Risk Culture is the greatest myth perpetrated on business since the Y2K bug. Just like Y2K, an industry has now grown up around it assisting companies to improve their “risk culture”. The problem with “risk culture” is that it has been hijacked from its original practical intent to now being an impossible (and unrequired) philosophical pursuit. Continue reading
What is reliability management? Reliability Engineering? Would a product design or an organization benefit with a focus on reliability management and engineering? What is the value of a focus on reliability?
Any organization, that develops and produces products, has resource limits. It may be talent, capabilities, time, funding, or some combination of these. Yet, the goal to create a product that meets customer expectations includes the concept of product reliability. The product should provide the expected functions over time, without failure. This expected product reliability occurs, even if the design requirements and advertising do not explicitly mention product reliability. Continue reading
Why do we say “planning is more important than the plan” and yet oftentimes a plan, if there is one is created, is copied from a, hopefully, similar previous project. This ‘plan’ is then thrust upon the Project Team and in one fell swoop this ‘plan’ becomes sacrosanct with little or no buy-in from the Project and blind acceptance by almost all participants.
And again, how often is the plan flawed, inappropriate and eventually ignored only to be replaced by a series of workarounds that allow a muddling through until a real plan eventually emerges (hopefully). We know that action without a plan is a nightmare, but if a plan is flawed nobody has time to think, let alone dream about effective action.
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We see it all the time. From the little stickers on boxes or the huge signs touting the ‘new and improved version’ of something we already own. Household cleaning products are nearly infamous for it. Then again, they aren’t a permanent thing anyway and it won’t be too long until that container of ‘old and deficient’ product is gone and you can replace it with something better anyway. Continue reading
It is a generally held belief that the increase in communication choices and technologies has helped by reducing perceptions of global distance, facilitating a 24×7 working model, and enabling those with communication challenges to fully collaborate with their peers.
However, there is a dark side to this proliferation of communication options. Ask anyone who has struggled to get feedback from team members or key stakeholders and it becomes apparent that the greater the number of methods of being able to reach someone, the easier it is for that person to ignore you if they so choose. Continue reading