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Upcoming Events
May 18th 2012 08:00 am
- Using the Manufacturing Compensation & Benefits Survey to Make Pay Decisions
May 23rd 2012 08:00 am
- Onboarding Best Practices
May 24th 2012 08:00 am
- Staying Competitive With Lean
May 24th 2012 08:30 am
- Design of Experiments (DOE)
May 30th 2012 08:30 am
- High Performance Leadership
May 30th 2012 08:30 am
- A3 Strategy Deployment
May 31st 2012 01:00 pm
- Working with Different Personalities
June 6th 2012 07:30 am
- Visual Management & 5S Improvements
June 6th 2012 08:30 am
- Optimized Maintenance & Inventory
June 13th 2012 01:00 am
- Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Article Index
Walking the Talk-Leadership Behaviors that Support Improvement EffortsAuthor Unknown An organization that seeks to achieve significant results from improvement efforts needs leaders that demonstrate a commitment to the vision-not only through their words but by their actions. It requires leaders who walk the talk, beginning at the top of the organization and continuing throughout every rank of leadership. |
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Book Review - Crucial Confrontations: Article by: John Hehre Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior. |
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Compliance News Notes Article by: Vija Kelly Electrical Safety |
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Walking the Talk-Leadership Behaviors that Support Improvement Efforts |
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An organization that seeks to achieve significant results from improvement efforts needs leaders that demonstrate a commitment to the vision-not only through their words but by their actions. It requires leaders who walk the talk, beginning at the top of the organization and continuing throughout every rank of leadership. For leaders at the senior level, walking the talk begins with a commitment to develop all levels of leadership so that they can effectively support company objectives. This means getting aligned on the behavioral expectations of leaders in the organization, communicating these expectations to all levels of leadership, and providing development opportunities aligned with them. It also means that senior leaders commit to being held accountable to these same behavioral expectations. In an organization focused on improvement, these expectations, such as the ability to balance a focus on customer service with a commitment to maintaining process discipline, are not always easy to live up to. But leaders need to model such behavioral expectations and back up those leaders who also manage to walk this difficult tightrope. Leaders at all levels who want to walk the talk take the following actions: Share information with employees regularly to ensure that they understand the customers, the business, the business processes, and the business plan (strategic and operational-level goals and objectives). They equip employees to act as business partners. Invest in people. They train employees on the technical tools and techniques of process improvement/lean enterprise plus the basics of customer-focused organizational design, customer service, and interest-based problem solving. Tap into the knowledge and experience of employees who have first-hand knowledge about what helps and what gets in the way of their being productive, adding value, and effectively servicing customers. Provide time for teams of people to work on process improvements. Empower employees to make decisions and to challenge and change processes in order to better serve customers and improve process inefficiencies (by reducing waste, constraints, bottlenecks, and delays). Learn how to use the tools other employees are asked to use (such as process mapping and value stream mapping), and then use them. Walk around, in the course of daily management, to ask employees questions about processes, value, and waste. Ask for and listen to employee input regarding what gets in the way of smooth processes and what causes downtime, waste, rework, and delays, etc. Adjust performance metrics to ensure they are aligned with business-process objectives (versus just measuring what's easy to measure or what's always been tracked). Restructure performance management systems (including reward and recognition programs) to ensure that employees share in the benefits of process improvements. Demonstrate the self-management skills necessary to support those who make decisions that align with long-term, process-improvement goals and objectives-even when that means short-term production numbers may take a hit. To summarize, leaders who foster improvement efforts listen to, respond to, and explain their decisions to employees: Effective leaders listen to those who know best how to help the organization improve: customers and employees. Leaders respond to what they hear from their customers and employees. They make changes where they are needed, and communicate about the changes widely so that everyone who provided them with input understands the changes and feels they are important enough to be communicated with. When leaders can't make the changes that employees suggest, they explain the why behind the decision. This reinforces the value and importance of employees continuing to provide leaders and the organization with suggestions regarding process effectiveness and improvement. To learn how the executives at four manufacturing organizations support improvement efforts, attend the October 13 MA program "Leaders Who Walk the Talk."
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Book Review - Crucial Confrontations: |
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Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior. Imagine the following scenarios: one of your employees has shown up late for work, again. Your colleague has not finished her part of your joint project, despite repeated promises that it would be done. Your son has come home after midnight, despite an agreed-curfew of 11pm. How would you handle these issues? Common responses to interpersonal conflict include suffering in silence, hoping the problem will resolve itself, and losing your temper and accusing the offender of all manner of bad things. Another option is to calmly discuss the issue with the other person in a way in which it can be resolved. There are people blessed with the natural ability to use the third option well and consistently. For the rest of us, Crucial Confrontations can provide some excellent guidance. This book stems from the work of the four authors and others who studied twenty-five thousand people during the last twenty years. They observed confrontations among every combination of participants from the traditional supervisor-employee relationships to subordinates challenging their superiors to exchanges among parents and their children. The authors suggest a clear process for dealing with not only the issue at hand but also the distractions that frequently arise during the course of the discussion. Lots of examples and suggestions illustrate their points. The authors acknowledge that the process is difficult and that there are no guarantees for success. However, if you follow their approach, you are far more likely to get results than if you use the silent approach or lose your temper. There is also a companion Web site with tutorials, tests, and other materials that can provide additional insight. This book has a broad application for anyone who struggles with effectively dealing with the conflicts that arise all too often in life.
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Compliance News Notes |
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Electrical Safety Electrical safety is one of those sections of the OSHA code that is seldom read or understood. Many of the rules and regulations described there have to do with proper wiring, etc. However, parts of the code have a wider scope. Companies get into trouble when they are unfamiliar with the requirements regarding training and safe work practices in this section. Training In the electrical safety-related work-practices section of the OSHAct, there is a requirement that all operators of electrically powered equipment be trained in the hazards of electricity. This requirement is usually cited in situations where there are obvious electrical safety violations that should have been noticed and reported by an employee. The most recent citation is as follows: 29 CFR 1910.332(b)(1): Employees were not trained in and familiar with the safety-related work practices required by 1910.331 through 1910.335 that pertained to their respective job assignments. The company was cited for failing to train employees so that they would be able to identify electrical hazards including but not limited to: The knock-out missing on the receptacle box Extension cords being used in lieu of fixed wiring The faceplate missing from a light switch Exposed electrical wires Safe Work Practices A whole section of the safety-related work-practices rule addresses requirements for persons who may be exposed to energized circuits. Most frequently, this section will apply to maintenance personnel or to those who build or service equipment. It deals with safe clearance distances, personnel protection, lighting, machine enclosures, and similar topics. The lockout paragraphs of this section outline specific requirements for electrical service work. For example, both locks and tags are required for electrical service work. Also, voltmeters must be used to ensure no current is present.
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Hazard Management is a consulting and training firm specializing in occupational safety and hazardous waste management. Call Vija Kelly at 651-697-0422 for more information.