Are Supervisors the Biggest Obstacles to Problem Prevention and Problem Solving?
Throughout our careers in helping manufacturing companies improve problem solving and problem prevention we have been asked why some of these initiatives don’t achieve the desired results. One of the primary reasons is not very popular, but is true nonetheless: Some supervisors don’t want their employees to prevent and solve problems! Why? Here are a few reasons we have identified:
- Many supervisors have achieved success because of their ability to prevent and solve problems. Some of them view democratizing these skills as diminishing their value to the company. They think: “If everybody can do this, what do they need me for?”.
- Firefighting gets rewarded more than problem prevention in some companies and the supervisor doesn’t want anything to take away from his/her being a hero. In fact, he or she might have been promoted because of the ability to fight fires.
- The supervisor may have been promoted because of a specific technical skill and may not have the skills to coach his/her employees in solving and preventing problems.
- Some supervisors view the time spent on preventing and solving problems as time doing “nothing”. Never mind that the time invested in preventing a problem or solving a problem the first time is worth multiples in improved productivity. They view it as wasted time. The pressure to “do something” trumps the benefits of using critical think skills.
- Supervisors are not given a say in the critical thinking skills implementation so they have no interest in seeing it succeed. They may not be obstacles, but they sure aren’t going to bend over backwards to make it a success.
How do you convert supervisors from obstacles to true supporters of problem solving and problem prevention?
Involve them early. By involving supervisors in the early stages of critical thinking skills design, you can surface issues that may torpedo the program. Springing a new initiative on them at the program launch is guaranteed to create resentment and a desire to see the program fail.
Make sure the supervisors are learning the same skills their employees learn. This creates a common framework and vocabulary to facilitate communication. Seeing the application of these critical thinking skills to real job issues will help supervisors understand the value these skills provide.
Align the performance system to reward supervisors. As with any behavior modification, you want to make sure you are rewarding the desired behavior and discouraging the undesirable behavior. Set clear performance expectations for supervisors and provide feedback on how they are meeting those expectations.
Create team awards. Rather than problem solving and problem prevention being an individual pursuit, establish a program that recognizes the supervisor and his/her team for the effective use of these critical thinking skills. You’ll be surprised how some friendly competition will motivate supervisors and their teams.
Teach them how to coach. Nothing makes a supervisor more proficient in problem solving and problem prevention than having to explain it to their employees and evaluating their employees’ use of the skills. If they learn how to coach employees in using these skills, their own abilities will improve.
Supervisors need not be obstacles to the effective implementation of critical thinking skills in manufacturing organizations. With forethought to when and how supervisors should be involved, giving them the skills to succeed and aligning the performance system to reward implementing these programs, supervisors can be champions of ctritical thinking skills and the company can achieve incredible results.