Someone please send this along to Mr. Henshaw. I don't have his email address.

On May 18th, the US House of Representatives passed legislation reducing OSHA's role making it easy on employers. The bill is not predicted to pass in the Senate. Still, in the face of continued deaths and injuries I wonder just what Congress is thinking. I have been a critic of OSHA for negotiating the terms of violations and the subsequent penalties. Repeat offenders seem to create a large percentage of the incidents. Certainly the annual statistics indicate we aren't making any real progress with construction safety. Yet, there is an approach that is resulting in significantly better safety performance. Here's my plan:

OSHA needs to spend time with companies that are doing well. Let's have a working session among firms whose experience modifier ratio is 0.6 or below. We need to learn how they got there and what they are doing to continue to improve.

Get companies on OSHA's VPP - Voluntary Protection Program. The VPP recognizes companies for the safe environment they maintain by exempting them from OSHA inspections. This frees OSHA's limited staff to spend their time with other companies while creating work environments that are far safer.

Adopt a requirement for doing business with the US government. A minimum qualification is to have an EMR of less than 0.85. This would go for all contractors and subcontractors on a project — NO EXCEPTIONS. If you want to do business with the government then you must be safe.

Encourage companies to train their workers to work at the edge of safety. Construction work is hazardous. Programs that stress avoidance of hazard miss an important element. At one time or another people will be faced with needing to act in the moment to protect themselves or others. People need to be trained to fall. They need to be trained to function in precarious situations. We train police to drive fast. We need to train construction workers to effectively perform during the most unsafe of times.

Treat all construction work like you would getting ready for pouring concrete. The consequences of not seeing that all conditions have been addressed are severe…the concrete would need to be removed. Consequently, people go to an extreme to see that the site is in a ready state for the pour. That isn't just a process of checking and re-checking. It involves having processes, protocols, standard practices, and training that supports performing work in ways that the site will be ready for the pour. These are the same actions that will keep people safe across the jobsite. The Last Planner System™ is one successful approach for achieving the result.

Adopt a two-strike policy for all workers. Some people just won't learn and maybe we just don't know how to teach. Either way, we can't allow people to be on our sites who work unsafely. Doing so jeopardizes others on the site. It is not responsible of us to allow that to continue.

Spanish speaking people are dying at two to three times their representation in the workforce. We can make inferences as to why this is occurring. Language and training are certainly keys. We cannot have the situation where people are unable to look after each other. At a minimum work crews need foremen and lead hands who speak Spanish and English.

Finally, mete out heavy penalties to the repeat offenders. Willful negligence that leads to a death carries a far smaller penalty than the white collar crime of cooking the books. This has to change.

I don't claim that this plan is the best plan. I do claim that we can make great strides beginning down the path. Please, please let's come together to try. Daddies and mommies don't need to die. And please, let's not wait for OSHA to act. If my plan makes any sense to you, then put at least that part into action. And if you want some help, just write me at hal@halmacomber.com.

Read Safety Everyday's construction safety in the news sideblog.

This is the fourth in a series of project e-Tips on the five big ideas reshaping project delivery. As you read this ask yourself, what action can I take today? Leave a comment with your answer.

The Project Reformer's e-Tip of the Week

027: Projects Are Single-Purpose Networks of Commitment

A project is is a single-purpose network of commitment performed by a temporary social system. Unlike recurring business processes, the network of commitment on a project emerges rather than is designed and refined as performers have experience in the network. Performers in a project get one shot through the network. To complicate this project performers come together as strangers. They often lack experience with each others' reliability to perform within the network. Without the experience with each other, project performers will hold out on making their best commitments. Your role as project leader is to activate the network of commitment on your project. Here are four actions you can take: Set an example of making offers (promises) that take care of the concerns and needs of project performers. People will follow your example. Encourage project performers to make offers and promises that they can reliably deliver. Help them as needed to improve on reliability. Be a good customer for the promises made on your project by offering your help to performers and announcing your anticipation of completion. Be quick to show your appreciation for the completion of promises including being notified at completion rather than at the next project team meeting. These actions begin to bring project performers together as team members who are taking care of each other while they take care of the project. Doing this publicly provides the basis for people to develop trust in each others' competentce and reliability to perform. And it is just the beginning. Your role as project leader requires continued attention on the functioning of the network of commitment. The Project Leaders' Studio™

©2004 Hal Macomber | weblog.halmacomber.com | e-Tip Archive | PDF | Submit Tip

I hope you are enjoying this series on five big ideas reshaping project delivery. Only one more to go before I get back to publishing your project e-Tips. And when I do I'll be sending a cereal box as a thank you!

Jim Womack, co-author of The Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking, joined Greg Howell and me and dozens more for a 75 minute concall. Right off the bat Jim teased us with his announcement that a new book is in the works to be published in the fall. No title as of yet, but he's dealing with the subject of lean consumption. What he means by that will have to wait. (I hope to offer a preview on this page.)

We did record the session. You can listen by calling 405-244-4000, Box 199. The recordng will be available until the next teleconference. (Sorry for the first few minutes of confusion on the recording.)

Jim acknowledged his inattention to the world of projects. Even so, he offered insights that are instructive to all of us attempting to do our projects more reliably and without waste. Two comments stood out for me. First, even the best intentioned companies struggle to accomplish a lean transformation. The "common sense" of economies of scale, mass production, and the pursuit of local productivity gains pervades. Second, just getting something started takes lean leadership — someone with enough respect and clout bringing a sense of urgency — otherwise you can expect just curious experiments.

One of our questions was about the eighth waste. Jim and Dan Jones have been quoted as changing their view. Not so. In the first edition of Lean Thinking the authors called the eighth waste providing something that the client didn't value. In the second edition the authors spoke about the underutilization of human potential as a key concern. In no way did they intend to give the impression that they were abandoning the described eighth waste.

Those are my highlights. Now let's hear from some of the other participants. Please leave your comments.

Next up: Rob Galford and Anne Seibold Drapeau speaking about their book The Trusted Leader. Read this review. Mark your calendar for June 24th, 1:00 - 2:15 PM Eastern. If you haven't signed up for the series then do so now by visiting Conversations with Project Authors. I had the pleasure of meeting Rob at a breakfast session. Not only will the conversation be practical it will be provocative.

Projects @ Work relaunched recently as an online only (for now) offering. Aaron Smith is the editor and publisher. In his commentary yesterday, Bad News Bears Repeating, Aaron claims we place too much emphasis on process and not enough on the people using the process. It's a nice piece worth your attention.

If you've been following the Safety Everyday sideblog you've noticed numerous trench accidents and deaths. OSHA usually finds contractors in some way responsible. It ranges from willful disregard of regulations to poor training. I have a different take. The planning system performance plays a big role.

People are starting work before the tasks are ready to be started AND completed. Trenches are dug when excavators are available. Or, the work has gotten behind, so in an attempt to catch up people begin work without planning for it. Trenches stay open while the rest of the work is prepared. Everyday the trench is open the walls degrade. A trench is a hazard. Working in a trench is risky. Spreading that work over a series of days is significantly more dangerous than getting in and out on one day. That is compounded by similar poorly prepared tasks that are started around the trench. At some point there is a network effect. The confluence of small issues "tips" the site to a dangerous situation.

Construction work is hazardous. We expose our workers unnecessarily to further hazard due to the failure of work not being prepared and other work not finishing reliably as promised. It's time to get serious about only asking people to do work that is in a condition to start and complete uninterrupted.

Read Safety Everyday's construction safety in the news sideblog.

Pass along a question for our teleconference with Jim Womack. Leave a comment to this posting. We'll select questions to ask. We'll also report back here what Jim said. Of course, you can always join us and ask your question yourself. If you haven't signed up, then do so now at leader.halmacomber.com/project_authors.html.

Join us this week for our conversation with Jim Womack. Jim is the co-author of The Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking. These two books brought the Toyota Production System from the industrial engineering department to the front office. We will be exploring how lean thinking is transforming how projects are planned and delivered. If you haven't already signed up for the series on conversations with project authors then do so now at leader.halmacomber.com/project_authors.html. We'll have our conversation on Thursday May 20, from 1:00 - 2:15 PM Eastern.

Stop by the Lean Enterprise Institute to see what Jim has been doing.

In the May issue of Fast Company Shoshana Zuboff writes in her monthly column Evolving From Subject to Citizen: Getting the Feudalism Out of Capitalism. She makes a rather compelling case that our model of organizing and managing the work of companies is for the most part obsolete.

Shoshana's writing reminds me of David Schmaltz's The Blind Men and the Elephant, Mastering Project Work. David speaks of a usual master-servant relationship that keeps us from doing our best work on projects and therefore having unsuccessful projects. I'd say Shoshana and David are onto something.

The two authors lay responsibility for this continuing situation at both employers' and employees' feet. We keep doing the things we did before without consideration to how well we are taking care of our needs and those of our employers.

In 1987, Robert Reich called for changing the story of work in his book Tales of a New America. Reich proposed that our myths (the stories we tell about our experience of being American) were keeping us from being competitive. He proposed four key stories that need changing:

• The Mob at the Gates — There is a crowd of others who are out to take away what we have.
• The Triumphant Individual — Through hard work and perseverance we can rise from our situation to be a success.
• The Benevolent Community — Our family, our company, and our government are all here to take care of us.
• The Rot at the Top — Given the opportunity, people in power will abuse that power for their own ends.

Reich claims the stories we tell are out of phase with our grounded experience of work. Yet, we continue telling the stories, consequently locking in our experience of work. He proposed we adopt a new story about ourselves. One that would free us. His basis for a new story is a collective trusting view of our situation…where we succeed (or fail) based on our ability to collaborate while competing.

I am encouraged by the new emphasis on changing the model of organization. By changing the story we can engage the whole of our project community to take on the promises of the project as their own. In doing so, we will engage the assessing and evaluating capability that put to use can keep us on target to fulfill our promises.

Feudalism, master-servant, indentured servitude, exploitation of our efforts…it's just a story; a story that we must change.

I'll keep this posting short. Click over to Jeffrey Cufaude-Idea Architect. Jeffrey writes of becoming a first-rate noticer — a skill every project manager needs to develop. Jeffrey Cufaude is a first-rate writer. Enjoy!

This is the third of five project e-Tips on ideas that are reshaping the delivery of projects. As you read through this consider whether you are systematically doing it or do you just know about it.

The Project Reformer's e-Tip of the Week

026: Optimize the Whole

AEC projects are contracted in ways that usually result in optimization at local or subcontract levels. Consulting engineers manage their work to maximixe engineering utilization. Plumbers do what is good for the plumbers. Other performers do the same. Some people say that if we do well with each of the parts, the whole will do well too. That is blatantly not true. And, people on the project know it. Sometimes it takes one group goins slow so that the project can proceed more effectively. However, the incentives are not set up to accomplish that. Optimizing the whole requires on-going attention. Circumstances change. What appears to be good for the whole at one point in the project may not be so at other points. It takes a recurring conversation and assessment among the many project participants to continue to act for the general well-being of the whole project. Try asking just one question at each of your coordination meetings: What is the best we can do for the project in the coming week? Answer the question in the group setting. Be open to adjust scope, fees, and plans accordingly. As the result, you'll do better for you client and the team. The Project Leaders' Studio™

©2004 Hal Macomber | RPM | e-Tip Archive | PDF | Submit Tip

Let me know what you learn while you try this out. And send me your proposals for an e-Tip. If I publish it, then I'll send you a Free Prize Inside!

Report exposes failure of IT project management:

"Fewer than one in five of all IT projects in the UK can be considered truly successful, and failed projects lead to billions of pounds being wasted on IT systems, according to research from the Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Computer Society. The report, released last week, said the UK is failing to produce software engineers and managers with the project management skills to execute complex projects."

The authors of the report call for the IT community to "…embrace the discipline and professionalism associated with traditional branches of engineering…" to deliver projects that are a success.

"Projects are often poorly defined, codes of practice are frequently ignored, and there is a woeful inability to learn from past experience," he added.

We don't need better engineering. We need people who take care of their project team while addressing the day-to-day responsibilities of coordinating action among them.