“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training” - Archilochus
There’s nothing sexy about practice or training, but it’s one of the biggest factors influencing success or failure. The harder you train or work at anything, the better you get at it. Having the discipline and commitment to train continuously is what, more often than not, differentiates the good from the great. It is also what defines your level of performance. As Archolchus said “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”
Despite this all being essentially common knowledge there are very few people who actually put in the effort required to be great at their chosen sport or craft, and the same can be said for businesses.
For businesses their craft is to manage and execute their work as efficiently and effectively as possible. Whether this is manufacturing a product, providing a service or operating an installation. The proficiency with which they manage and execute their work is what determines their outcomes. It is this process that determines what activity they will prioritise, how they will execute that activity, when they will execute it and how they will learn from that execution to continuously improve. Hence, many should be striving for Work Management Excellence.
The concept of “Work Management Excellence” is not a new one. Organisations have known of it for a number of years, with many having undertaken projects and programs to improve the efficiency and efficacy with which they manage their work. When meeting Operations Directors or Maintenance Managers for the first time I’m often told “Oh yeah we’ve had a project to improve all this stuff a few years ago so we’re good.” but their underlying performance tells a different story. When providing feedback to organisations about deviations from their process or areas of poor practice it is also not uncommon to hear “I can’t believe they’re doing that! They all went through a full day’s training course 5 years ago on this!”
Change projects incorporating comprehensive training programs can obviously make a significant step change in performance, however, they are akin to buying a new guitar and taking a few lessons. If you stick with the lessons, practice on your own and work at getting better then the initial changes will result in a lasting improvement . If you pick the guitar up and strum it from time to time without purpose, you’re not really going to get better, especially if all of a sudden someone replaces your six string with a bass guitar and then expects you to be able to play it.
Whilst most organisations have had some improvement projects in work management over the years, I don’t know of any that has a regular and continuous training program in place for all relevant personnel to make them better at managing and executing their work, which is a missed opportunity.
Given the volume of change that any modern organisation is always facing, there are a number of things which can mean training provided previously is no longer relevant, e.g.
Process updates
Software changes
Equipment changes
Organisational Structure changes
Without continuous training, individuals are left to fall back on emailed roll out communications or simply process documentation to gather their own understanding of process. Whilst this will certainly increase understanding, work management processes in organisations can often be complex to the point of being impenetrable. Also processes are evolved and updated over time in response to incidents (this is often incorrectly viewed as a solution in and of itself, but that’s a topic for another day). All of this results in processes so complex that they simply can’t be used as daily or weekly reference documents. As they are of no help to the individual looking to work out how to do something they are far more likely to just ask their colleague how to do something, despite them often being just as confused.
When discussing the issues caused by the lack of continuous training I’m often told that organisations rely on “On the job training” or OJT. This also comes with some challenges. Yes people will get better at a task the more they repeat it but to get perfect at it your practice has to be perfect. If all people are doing is continually doing things in the wrong way then they’re simply ingraining that bad habit, not improving their performance.
The reality is that organisations rely on their teams to deliver the business outcomes. The Management and Execution of work is at the core of many people’s profession, even if they themselves don’t recognise that. Whether they may be technicians, supervisors, engineers or leaders, the enactment of their decisions and actions don’t achieve anything unless work is physically executed, and yet many are left to figure out how it works on their own. In an industry that is massively profitable this simply represents lost opportunity for more profit. In a low margin industry it can mean the difference between a business being viable or not.
As with all significant problems, this represents a huge opportunity. Yes the cost of continuous training can seem expensive, however, it should be viewed in terms of the value it adds. In a competitive market, the first organisation in any given industry that recognises this gap and invests in continuous training to make their employees the best at what they do is going to have a huge competitive advantage.