Raw 02 - September 2008 - (Page 42)

RAW AdvAntAge mI Do you feel brave punk? T hese immortal words are known worldwide, in the context they were first delivered Dirty Harry was enquiring whether the choice the young man was about to make would result in his death. I believe these words should be delivered to any manager in industry. How many of you get through the battles of the week just to deliver a great big sigh and say ‘Thank god its Friday’ only for the weekend to fly by and guess what its Monday all over again, aka groundhog week. Wouldn’t it be better to approach everyday with the knowledge that any deviation from the plan will be seen as a challenge and the staff you manage are capable of facing this and any other challenge with supreme confidence in their ability and their teams ability to deliver their products on time and to the customers requirements. Perhaps I have a slightly jaundiced view of people in the management roles and perhaps I have a slightly naive view of how things should be. I firmly believe that when organisations think in team values across all levels things begin to work. Take for instance a supervisor in an sme, let’s call him Frank, he says the right things at the right meetings but tells his people they are not capable of better performance or taking on more responsibility, he chases production from the minute he arrives to the minute he leaves. His staff bring all their problems to him because he sorts them out, meanwhile his staff stand waiting for him to come back, production stops, the supervisor blusters at other supervisors and the circle continues, wasted time, wasted effort and wasted resource. Frank thinks he does a damn good job. Now look at another supervisor, we will call him George, he believes his team can take responsibility for their own work, he knows what needs to be produced by when, so he tells his team, he also tells his team how they performed the previous week against targets, he reviews the learning from previous issues and gives his team the responsibility for putting the learning into practice after allowing his team to define the corrective action. George thinks he has a great team. George did feel brave and made the right choice. My work takes me into various organisations where I have seen examples of both types of management of staff, perhaps what concerns me most is that the 2nd line managers allow the Franks of this world to flourish, they see him working hard , he knows his people and he wont stand any c**p. His team have a reasonable safety record , mainly because most people wont report an “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle, Greek philosopher, scientist, physician (384-322BC). injury because Franks’ investigation results in the injured being told not to be so daft and not do it again. George is also known to run a good team, he is a bit quieter, so his managers don’t take much notice of what’s going on in his section, his staff know that if an injury did occur the investigation would identify corrective actions to ensure the incident didn’t recur, in fact it has been that long since an injury the good safety performance is expected. But who allows the 2nd line managers to behave in this way?. In SME’s it usually is the directors who allow this to happen, lets ask the question of the directors – ‘do you feel brave punk?.’ It is you as directors of an organisation that has the great responsibility of deciding how your organisation operates. What are the vision and values of your company?, not got one?, if I was you I would decide this as soon as possible, if you don’t know where you’re going how can you direct your staff. What are the underpinning values of the company?, not got any? If I was you I would decide these as soon as possible. At least then you can manage your staff in a consistent manner, you can measure what is important to the company and forget about measuring things that aren’t. How much data or information is collected in your organisation and isn’t used, because it has always been collected, be brave punk!. How safe is it to work in your company, do directors wear PPE on the shopfloor, when was the last time you challenged anyone for not following the right procedure at any level? . Or actually congratulated someone for doing the right thing, wearing PPE, working to the right procedure, reporting on the resolution of issues, be brave punk!. Until you look at your organisation and ask your staff, ‘how can this be better?’ You will get to Friday, give a big sigh of relief and say ‘thank god its Friday’, how about getting to Friday and saying ‘we did well this week, how can we make it better next week’- be brave punk!. 42 millionimpossible.com http://www.millionimpossible.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Raw 02 - September 2008

Raw 02 - September 2008 Contents Scott English Rachael Elnaugh Colin Stroud Heidi Weir Chris Wright Million Impossible Emma Thompson

Raw 02 - September 2008

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