 Contents From the Editor Utility-Air News February Audit of the Month: Dense-Phase Transport System Wreaks Havoc on Compressed Air System Real World Best Practices: Material Conveying with Pneumatic and Vacuum Systems Industrial Vacuum Cleaners Use Compressed Air in Portland Cement Manufacturing Processes The Numatics Air Preparation Group The Ins and Outs of Vacuum Generators Dekker Vacuum Technologies Do Your Meetings Sabotage Your Profits? Resources for Energy Engineers Wall Street Watch Advertiser Index Job Market

Compressed Air Best Practices - February 2008

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