Changing Your Organization for the Better Part 1: The Elements of the Change Process
by Stephen J. Thomas

The business landscape is littered with companies that failed to recognize that change was needed or if they recognized it they failed to act.  The common denominator for all of these firms is that they are out of business, going out of business or at the minimum not performing at the level that those in the organization would like to see.  But there is hope.

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Changing Your Organization for the Better Part 2: The Vision of the Future or How Do We Know Where We Are Going So We Will Know When We Have Arrived
by Stephen J. Thomas

In Part 1, we discussed the concept of organizational change, and introduced the eight key elements of the change equation.  The overriding component however is the concept of vision.  It is fine to have a general level of dissatisfaction with the current or “as-is” state, but it is not enough.  You need a vision of what the new or “to-be” state will look like so that the organization will know what they are trying to achieve and what it will look like when they do.

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Changing Your Organization for the Better Part 3: The Goal Achievement Model by Stephen J. Thomas

In Part 1 we discussed the concept of organizational change, the three linked elements necessary for success and details about dissatisfaction.  In Part 2 we addressed ourselves to organizational vision.  Part 3 addressed the third element – next steps.  The process of identifying and accomplishing the next steps uses the Goal Achievement Model. 

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Changing Your Organization for the Better Part 4: The Roadmap of Change by Stephen J. Thomas

 In Part 1 we discussed the concept of organizational change, the three linked elements necessary for success and details about dissatisfaction.  In Part 2 we addressed ourselves to organizational vision.  In Part 3 we discussed the Goal Achievement Model in detail and clearly showed how it links the vision, goals, initiatives and activities in a very focused manner.  However there still is one other part to the puzzle.  This is what is referred to as the Roadmap of Change.  The Roadmap is the tool to align change efforts within the organization, to eliminate conflicting goals, and to keep the change process on track.  It is the final part of a process that begins with establishing the vision, developing higher level details with the Goal Achievement Model, and maintaining focus and clarity with the Roadmap.  A successful change effort can not succeed without all three of these pieces being properly put into place and correctly used. 

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Changing Your Organization for the Better Part 5: What Gets Measured Gets Done by Stephen J. Thomas

Whatever gets measured by an organization receives the majority of its attention. Simply by virtue of obtaining and displaying data, you and your organization are focusing, at least on a minimal level, on those areas that you are measuring. If these measures are not tracking as expected, corrective actions usually follow close at hand. In reality, therefore, whatever you and your organization decide to measure sets up a sub-process that ensures more attention is given to these areas vs. those things which are not measured.

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Establishing a Sense of Urgency
Mr. Charles Latino, founder of the Reliability Center

Change needs a driving force that most of the involved people can accept. It must be powerful enough to produce images of things to come that are so positive they excite people to action. Which would be a more powerful goal, saving the world or saving one’s job?

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Initiating and Sustaining Change within Maintenance
by Tom Dabbs, Life Cycle Engineering

A growing number of business and industries in North America today are experiencing a prolonged period of reduced earnings as well as lower profit to earning (p/e) ratios.  Sustained positive change is necessary in order to reverse this trend and to cope with the diverse and significant challenges in today’s business environment.  Indeed, positive change is the foundation of progress.  Improvement of production, work methods and processes, and organizational/system structure are essential areas requiring real change, which is capable of driving progress.

Growth alone, without accompanying change, is not progress.  Many areas of growth in today’s maintenance operations perpetuate practices that are directly responsible for reduced earnings, lower p/e and below-capacity production. 

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Measuring Overall Craft Effectiveness (OCE)
by Ralph W. “Pete” Peters, The Maintenance Excellence Institute

What is Overall Craft Effectiveness or OCE? It is very much like the concept behind the OEE Factor for the calculation of Overall Equipment Effectiveness. But OCE applies specifically to the productivity of craft labor resources.

The future will see third party maintenance continue to replace in-house maintenance operations that have priced themselves out of the marketplace due to low craft labor productivity, poor service and technical skills, lack of internal leadership and of course declining physical asset reliability.

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The human factor in field productivity

Quick tips for breakthrough cultural change immediately!

Teamwork on the Web

Telling It Like It Is: Getting What You Need From Management Laying the Groundwork