Steve Roesler of All Things Workplace, one of the most dependable book recommenders I know of, gives “Rules of Thumb” a rave review in a recent post on his blog.

The subtitle lives up to its words: “52 Truths For Winning At Business Without Losing Your Self”.

You
don’t see many book reviews here even though we receive many
promotional copies. I do look hard at each one but, given my own
business and personal priorities, I only write a review when it’s a
raving recommendation, like: Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self

Get it over at: Amazon.com

Do not be carried along by cowardly conventions and self-interested arse covering. The best operations teams consist of highly motivated free thinkers who are not afraid to admit to mistakes so they can be fixed systemically before they add up to anything serious.

[Update1: This was my submission to Executive Rockstar's Best Career Advice competition ]

[Update2: This book look promising "Know What You Don't Know: How Great Companies Fix Problems Before They Happen" By: Michael A. Roberto]

[Update3: Why Systems Fail and Problems Sprout Anew]

The best career advice that I ever received was from Steve O’Donnell, currently SVP IT Infrastructure & Operations at First Data International, celebrity blogger and former Global Head of Data Centre & Customer Experience Management at BT (where we worked together):

One day he said:

“Jonathan, I will never fire you for an honest mistake but if you lie to me, ever, you will be out the door in a minute. There is no mistake that you can make that I cannot figure out how to fix IF you tell me about it immediately. Be honest with me and you are safe, lie to me and you are gone.”

This is a golden rule in effective technical operations. It creates a culture of honesty and safety – not being afraid of reporting errors or lapses – that leads to true Kaizan:  genuine self-correction and organisational self-improvement because you are able to deal with errors systematically (i.e. by tweaking systems) and without the damage of the blame game and deferred responsibility.

His advice is particularly important in environments where errors are rare but extremely serious when they do occur – like executive boardrooms or aircraft maintenance hangers or hospitals.  The behaviour or practice of telling the truth about minor errors is central to the precursor-based error detection system (i.e. spotting the warning signs early)  which is in turn at the center of truly effective operations management (and every other system).

Kevin Kelly explains the issue in a  brilliant post about “Looking for Ugly“:

How do you prevent major errors in a system built to successfully keep major errors to a minimum?  You look for the ugly.

The safety of aircraft is so essential it is regulated in hopes that regulation can decrease errors. Error prevention enforced by legal penalties presents a problem, though: severe penalties discourages disclosure of problems early enough to be remedied.  To counter that human tendency, the US FAA has generally allowed airlines to admit errors they find without punishing them. These smaller infractions are the “ugly.” By themselves they aren’t significant, but they can compound with other small “uglies.” Often times they are so minimal — perhaps a worn valve, or discolored pipe — that one can hardly call them errors. They are just precursors to something breaking down the road.  Other times they are things that break without causing harm.

The general agreement in the industry is that a policy of unpunished infractions encourages quicker repairs and reduces the chances of major failures. Of course not punishing companies for safety violations rubs some people the wrong way. A recent Times article reports on the Congressional investigation into whether this policy of unpunished disclosure should continue, which issued the quote above. The Times says:

“We live in an era right now where we’re blessed with extremely safe systems,” said one panel member, William McCabe, a veteran of business aviation companies. “You can’t use forensics,” he said, because there are not enough accidents to analyze.

“You’re looking for ugly,” Mr. McCabe said. “You ask your people to look for ugly.” A successful safety system, he said, “acknowledges, recognizes and rewards people for coming forward and saying, ‘That might be one of your precursors.’ “

Looking for ugly is a great way to describe a precursor-based error detection system. You are not really searching for failure as much as signs failure will begin. These are less like errors and more like deviations. Offcenter in an unhealthy way.  For some very large systems — like airplanes, human health, ecosystems — detection of deviations is more art than science, more a matter of beauty or the lack of it.

Come to think of it, looking for ugly is how we assess our own health. I suspect looking for ugly is how we will be assessing complex systems like robots, AIs and virtual realities.

So, in short:  Create a professional environment that enables and encourages your team to detect, report and deal with the “ugly”.

[Update: I mailed Steve my submission and I was delighted to see he blogged about it on his Hot Aisle blog]

Really enjoying the new blog – Lateral Action – from the guys behind CopyBlogger .

Here are some starter posts to give you an idea of the themes and style:

Tyler Durden’s 8 Rules of Innovation | Lateral Action

Foolish Productivity: The Hobgoblin of Creative Minds

Beyond Getting Things Done: Lateral Action

The founders of my all time favourite consulting company (Beaufortes) are up to something super interesting.

Here is what came into my inbox yesterday:

What a week! Lehman brothers, Merrill Lynch, Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, things are getting worse, and they’re only going to get tougher as the financial ripples spread out across the industries and across the globe!

We all need to make sure that we are in a position to be indispensable, if we are going to weather the financial storm ahead! And as a good contact in my network, I wanted to offer you something that would help

http://www.ExecutiveRockstar.info

It’s a f-ree report that we compiled for a big name client’s talent management programme. They wanted to know how their top guys pulled in the big business and did what they did, and we found out for them. These guys are never going to be out of work, and you really need to hear about how they did it!

http://www.ExecutiveRockstar.info

I hope that your company pushes on through, and I hope that this helps you be one of the glorious survivors. There is no charge, consider it a goodwill offering in the spirit of the pulling together in the LinkedIn network!

I am fully signed up to this. The founders – Jason and Phil – are both brilliant men and their own careers are a testament to the power of their methods.

Being their personal friend, they occasionally comment on my business activities, projects and ideas in the form of short mails suggesting lines of thought, trends or possible activities. I can honestly say that those occasional mails pack more value into them than all the professional advice and consultancy I have bought – and that includes my business book list.

I am not entirely sure where this is going – seminar, book, training course – but whatever it is I can assure you of one thing: You will see me there because there is no way I will miss it (whatever it is!)