|
Poor old Arthur Carlson at “WKRP in Cincinnati”. He just didn’t understand the turkey’s design limitations. Or his own liability clause. When you’re out to bid on engineered products or services, do you understand every aspect of the specification? Do you need to? If you’re alone, maybe. But if you have resources available to you… I spent some time at a nuclear power plant on the West Coast, responsible for contracted labor and services on the turbine deck. Responsibilities included contracts for work provided during overhauls and refueling cycles. And, as I was to experience, contracts for emergency repair work on a main generator rotor. Soon after a planned refueling and minor overhaul outage, vibration anomalies and temperature spikes were noted in the unit’s main generator rotor. Left unaddressed, it could lead to a catastrophic event at a power plant providing about 20% of Californi ... Read more » |
|
Napoleon knew it. Napoleon said it. And it applies off the battlefield as well as on; people will accomplish amazing things for the slightest bit of acknowledgment and recognition. Heartfelt recognition. If you’re in a leadership role, how have you acknowledged the accomplishments of those who report to you? It doesn’t need to be a bit of colored ribbon or anything grandiose. A simple word of sincere appreciation may get the same result. And if you’re in a subordinate role, how have you acknowledged the support of those to whom you report? That very same simple word of sincere appreciation may be the only positive enforcement your boss hears in their day. “A Bit of Colored Ribbon” comes in many forms. It works for peers and relations, too. |
|
Back when I was “footloose and fancy free” a coworker’s wife thought one of her coworkers and I would be a perfect match. So a double date was arranged with dinner and theatre on tap. Bruce and I arrived at the restaurant well ahead of the fashionably late ladies, so we sat in a booth and enjoyed fine glasses of water while we waited for our companions. Suddenly, we hear the panicked voice of a woman yelling “Somebody call the Fire Department! He’s choking!” I looked around and sure enough there’s her husband, turning several unattractive shades of blue and grasping his neck. I think I mumbled “Excuse me” to Bruce, stood up and walked over to their table. As a former Emergency Medical Technician from my days in California, I had learned and practiced the Heimlich Maneuver on fellow EMTs, but never actually used it. I put my hand on his shoulder and in my best reassuring professional ... Read more » |
|
If my postings have any sort of down-to-earth enjoyable reading style, it is due in large part to the influence of Ben Sherman, a local author, management and leadership trainer, speaker and self-described raconteur. Back in the nineties I had the good fortune to attend his seminars on leadership. The attendees all received a copy of his first book, Restore Breathing, A Collection of Tales. And over the intervening 20 years, I’ve read and reread the stories so many times I know them by heart. Thought provoking allegories that can be applied to the reader’s own experiences, I recommend the book highly. Here, in condensed form, is his story “That Isn’t Your Dog”. The scene is a park bench: “…A small boy walked by with a massive dog on a leash. The old man bent to offer the dog a hand and was obliged with a slobbery tongue. Professor Delp asked t ... Read more » |
|
Back in the nineties at Puget Sound Power & Light, we were encouraged to pass all four modules of the Certified Purchasing Manager exam and become C.P.Ms. All of us were either C.P.Ms. or working toward certification. We wanted Puget’s Purchasing Department to have the distinction of employing all C.P.Ms. Everyone in the department had completed their C.P.Ms. except one. And then our final coworker ran into trouble with her last exam module. She just could not get over that hurdle – she took and failed the final module three or four times. It really affected her. And by transference, it really affected all of us. One day, I stole a look at her study guides and discovered that half to two thirds of the materials had been highlighted in different colors. Un-highlighted sentences were the minority. So I photocopied every page to make the highlighting disappear. Stapled all together, I presented it back to her. “Maybe try again. ... Read more » |
|
I had an epiphany recently. Or as the late, great Bob Hoskins said in Hook: “I’ve just had an apostrophe!” I’ve been happiest in my Procurement career in positions where I’ve served my community. I’ve always thought of Utility Procurement as “keeping the lights on and the gas flowing for neighbors.” And the time as a Purchasing Agent for a Seattle-area city as “getting the most for the tax payer’s money.” For me, it feels good to work for a “higher purpose.” How about you? Can you find a “higher purpose” in your work? It may be as easy as:
|
|
The process to secure “Unescorted Access at a Nuclear Facility” status at Diablo Canyon included an almost exhaustive background check and the taking of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, an in-depth personality assessment. I’m convinced the author(s) of the assessment were Freudians because we were asked numerous times if we “love, or loved, your mother?” and “love, or loved, your father?” Luckily, dream interpretation wasn’t included. We were told that about half of the applicants would be called in for a follow up chat with the on-site psychologist and not to worry if that happened – it was “normal.” I was never called in, so I didn’t have a chance to chat. I did get my clearance, though. Now, about my issues… |
|
“Ladies and Gentlemen! Children of all ages! There, high above you balanced precariously on that narrow tightrope, courting disaster on one side and calamity on the other, I GIVE YOU THE MANUFACTURER’S REPRESENTATIVE!” Okay, maybe a little hyperbole. But your manufacturer’s representative does a high wire act most of the time. They balance between the needs of the manufacturer (whose commissions are their daily bread) and the end user (from whom all blessings flow – a Business Doxology). The relationships they build and maintain on both sides of the equation are what make them trusted and in turn, successful. Lincoln’s admonition about “a house divided against itself” fully applies to representatives: Reps can’t favor one party over the other and last very long; they have to be cognizant of all transaction ... Read more » |
|
If you work remotely from the corporate environment, you sometimes find that things can be a little quirky. But also fun. Really fun. Within a year or so of joining the SDG&E Purchasing Department, I was promoted to Buyer and given the chance to support a state of the art geothermal power plant 120 miles east of the corporate offices. California’s Imperial Valley was as different from San Diego as night from day. Agriculture-based economy pinned to the cycle of the seasons. Sidewalks safely rolled up and asleep by 8:00 PM. But a good time could always be had just across the border in Mexicali. Or so they’d tell me; sorry, not my cuppa... Fun at the end of the workday involved the plant manager and me taking our .22 caliber pistols and plinking at cans along the irrigation canals. We’d reward our good marksmanship with a stop at the “Dewdrop Inn” after. (We knew better than to reverse the order: The Duke taugh ... Read more » |
|
What’s your negotiating style? Long term consensus builder or one shot scorched earth practitioner? Hufflepuff or Slytherin? Or maybe a little of all of them… John Landis was an old-school negotiator for a well-run EPC firm in Washington State specializing in greenfield power plants worldwide. He would always negotiate the stressful and critical power island contracts himself, leaving balance of plant equipment and services to the rest of us. In my interview prior to hiring on, he explained his philosophy simply as: “I want the best deal for my company. But sometimes you have to walk around the end of the table and take their side in the negotiations. Because it’s the right thing to do.” Must have worked – he built an awful lot of power plants around the world. |