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Live, New and Upcoming Information from Visual Workplace Australasia.

When making ‘a’ change, have you got the right people at the table?

Recently I participated in a webinar with Petal Bartlett from the University of Kansas Health System. As she spoke, I could feel myself leaning in. It was engaging because Petal was focusing on the environment ‘around’ the change; something I feel isn’t considered ‘enough’. Very early in the session Petal said, “you have to have all the right people at the table”.

Are we assisting with behaviour change (can we do better)?

I was lucky enough to attend the TWI Summit and KataCon11 this week in Indianapolis. I nearly got run over about seventeen times (not kidding). Although I know they drive on the ‘other side’ of the road I couldn’t change my behaviours. I’m now 48; my habits are well engrained!

Coming through a major change

As discussed in the mid-February update, people naturally resist change. Accordingly, I’ve had reinforced to me in this exercise that the leader’s primary role is to ‘work with people to accept the change’. Note please the three words ‘work with people …’. This largely means listening, understanding and explaining all of which take time and patience. What’s really happening when we do this? Trust is being established (in my case) and trust is being maintained in terms of this maintenance leaders’ case.

Handling resistance to a major change

We are conditioned from a very young age (via our education system largely, but perhaps by society in general) that ‘right’ is good, ‘wrong’ is bad. Opportunity to value ‘wrong’ and learn from it is thwarted. Introducing a system whereby ‘wrong’ is valuable is very challenging because this conditioning is run into head on!

Getting ready for a major change.

A large intensive farming maintenance team will undergo a major change in the week commencing Jan 28 in the way they plan their daily work. They will embark on a high collaboration / low tech system (no computers) to plan their (routine) work. Our preparation has been very deliberate and ticked certain boxes, mostly human ones.

Is being off track, OK?

What I (Ben) find is if we are ‘on track or in front’ of the plan we’re happy to let others know (usually with a big green tick). If we’re ‘behind or off track’ then the information must seemingly be pried from us; it is nowhere near as freely forth coming.

Helena Industries people laying solid foundations

Sixteen participants (plus observers) in four teams with one focus process per team for one week. The task at hand? Practice a routine for development of Work Standards via a series of learn by doing cycles. The goal – by the weeks end, be able to continue on their own with some ongoing guidance.

Learning Construction Work At The Coalface

Story Construction are early in their endeavours to develop the countermeasure skill to the problem or risk of ‘don’t know, can’t do (well)’. A group of ten (field and engineering) staff very recently undertook practice of the Job Instruction routine in order to develop their training skills.

Level of Service – Creating meaningful conversation.

I (Ben) am working with Cabonne Shire Council. Recently we broke down an invisible wall within management and I wasn’t expecting it. Let me explain.

Problem handling practised at a production facility

Is the term ‘problem solving’ a misconception in itself? Does it create the wrong picture in our minds right from the start? What are the main phases? What were the answers to these questions at a food production facility recently and how were they put into practise?

Small, rapid steps by the learner when learning new habits and skills.

Recent follow up coaching with both the Australian Federal Police and Cabonne Shire Council has revealed the importance of taking small steps from the learners perspective.

Our ‘training recipes’: learning from the learner

Terry Hatfield recently started his practice of Job Instruction to further improve his on-the-job training skills. One of his early practice sessions was teaching Ashlie Hauf (HR, recruiting) the construction industry skill of tying rebar. His ‘recipe’ (Job Instruction Breakdown in our world) was more robust after his practice. READ MORE please to learn why and how this happened.

Deliberate Practice

Here is my (Oscar) mini keynote from the KataCon10/TWI Summit 2024 where the theme was Deliberate Practice. Listen please as I retell the story of Qantas flight 32 which on November 4th 2010 took off from Singapore bound for Sydney with 470 people on board. At 7,400 ft there was a huge BOOM likened to an air-to-air missile hitting engine #2. Captain DeCrespigny landed the plane safely 2 hours later. DeCrespigny spoke of how his fast mind and slow mind were major factors in avoiding what would have been the world’s worst aviation disaster. How did he develop his critical fast mind actions that underpinned ‘fly the plane, stay alive’? The answer is through Deliberate Practice…

Making ‘good (normal)’ regarding the output easy to see, update on learnings.

In the news article titled ‘Making ‘good (normal)’ regarding the output easy to see’ on February 8, 2024 I said that I would provide an update in April 2024 with the learnings we’ve had. The site is a large beverage factory and we focused on homogenisation.

‘E-support’ of skill development

In supporting development of skill in the workplace, how might we make best use of a world crowded with ‘e-options’?

Making ‘go (normal)’ regarding the output easy to see.

I (Ben) have just started working with a new client. What we’re initially focusing on is making ‘go (normal)' regarding the output easy to see. Just as the example illustrates, when ‘go' is made easy to see …