JUST PLANE CULTURE
BY PATRICK KINANE OLD CHINESE PROVERB:
“Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand. Step back and I will act.”
LOOK AT THE FIRST PART OF EACH OF THOSE LINES.
Telling ain’t training. How many training sessions have you been through during which the instructor read the Power Point slides? Stab me in the eye with a sharp stick so I stay awake. How effective was that “training?” Show me. We are visual beings, so
we absorb a lot of communication through our eyes. Involvement gets you engaged.
How many times has someone driven you to a location but you can’t recall how to get there — but if you drove there yourself you could?
Stepping back and letting people find their way ... oh, that’s unique, and it’s not so easy for a manager or supervisor. Like management consultant and author Peter F. Drucker [1909-2005] said, “Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their jobs done.” As a technician, do you perform better at work when you have all the resources you need or when you have all the resources but the manager or supervisor is hovering over you, scrutinizing your every move? Look at this from the supervisor’s point of view. He or she has been tasked with getting the plane out on time, assumes that responsibility and has a vested interest in the repair you are doing. He or she is going to “super” (hover overhead) and “vise” (clamp down or scrutinize). WOW — it’s in the title. That’s a play on words, but he or she has as much involvement in moving the plane as you do in repairing it.
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DOMmagazine.com | dec 2018 | jan 2019
PUSH AND PULL He or she believes that they can assist you in accomplishing the repair quicker by pushing you to work faster, redirecting or whatever. This is what is referred to as a “push” system. What typically happens is that the manager’s or supervisor’s efforts tend to have the opposite effect and slow things down. This increases the supervisor’s anxiety and he or she pushes harder, slowing things down further. Now contrast this against what
is referred to as a “pull” system. The supervisor has the same agenda to get the plane out on time. The technician has all the resources needed. The supervisor ensures that needed resources are provided to the technician and any distractions or interruptions are redirected away from the technician so he or she is not disturbed in performing the task. The only interaction between the technician and supervisor during the operation is to check occassionally to see if the technician needs anything and to assess progress.
The one system pushes employees
over obstacles whereas the other system clears the obstacles from the path. Which one requires a leader? That is an easy question to answer. You lead from the front not, from behind. You push from the back and pull from the front. Look at the role each plays. In the push system, the supervisor is interjected in the work process that is already being accomplished. It is an overlay of work that is already being worked. In the pull system, the
supervisor is also a part of the process — but here the supervisor fulfills an unfilled need that is not being worked. Let me make myself clearer. The push system adds unneeded hands in making the pie. The pull system stays out of the pie-making activity but ensures that the pie maker has what is needed. Beware; pull is the best way to go,
but there are occasions where leaders must do some pushing. There is a reluctance to engage at times and a friendly push is what is needed. You undoubtedly experienced this where someone tried to convince you to do something (pull) but to no avail. If all the convincing is not working, there may be a need revert to pushing you into acting. There is good and bad to this.
You see it in sales techniques. Have you been to a car sales person who told you all the features of the car and when you still didn’t commit to buying deferred to “What do I have to do to put you in this car today?” It progresses to getting a little more aggressive. “Here is the price I will sell the car at, but this offer is only good for today.” The pressure is on. The reason these tactics prevail is because they are effective and they work. It gets you to act more times in the direction of the push than it does in forcing you to walk away.
MODERATION AND TRUST So how do you get to that stage where the employees understand that
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