ROC Your Organization!
DOES this sound familiar? It's a scenario repeated in organizations year
after year . . . the dreaded annual planning process! It starts at or about the
end of the third quarter--Sept. 30, give or take a week. The CEO returns from
the annual "Performance Improvement Strategy Session" with the board of
directors and calls a Monday morning staff meeting. S/he starts this meeting
with one of two very predictable introductions:
"Ladies and gentlemen, the board is 'very disappointed' with our nine-month
results; projections indicate that we won't make our year-end numbers. They've
made it perfectly clear that our performance must improve. We've got to ratchet
things up through the fourth quarter. Next year they expect a 10 percent
improvement across the board with no budget increase over this year's plan!"
Or, perhaps, this:
"Ladies and gentleman, the board is 'very pleased' with our nine-month
results; projections indicate that we'll make our year-end numbers. They applaud
all of you for your efforts. However, in view of _____ (you can fill in
this blank; the variables are many), they've made it perfectly clear that our
results must improve. We've got to ratchet things up through the fourth quarter.
Next year, they expect a 10 percent improvement across the board with no budget
increase over this year's plan!"
S/he continues: "I'd like all of you to assess your operations, review your
variance reports, and bring me a plan that will produce the required
improvements. Have your drafts on my desk by Thursday morning. Thanks, and I
know you're all up to the challenge!"
You return to your cube and ponder: "What's a safety manager to do?" More
training, more audits, more meetings, more discipline, more awareness campaigns
. . . more of what hasn't worked in the past? And by Thursday, no less--there
goes the weekend.
To make it even worse, deep down you know it's not going to produce the
results required; you'll be back in the same situation next year. If only there
were an alternative, a way to break free of mediocrity, a way to engage the
organization . . . a way create step-change improvement, a way to attack the
real causes of loss in the organization.
There is. It is a focus on Excellence Strategy. Although there are no quick
fixes in business or safety, a focus on "doing right things" can (and does)
generate rapid returns.
Defining Excellence
Excellence is not the opposite of mediocrity . .
. . Excellence is different! Brian Tracy, author of "The Creative Manager," says
between you and your ultimate goal lies a rock--a significant impediment that
prevents you from achieving your objective. To be successful, you must find a
way over, under, around, or through your "rock."
In my work with companies striving to become Safety Excellence organizations,
I've learned a major impediment to achieving excellence is an inability to
create sustainable change. By sustainable, I don't mean the ordinary,
run-of-the-mill type of change--but, rather, change of the frame-bending,
mind-altering type I called "The ROC"--(Radical Organizational Change) in a
Professional Safety article: "Safety Management: A Call for Revolution."
Communications expert John Drebinger says: "You attain the next level of
excellence by changing who you are," and "You change who you are, by changing
what you do."
"ROC Your Organization" is all about changing what you do. In book, compact
disc, or action deck card form, it provides a collection of non-traditional and
somewhat entertaining ways of instigating the kind of change necessary to
achieve safety excellence. "ROC Your Organization" is a tool designed to help
safety managers and their leaders change "what and how" safety is done in an
organization. The book includes the "Safety Excellence Mindset" quiz, the
World-Class Strategy Model, the Safety Excellence Continuum diagram, and a
Safety Excellence Attributes self-assessment. The 52 "Insights on Excellence"
(quotes from business leaders and proactive thinkers) and "ROC Initiatives"
(organizational change tactics) it contains form a call for action. They
encourage practitioners to become change insurgents and take those overt and
covert actions requisite to becoming a Safety Excellence organization.
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Sample ROCs |
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ROC #15: Go Back to the Future |
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Go back into the deep, dark corners of the facility and ask six (or more)
front-line workers in those areas this question: "Where is the next accident
going to happen in this department?" Armed with this information, work with them
and the department manager to prevent that future from happening! "Beam me up,
Scotty!" |
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Excellence Requires Proactive Efforts. |
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ROC #16: Create a Masterpiece |
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Task five teams to break out and draw detailed pictures of your current
safety process (i.e., its design, structure, key characteristics, relationships,
major challenges, etc.) After these "Picassos" have been completed, have each
team describe the broad strokes and subtle details captured in their "works of
art." If a picture is worth a thousand words, odds are these masterpieces will
be priceless in their ability to identify problems and target improvement
opportunities. |
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Excellence Requires the Big Picture. |
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ROC #35: I'll Take a 'Dirty Dozen' |
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Recruit your cynics, rebels, and radicals; individuals throughout the
organization who are commonly considered to be opinionated, sarcastic, and
outspoken about the company's safety efforts. People such as these usually have
good reasons for bad feelings . . . reasons you need to know about, because more
often than not, it is the deeply hidden truth wanting to be heard. Involve these
voices in a skunk works initiative designed to produce change and make things
better. Challenge them to turn negative thoughts into positive actions. Free
their minds, seek their ideas, and involve them in developing positive solutions
and leading proactive change. Report on what you learn and accomplish over the
next 90 days. |
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Excellence Requires People Who
Care. |
This article originally appeared in the May 2003 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.