Was he set up? 101613

           

            The other day as I was sitting in my chair reminiscing of days past it occurred to me that I use to work and I still have some of the old notes and photos. I thought I might take a short trip down memory lane and review a power point or two.

            I went through a couple power points from a couple centers (aka Warehouse) which brought back many memories.

I realized that during my last couple years traveling to each of the 8 centers, some of the managers and supervisors did not look forward to my visits. The reason was simple; I was looking for anything that would improve safety, security, cleanliness and or production. I assume some thought of my visits as nit picking and possibly causing extra work.

 

Was he set up; the title of this article came from an incident (aka accident) at the Cape center. The accident involved a fork lift operator who was attempting to get a pallet down from and overhead storage rack. When this operator moved the pallet from the overhead rack a carton fell from the back of the pallet and was damaged.

Since the product fell, was damaged and could have caused injury to another staff member (had a staff member been in the area) this operator was sent for a drug screen and received a disciplinary action.

The employee commented that he was, “set up”. By “set up” he was indicating that he was set up to fail. I assume it is possible that he was set up to fail but I believe it was just careless work by the previous operator.

I began to review the area for situations that were setting up staff members to fail, there were many. Below is a photo of just one situation.

 

 

The above situation was not high in the rack, easy to see and photograph. Had that have been 20 feet high the operator may not have been able to see the carton or get it down without it falling.

I began to think about setting someone up but not to fail, instead, “to succeed”. The following statement is what I wrote in my notes to my boss.

 

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If management throughout (company name) could get all staff to believe in and work toward the following statements

 

         “Set the next person up to succeed”, which includes;

                 Set the next person up to be safe

                 Set the next person up to have no errors

                 Set the next person up to be productive

Set the next person up to have a clean work environment

 

Think how nice it would be.

 

                                        Yes the reverend Ford is preaching again.                                     NARBNL

 

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In reviewing the above statement two thoughts came to mind.

First the statement was well written, yes I am patting myself on the back, if I don’t know one else will.

Second the statement could be modified a little and apply to not only work but everyday life. We unquestionably want to set our children and family up to succeed.

Think how nice it would be if we all tried to set up not only family and friends but others up to succeed.

 

In reviewing the above comments about helping the next person to succeed, I noticed on the bottom line I referred to myself as, “the reverend Ford”. I have and do often preach to others;    maybe I should minister to them instead.

(The word minister sounds more soft and polite than the word preach; I was raised in a church where they preached, therefore I preach.)

 

            For that one person who was observant enough to see the, “NARBNL” which was also on the bottom line, you should know it is my political statement; Not Always Right But Never Left

 

Hope your day is better …

 

Don Ford