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Management Diagnostics, Inc.
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Management Diagnostics, Inc. Mission about.htm Services clientbase.htm resume.htm characteristics.htm training.htm training.htm nucsafety.htm MngAudits.htm oct.htm NucAssess.htm ai.htm pm.htm ProgEval.htm CommEffAss.htm HrMng.htm BrdTranfrm.htm CorpPlan.htm BusPlans.htm WorkImpt.htm od.htm SafePlans.htm prom.htm speakout.htm coach.htm
Management Diagnostics, Inc. (MDI),
with more than twenty year's experience, helps firms improve their management
and organizational effectiveness, efficiency, profitability, and safety
performance.
For the past decade, the business climate has been filled with uncertainty about
the future and characterized by downsizing. The drastic reduction in personnel
has often involved middle managers. Companies are gearing up to meet the
challenges of the twenty-first century. The issues of deregulation and
competitiveness have placed a great burden on the electric utility industry. The
construction of new office complexes, corporate parks, and nuclear power plants
has ground to a halt. Each year as many new businesses that are established
close their doors.
A substantial number of our nation's businesses are marginal enterprises
yielding meager profits year after year. Many of them barely break even, and
even minor errors in management judgment can push these firms into the red.
Profit margins for most enterprises fluctuate between 2 percent and 4 percent of
net sales. Many firms do much worse.
MDI recognizes that the two top challenges to most businesses are: 1) how to
increase sales, and 2) how to hold down and reduce operating costs. To be
successful and survive, management must be able to resolve these challenges in
tandem. Unfortunately, when an enterprise does well financially its management
lacks the motivation to assess its status during that profitable period.
Business executives frequently wait until troubled times or a crisis before
seeking outside help to determine company strengths and opportunities for
improvement. Whenever this happens, businesses may find themselves paying
exorbitant amounts of money for improvements when they least can afford it.
MDI recommends that businesses be pro-active and preventive in their business
planning strategy. We help business leaders resolve human performance problems,
and become stronger and more productive. Our improvements and change management
strategies lead to higher end-of- year profits. We assemble teams of our highly
experienced associates to meet specific company needs, and to get measurable
results for our clients in the shortest possible time.
MDI helps its clients by
evaluating and making recommendations to improve the efficiency, effectiveness,
and profitability of their operations. When desired, we also help correct
deficiencies and verify the results.
In some cases a client doesn’t possess the essential internal skills to
conduct an operational review or management audit or it prefers the objectivity
of an independent, external firm. Our services are designed to assess
performance, identify opportunities for improvement, and develop recommendations
for corrective action. More specifically, the scope of our management audits
include: identifying problem areas, causes, and alternatives for improvement;
locating opportunities for eliminating waste and inefficiency for cost
reduction; income improvement; identifying undefined organizational goals,
objectives, policies, and procedures; evaluating the organizational and safety
culture; identifying criteria for measuring the achievement of organizational
goals and objectives; recommending improvements in policies, procedures, and the
organizational structure; providing checks on performance of individuals and
organizational units; determining the existence of unauthorized, fraudulent, or
otherwise irregular acts; reviewing regulatory compliance against legal
requirements and organizational goals, objectives, policies, and procedures;
assessing management information systems; identifying potential future trouble
spots; identifying ways to improve communication in all directions, particularly
in cross-functional situations; identifying specific safety problems; and
providing an independent, objective evaluation of operations. MDI also conducts
prudence reviews for the regulators of electric utilities.
MDI also works with its clients in resolving human performance and related
organizational and management issues with the goal of achieving change through
results in the shortest possible time. We focus primarily on human performance
as it relates to planning, organizing, scheduling, staffing, directing, and
controlling work.
MDI has developed specific measures for these characteristics. They can be used to determine the extent to which each characteristic has been instilled in the behaviors of plant personnel. This is done through the conduct of: interviews; surveys; review of documentation, and work observation.
An orientation to safety first, quality
second, and production third, always in that order; cost containment program
which emphasizes nuclear safety over production and cost; evidence of
conservative decision making by management and defense in depth.
Individuals maintain a questioning attitude; expect the unexpected; good
planning evident for contingencies or emergencies. Design and licensing
bases maintained according to the operating license; sound configuration
management and control program. Procedures upgraded in a timely manner and
followed. Management recognizes or rewards the required and appropriate
behaviors or performance of individuals and groups. Sound program for
problem identification through resolution, and root cause determination
resulting in an effective corrective action process. Individuals identify,
report to management and accept ownership for problems; problems are
"killed dead"; few, if any, repetitive problems. Sound oversight
of nuclear operations, primarily in the areas of QA/QC, but also by the various
internal and external oversight entities. No willingness to live with
problems evident as indicated by large task backlogs (both Maintenance and
Engineering) and excessive "work arounds"; no problems of a long
standing nature. Attention to detail regarding promised improvement
programs and commitments made to the regulator. Total quality practiced
with excellence in operations and continuous improvement evident.
Effective employee concerns program with management commitment evident; open
problem solving culture evident; no "kill the messenger" mentality.
Effective and efficient work control programs, primarily in their utilization by
operations, maintenance and engineering. No hidden culture or leadership
saying one thing and doing another. Long-term, solid solutions to problems
over short-term, quick fixes. Consistency in communicating the appropriate
management philosophy for the business until it is understood at all levels in
the organization. Decisions based upon facts, not half truths or rumors.
Emphasis on individual accountability. Emphasis on direct management
involvement, management by walking around, and supervision and coaching with
routine feedback provided to individuals on their performance. Attention
to people concerns and human relations issues; timely conflict resolution.
Emphasis on team work or working together. Job security and reward based
upon performance and results. Emphasis on smart work over busy work.
Emphasis on participatory management. Pro-active over reactive response
mode on problem resolution; little or no evidence of crisis management and being
externally driven. Open, honest, and cooperative working relationship with
regulators. Emphasis on individual accountability with the authority to
match responsibility. Work simplification or process improvement over
needless complication and duplication. Organization stability; carefully
planned and sequenced change to minimize disruptions to people. Risk
taking, not risk avoidance, but accepting responsibility and never proceeding in
the face of uncertainty. Emphasis on improving communications in all
directions, and controlling rumors and misinformation. Highly skilled
management team with varied nuclear plant operating experience. Clear
mission, vision, values, standards or expectations communicated and understood,
and translated into action plants down to the worker level. People are
generally happy and there is evidence of good morale. Emphasis is on
career planning and developing the skills of people. Turnover is low.
High performance standards are evident. Office politics are discouraged
and kept to a minimum. Individuals are not "burned out" from
excessive overtime. Sound self-assessment program evident. There is a healthy
level of tension or stress. There is little, if any, evidence of a "we or
they" attitude between employees and their leaders. There are recognized
heroes, leaders or role models who lead by example. No evidence of excessive
arrogance or complacency.
Nuclear Safety Culture Assessment
The culture of most organizations consists of
the shared perceptions, traditions, values, practices, goals, and socialization
processes of an organization’s dominant group or membership. The cultural
attributes of the dominant group in an organization are what we perceive to be
its overall personality or culture.
The dominant-group perception of an organizations’ personality or culture is
adequate for most organizations but not for nuclear power plants and not for
other safety conscious industries. Since a single person can greatly influence
the safety level achieved at a nuclear power plant, it is important to include
each and every individual in our concept of culture. This 100 percent cultural
inclusion standard is what makes nuclear safety culture so difficult to
understand and to achieve.
The nuclear plant organizational culture forms over the years, and the nature of
that culture becomes part of its reputation. The culture, and, thus, reputation
can also change with each change in personnel and each change in plant
management policy. It reflects the management philosophy, style, attitudes,
decision making, and business strategy.
When considering a plant’s nuclear safety culture, the culture and plant
reputation also reflect each individual worker’s reactions to management.
Thus, it is important to realize each nuclear plant manager and worker
constantly impacts the culture, the impacted culture becomes the plant
reputation, and the plant reputation either leads to more or less regulation,
which will then impact the business strategy. The "top-down" approach
to nuclear plant management simply does not have the power to ensure each
manager and worker has the right nuclear safety culture impacts.
Thus, under traditional management, each individual has the power to cause a
plant to become a nonviable business or, at least, inefficient and largely
dysfunctional. An organization’s culture becomes of highest concern when it
cause the organization to be dysfunctional relative to its basic mission.
Changes are needed, and additional concurrent changes may be required when
markets and competition change. Also, an additional set of upgrades or changes
may be needed to improve regulatory compliance, services, and the quality of
service, over and above culture-related changes.
While many people support the cultural notion of worker importance and are
willing to listen to calls to use bottom-up management to achieve excellence,
implementation is difficult. Each individual must be respected and empowered,
concepts directly contrary to traditional top-down management thinking. We
understand the importance of bottom-up management, but we continue to try to
motivate workers and create excellence using he easier top-down methods.
At a nuclear plant, the cultural attributes or characteristics and requirements
for the construction phase are different from those in the plant testing,
startup, and long-term operational phases. If the appropriate cultural
transformation doesn’t occur between phases, the organization can become
dysfunctional. The operating phase requires a different management or leadership
style.
Some organizations have a "hidden" culture. In such a culture, the
leadership may state one thing in plant procedures and documentation, but
managers or employees practice something totally different in reality. It is the
responsibility of the CEO and Board of Directors to establish, monitor, and
change the culture of the organization, including any undesirable
"hidden" culture that may be present.
Safety culture represents the degree to which people in an organization take
responsibility for their actions and the consequences of them on safety, A good
safety culture means a worker environment where a good safety ethic permeates
the organization from top to bottom and peoples’ behavior focuses on accident
prevention through critical self-assessment, pro-active identification of
management and technical problems, and effective problem resolution before they
become crises. The basic root causes of safety problems, particularly at nuclear
plants, have often be tracked back to inappropriate decisions by management.
The culture of an organization is critical to its success and survival. To grow
and be successful, many organizations have had to change their culture. What
worked in the past no longer does.
MDI helps clients by determining: the threats, strengths and weaknesses
(opportunities for improvement) of their existing culture. We answer these
important questions:
What kind of organizational culture do you currently have?
What kind of organizational culture do you need or want?
What specific actions must be taken in all functional areas in order to change
your organizational and safety culture from what it is to what you want or need
it to be?
What is the evaluation strategy for determining your progress in making the
desired cultural changes?
We also help clients make organizational and nuclear safety culture improvements
through mentoring… teaching and coaching members of the management team. This
mentoring includes a wide range of important topics such as: promoting effective
communications, identifying and overcoming obstacles to plant profitability
(expediting),
motivating personal excellence, handling regulatory interface, accountability,
accepting ownership of problems, paying attention to detail, professionalism,
conservative decision making, questioning attitude, delegation of work, work
control and feedback, and reward systems.
MDI will do an audit to record all of the factors that make up your company’s
culture, and then prepare a culture management plan to get you from where you
are to where you want to be in the shortest time possible.
Management Diagnostics, Inc.
P.O. Box 240, Port Royal, PA 17082-0240
Tel: 717-527-4399 Fax: 717-527-4398