In getting the maintenance work planning system going at the intensive farming operation I (Oscar) learned (or had further reinforced) that even though I believe we did all we could have in terms of explaining what was coming, natural resistance was alive. I should have been better expecting that, that such is very normal, and been more mindful of little adjustments along the way.
The purpose of the system is to bring to the surface common things that are making planning routine maintenance work difficult. We’re not trying to improve the work, we’re trying to improve the plan.
The reason the work currently seems hard to plan is because ‘things’ get in the way of the work.
Time and time again the people involved in the work, when asked “how long will that take?” or “how much will you do in that time?” the answer was “that depends on what gets in the way along the way”. They didn’t want to provide an answer that may result in them being ‘wrong’. (Reference my opening ‘conditioning’ remark.)
When planning the work quantity, we need a plan that assumes nothing will get in the way. Then, when things do, we can ask what did get in the way and how? Once we’ve compiled data, we address the common reasons, and so on. But this means humans will be ‘wrong’! So how is this addressed?
Perhaps the adjustment we need to make is ask the planning question differently …
“How much should you do / how long should it take assuming nothing gets in your way?” We need to explain that doing less will not be ‘wrong’, punished or criticised. In fact it will be celebrated because then we can address causes of less.
Then, after the work is done, if less than planned was done, ask …
“What got in the way of getting your work done as you should have been able to do?”
Dave Hyem (ex Boeing President, US) says that leadership needs to repeat this cycle again and again and again. In doing so the reality of that conditioning I opened with will fade.
My reflection is that the wording of questions we are using in the daily and weekly planning routines should have been more thought through by myself and the leaders. The wording needed to be better aligned to the people and nature of the work.
Expect a further update on our progress in two to three weeks …