Absolutely nothing to do with a vuvuzela

World Cup in full swing at the moment, the vuvuzelas are deafening and the millionaire players throw themselve to the ground in total agony as soon as they are tackled. Am I the only one who is thinking “get up you dope, you were barely touched?”  (As a Corkman, the match I’m looking forward to is the Munster Hurling Final in Thurles on July 11th. ) Skill, speed, strength, scores, excitement. 

The behaviours of these players on the pitch (and indeed off the pitch too – look at the French) reminded me  of something I read by D. Army.  He was talking about KPI’s  and said that  ” We have discovered that it is not enough to just manage the numbers.  What is of the most value is that along with developing the process is to develop a list of behaviors we want the organization to exhibit.  Then develop behavioral metrics that are aligned with the desired behaviors. ”

He’s certainly singing our tune (or playing our vuvuzela) when he says that it is extremely important that prior to commencing any installation or implementation activities that the new desired behaviors are identified.  Here are a few:

• People attend planning meetings and are prepared to make decisions
• A craftsperson knows what he or she will be working on during the next week or day
• A craftsperson is confident that he or she will be allowed to perform that identified work
• An operator knows what equipment will be taken out of service tomorrow
• A planner understands the importance of clear and concise work instructions
• Work is not permitted to begin until the parts are available
• Feedback is provided on Preventive Maintenance activities

In the ESS Ltd. CMI service, we have an implementation plan which puts in place the business processes and we carry out the training required. That’s the easiest bit. What we do after the implementation is put all our time and effort into changing behaviours because without these , starting at the very highest levels of the organization, firmly in place, it all just slips back to the way it was.  Ref: D.Army,Strategic Asset Management.