Optimising and Enhancing Working Practices

Some key challenges

• Recognising that working practices can be improved is not easy. It is very easy to fall victim to rushes of judgement based on single failings, on the one hand, and to avoid ‘looking to hard’ on the other

• Information systems in organisations are often good at assessing outcomes but poor at looking at organisational process detail

• Implementing quality systems can deal with these issues, but can also freeze in place sub-optimal practice and give the illusion that all is well

Solutions

• User requirement specification, for individuals and teams, both proximal and distal to process

• Operational risk analysis including analysis of task flows and contingencies

• Failure monitoring

• Good supervisory support

• Considered deployment of quality tools (eg Poka-Yoke, Six-Sigma)
  

Thinking about the issue

• Top down specification of working practices and procedures will seldom capture the key nuances needed to do any task, or suite of tasks well.

• Colleagues will find the path of least resistance to meet performance targets, within tacitly accepted norms, for both behaviour and outcomes.

• The gap between these ‘tacitly accepted norms’ and specified procedures is an area where things go awry, compromising productivity, profitability and safety.

• This gap always looks obvious with hindsight,after something goes wrong as the temptation to ‘blame’ rears its head