Tag: communication

Bystander Effect, Open Communication a​nd Quality Culture

Our research suggests that the bystander effect can be real and strong in organizations, especially when problems linger out in the open to everyone’s knowledge. 

Insiya Hussain and Subra Tangirala (January 2019) “Why Open Secrets Exist in Organizations” Harvard Business Review

The bystander effect occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation. When individuals relinquish responsibility for addressing a problem, the potential negative outcomes are wide-ranging. While a great deal of the research focuses on helping victims, the overcoming the bystander effect is very relevant to building a quality culture.

The literature on this often follows after social psychologists John M. Darley and Bibb Latané who identified the concept in the late ’60s. They defined five characteristics bystanders go through:

  1. Notice that something is going on
  2. Interpret the situation as being an emergency
  3. Degree of responsibility felt
  4. Form of assistance
  5. Implement the action choice

This is very similar to the 5 Cs of trouble-shooting: Concern (Notice), Cause (Interpret), Countermeasure (Form of Assistance and Implement), Check results.

What is critical here is that degree of responsibility felt. Without it we see people looking at a problem and shrugging, and then the problem goes on and on. It is also possible for people to just be so busy that the degree of responsibility is felt to the wrong aspect, such as “get the task done” or “do not slow down operations” and it leads to the wrong form of assistance – the wrong troubleshooting.

When building a quality culture, and making sure troubleshooting is an ingrained activity, it is important to work with employees so they understand that their voices are not redundant and that they need to share their opinions even if others have the same information. As the HBR article says: “If you see something, say something (even if others see the same thing).”

Building a quality culture is all about building norms which encourage detection of potential threats or problems and norms which encouraged improvements and innovation.

Conference Speaking

Conference proposals are a different writing beast than articles or columns or papers. Don’t be coy. Don’t give us a promise.  Tell us the problems and what we will learn.

Johanna Rothman “Writing Advice for Conference Proposals”

Good advice from Johanna Rothman on conference proposal writing.

Giving back to the profession, sharing best practices and lessons is an important part of being an ethical practioner, and also a great way to build your career. Preparing and speaking at a conference is also a great way to build connections with the material and to stretch in order to build expertise.

In 2019 I’m speaking at 4 conferences:

In addition, I tend to speak at a variety of internal events and provide a ton of training.

I hope to run into some of you at these events next year.

Don’t Just Tell Employees Organizational Changes Are Coming — Explain Why

To be successful, your story needs to start with the company’s core mission and then offer a compelling and inspiring future vision. You want to answer: How are the changes you make today helping you achieve your vision for tomorrow?
Don’t Just Tell Employees Organizational Changes Are Coming — Explain Why by Morgan Galbraith

I can’t stress enough the importance of proper communication around all changes, from the large transformations on down. Effective communication is effective change management.

I’ve discussed the need to be able to identify changes to strategic plans and use that to inspire, inform, empower, and engage.

changing business environment

Always spend the time on a good communication plan:

Information to Communicate
(What)		 Objective
(Why)		 Target Audience
(Who to)		 Frequency
(When)		 Start Date
(When)		 End Date
(When)		 Media
(How)		 Responsible
(Who from)		 Deliverable Comments
What to people need to know o Determine site readiness to start the project

o Define resource needs and availability

 Tailor the communication to specific audiences. The same information is sometimes presented different ways How often? Start date End Date From face-to-face to all the other communication tools available in the modern workplace. Be creative Who is responsible for completing the communication What will execution look like  

 

What is in a title

Recently I’ve seen a few inspection observations that have provided an observation on the title of quality record (e.g. deviation, CAPA, change control).

The title might seem the most basic part of a quality system record – a simple task – but instead it should receive some serious thought. This is any inspector’s first interaction, it serves as a historical flag that generations of readers will use to become familiar. And everyone falls prey to “judging a book by its cover.” This cognitive bias tends to make readers considerably susceptible to allowing the quality systems title to function as the sole factor influencing their decision of whether to read or skip a record. A bad title could shape an inspection or deprive an important historical record from being evaluated in the future. We can do better.

A good quality systems record title:

  • Condenses the record’s content in a few words
  • Differentiates the record from other records of the same subject area

Some general tips:

  1. Keep it simple and brief: The primary function of a title is to provide a precise summary of the record’s content. So keep the title brief and clear. Use active verbs instead of complex noun-based phrases, and avoid unnecessary details. Moreover, a good title for a record is typically around 10 to 12 words long. A lengthy title may seem unfocused and take the readers’ attention away from an important point.

    2. Avoid: Wrong label issued

    Better: Sample ABCD was issued label 1234 instead of label X4572

  2. Use appropriate descriptive words: A record title should contain key words used in the record and should define the nature of the quality systems event. Think about terms people would use to search for your record and include them in your title.

    3. Avoid: No LIMS label for batch ABDC

    Better: Batch ABDC was missing label Y457 as required by procedure LAB-123

  3. Avoid abbreviations and jargon: Known abbreviations can be used in the title. However, other lesser-known or specific abbreviations and jargon that would not be immediately familiar to the readers should be left out.

It sometimes surprises folks how simple things can have ripple effects. But they do, so plan accordingly and ensure your users are trained on writing a good title. Trust me; it will make things easier in the long run.

Knowledge Work is the product

Johanna Rothman recently provided some insightful thoughts about Project Work vs Product Work. While focused on software, Johanna has some points that are valuable outside of software as she focuses on the importance of long-lived teams, applying a product work mindset to team functions.

The more we create long-lived teams who have already learned how to work together, the easier it is to work together. Even if that work is project-based work.

I think the critical thing for me is how much we have to view each team, each project as having as one of it’s key deliverables knowledge management.

However, we also need to recognize that in this day-and-age the modern corporation is  a transient collective. Companies do not do a great job of showing loyalty, there are a lot of options for the modern knowledge worker, and people regularly move on.

For me, this is why it is so important for not just projects, but day-to-day work to have as part of the inherent ways of working, processes to bring the tacit to explicit. The lessons-learned is a great place to start but we should be constantly be striving to identify “what have we learned”, “what do we need to make explicit” and “how do we make it explicit” as part of our work.

Knowledge management Circular_Process_6_Stages (for expansion)

Returning to the 6 stages of knowledge management:

    1. Have a way to capture what knowledge bits. For example, if you have a visual board, make sure this is explicitly part of the board. Make it part of your day-to-day.
    2. As a team assess the collected captured (and generated) knowledge and determine what is suitable for retaining.
    3. Share it – pass it up, pass it down. Make it available by tying it into your companies knowledge management system.
    4. Turn it into artifacts that are reusable. Pre-job briefings, procedures, work instructions, whatever is relevant.
    5. Live it. Confirm you are using it.
    6. Remember knowledge management artifacts are living. Things change and need to be updated. We can always refine. Continuous improvement is key.