At the end of my Change Agents Training course, each participant is asked to give a presentation on an improvement that they are proposing.
On this particular day, the Parks team was pumped and ready for their presentations.
It started out perfectly. Then, the most senior Irrigation Manager started his presentation.
He grabbed a sprinkler off the shelf and then proceeded to show us how to open the valve.
And, just like that, he stabbed himself with his screwdriver.
No gloves… no eye protection…
…no checklist…no standard work…
…nothing…just winging it.
While he kept bleeding, we watched him continue to wing it.
This was someone with 22 years of experience working on the Parks team—and 22 years of proof that he’s just winging it.
All throughout our course, he joked and made sly comments about how dumb the course work was and how checklists are for people who have no common sense.
His cynicism was infectious and caught on with several of the other Parks team members.
Winging it scares me and I see it in all of my work.
From Parks to Public Works to AP to HR, we rarely see documentation for work and when we do, its really old. So old, that it is usually out of date.
In my experience, I’ve seen what happens when someone wings it.
I’ve also had to explain what happened when a work accident occurred and took someone’s life.
Sure, it’s funny to talk about stabbing yourself with a screwdriver.
But it is not funny when it is a near-miss or catastrophe. There’s a reason the risk team never thinks any of this is funny.
What my Parks friend did was demonstrate the need for simple documentation and standards.
What he did instead was wing it.
His work style is to take on the work as he shows up. No planning, no mental model for the day—just taking it all as it comes.
This style of working creates a firefighting environment for others and a whac-a-mole management system.
Mike Sarasti, Former Innovation Director For City of Miami
When the standard of work is “winging it,” there is no time to innovate, no time to plan, and no time to create better working conditions.
This makes our teams suffer in a merry-go-round of endless work.
A simple way to stop winging it…is to create documentation for you and your team.
Simple checklists will suffice. Don’t try to make one for everything at first; take your time.
Make one at a time.
As the work request comes in, document it, map it, and check-list it.
Each one as they happen.
In a matter of a few weeks, you will be well on your way to creating a new system of work.
Interested in learning more about how to get out of the whac-a-mole? Drop me a line here for a free consultation.