Monday of the week before last I began with identifying Critical Conditions for work areas and sections obtained from computerised generated observation checklists of occupations and task procedures; which were previously documented and captured for Wessels mine. This activity took Mxolisi and me about two days to complete. Then we were to populate the five most critical conditions per corresponding work area on the BBS software. The main purpose for identifying the most critical conditions per section was to check for any irregularities that may have occurred during the first time population done on the BBS software. The BHP Billiton software also known as RAAS system was very resourceful, from which we expoted the previously observed data on critical tasks per occupation at Wessels Mine.
However, due to the employee teams’ training and PACT agreements that had to be completed before Friday; the work was left at the stage ready to be populated. A team made up of Phillip, Mxolisi and I took off for Mamatwan to give BBS training and to make team PACT agreements.
As a team we experienced a challenge during the Training presentations and PACT agreement formation due to language barrier. For some of the lower-level employees attending e.g. cleaners could not understand either English or Afrikaans, but only Setswana. It was later agreed that I should translate from both English and Afrikaans into Tswana for the Training presentations and PACT agreement formations .
This also led to later translating the perception survey questionnaire (though it was agreed among the team that it was important to run quality check on it by giving it to the Tswana speaking employees members to guarantee its effectiveness or lack thereof prior using it). For since feedback from perception surveys indicated a lack of understanding for some lower-level employees, this encouraged the translation further, by the situation presenting our initiative an opportunity to effectively solve the language barrier challenge we experienced. Though the Tswana language translation during presentations had slight differences from the local Tswana language; the employees appreciated the effort. Their faces got lit-up with brightness as a sign that eventually they understood the message from presentations.
The week ended on Friday, when we all from IRCA attended a training observation for Wessels’ Steering team which was presented by Luan Luus. It is always a marvel to see a senior member of the team demonstrating how best BBS presentations should be done. The manner in which he did his presentation caught my attention. From the introduction to the conclusion, one thing about steering team presentations that comes up clearly in my mind is the intrinsic motivational coaching made up of the following:
a) Corrective coaching, which applies to peer-to-peer correction when a team member knows the procedure for a critical task; yet however misses some important steps that completes it competently and successful. This is provided by the peer; a member of the team chosen to lead PACT agreement observations during the particular week as a coach and assisted by the rest of the team members.
b) Developmental coaching, which applies when a team member has no clue how each step of the procedure for the critical task s/he is doing fits into an orderly sequence to complete the task. Show and tell is the technique behind this kind of coaching.
c) Safe-behaviour reinforcement coaching, which applies when any team member is caught doing the right value enshrined within the team’s PACT agreement as an individual. This is provided by all team members in cooperation with their coach.
Once a week, normally in the mornings the PACT agreement is reinforced, reading it aloud by all members of the steering team; pledging their uncompromising commitment to its norms and values alike. Followed by a critical task procedure chosen for safe-behaviour modelling by a maximum of two members, to see if they do it correctly both of them. In cases where the difference is apparent, the coach for that week would go through the procedure each step at a time in order to bring all the other steering-team members to attentively identify the missing steps.
While Luan hammered his presentation home so hard, a picture of an employee was stuck in a toilet seat designed stand to scorn employees like her who makes mistakes in their work. For some reason, one person sneaked in to fetch the toilet seat, written these words, “******of the week”.
I think the visible felt leadership is a definitely one of BBS process tools to bring at-risk and non-caring behaviours into safe and caring ones. None other than the relevant supervisors and management team members are responsible to use all three or one of the coaching techniques as time presents an opportunity. The BBS process is a way to bring about intrinsic motivation through visible-felt leadership.
It is a journey through which both top-management and the employees are learning to travel together, in order to incorporate safe and caring behaviour in their day-to-day work activities.
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