My tip may seem extremely mundane but think about if it applies to you.

As well as being a maintenance manager I am also a scuba diving instructor.

Whilst leading a dive with people who were here in Oman on holiday I noticed the excitement exhibited by my group on spotting a fish which I see in abundance on every dive and now ignore as mundane. It made me think that maybe I was ignoring or not seeing the obvious in the workplace.

Next day at work I walked around and noted down numerous little faults on our machinery which had become (although not a great threat to productivity), an every day thing that was seen but ignored as ordinary.

It is important to treat every day as if it were your first so that you actually see the obvious and can therefore actively remove the problems before they escalate.

Reader tip provided by Donald Bertram, Maintenance Manager at Oman Cables Industry, Muscat, Oman.

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