Night-shift procedures and the logic of management
- By: John P Sykes
Posted in: Blog, Management, Media, Mining, Publications, Strategy
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Continuing our catch-up on last year’s articles, we come to one of my favourite and most unusual Strictly Boardroom articles last year, inspired by my baby daughter: “Night-shift procedures and the logic of management“.
The article uses a simple set of instructions for how to change a nappy seen at a local daycare centre to demonstrate how difficult it actually is to construct logical and complete instructions, plans, processes and procedures. Whilst this may seem a somewhat niche issue, the ability to effectively construct and communicate instructions is critical to strategy implementation and management. Implementation is often where things go wrong. Whilst the incorrect change of a nappy will cause limited damage (though potentially some unpleasantness), in areas such as health and safety, environmental management and duty of care, poor processes can have severe consequences in the mining industry.
The article is available to subscribers on MiningNews.net or contact me.
For keen followers of the Strictly Boardroom column, our book “Strictly (Mining) Boardroom Volume II: A Practitioners Guide for Next Generation Directors” was published last year and is available as a paperback or e-book from Major Street Publishing or Amazon. We’re pleased to say that the book received a very positive review in the AusIMM Bulletin and in Geoscientist magazine – the members publication of the Geological Society of London.
NB: The original version of this article was dedicated to my daughter, Robyn Sykes, whose first birthday was during the week of the publication of the article.