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Communicating with FINESSE

This series focuses on the approaches and tools to communicate more effectively with senior decision-makers and peer professionals. We’ll cover Framing the problem, Illustrations, Noise reduction, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics – plus some pointers on how to be a more effective facilitator.

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Communicating PFAS (Forever Chemicals)

Communicating PFAS (Forever Chemicals)

The United States Conference of Mayors created a PFAS Toolkit. The information and resources included provides insights into several key aspects that local governments and businesses should be aware of in relation to PFAS (forever chemicals). Key parts of the PFAS Toolkit are presented here.

PFOA and PFOS in Drinking Water: Overview

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of chemicals developed in the 1940s that have been used in a variety of consumer products like semiconductors, cellphones, textiles, renewable energy, and medical devices. Two chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are no longer produced today, but they were once used in a wide variety of industries. Today, trace levels of PFOA and PFOS can be measured in water, air, soil, animals, humans, and some consumer products globally. PFOA/PFOS are persistent in the environment, and some studies suggest that long-term exposure at increased doses may lead to negative health impacts. [Read more…]

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Communicating Reliability Starts with Being Able to Quickly Define It

Communicating Reliability Starts with Being Able to Quickly Define It

Reliability is one of the most overworked and misunderstood words in the world of facilities and infrastructure. Reliability is also one of the most powerful and important words. Properly evaluating and communicating reliability resolves risk, safety, quality, compliance, and human performance. Reliability also frames a powerful and effective systems approach instead of leaving gaps by cobbling together individual assets and components. Effectively communicating reliability starts with being able to quickly define it, [Read more…]

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Five Helpful Tips for Leading Reliability Assessments

Five Helpful Tips for Leading Reliability Assessments

Assessing critical infrastructure and facilities is essential for maintaining performance as systems age. Mid-level engineers are frequently tasked with leading a reliability assessment with limited training. The good news is that you don’t need to be a subject matter expert to be successful. But you do need a structured collaboration approach and a mental model to help you through the tough spots. Success rises and falls based on the quality of the facilitation. [Read more…]

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How Building Better Business Cases Improves Reliability

A Business Case Evaluation (BCE) is a decision-making tool that assists in making value-based funding decisions. Business cases are developed in the early capital and operating budget planning cycles as a standardized and systematic process to analyze the benefits and costs of various options to solve an identified problem or a cost-saving/revenue-generating idea. A big part of building better business cases is analyzing the system over the long term for monetary and non-monetary aspects. Building better business cases improves reliability and performance by formally documenting “needs” versus “wants.” Business cases serve as a powerful communication tool at all levels of an organization. [Read more…]

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The Rising Tide of Young Professionals: Overcoming Intergenerational Communication Gaps in Reliability Engineering

Young professionals (under 40) will make up over half of the workforce by the end of next year. That means communication between young professionals and experienced professionals is essential for workplace success. Younger professionals dominating the workforce means that reliability engineering is undergoing formative changes. These are a few general thoughts on the impacts of the changing workforce and five ways it will impact reliability engineering.

Some General Thoughts on Intergenerational Communication

Here are a few thoughts on intergenerational communication from my recent interview on The YoPro Know Podcast.

On Using Social Media

Companies are generally awkward with social media and how to reach the younger generations. On the one hand, companies know to try. On the other hand, the HR people and some of the technical managers are really bad at it.

Companies should do a gap analysis on reaching young professionals. There are inadvertent things companies do that really cause them to stumble inadvertently. Most companies do too much of a cookie-cutter approach to recruiting and retention.

[Read more…]

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Communicating Asset Management: Four Powerful Articles Improve Success

Communicating with FINESSE and JD Solomon Inc. are jointly focusing on asset management in early 2024. The articles include how to facilitate asset management plans, ways that asset management plans fail, how organizational context impacts implementation, and how to communicate asset management to senior management. These powerful articles will improve your asset management success!

5 Tips to Improve Facilitation of Asset Management Plans

Facilitation is a structured session(s) in which the meeting leader (the facilitator) guides the participants through a series of predefined steps to arrive at a result that is created, understood, and accepted by all participants. Not all asset managers are great facilitators.

These are my Top 5 tips for facilitating asset management plans:

5. Get the Right People Involved

4. Don’t Overthink the Gap Analysis Tool

3. Create a Charter

2. Establish Organizational Context

[Read more…]

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Re-Introducing Communicating with FINESSE on Accendo Reliability

We launched Communicating with FINESSE two years ago to help technically trained professionals become better communicators and facilitators. Breaking it away from JD Solomon, Inc. as a not-for-profit organization was a first step in building a broader community to execute the mission. We have done that in many ways, although such endeavors never go as fast as you first imagine. Today, we summarize seven key concepts of Communicating with FINESSE.

#1 Systems Thinking Is the Foundation

The good news for most of us is that communication is indeed a system. Even better, as technical professionals, we are blessed with the reality of what that means. The next time you serve as a trusted advisor, remember that effective communication requires systems thinking.

Why Systems Thinking Produces Effective Communication – Accendo Reliability

[Read more…]

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Two Books Help Reliability Engineers Communicate and Collaborate

Two Books Help Reliability Engineers Communicate and Collaborate

These two books help technical professionals improve their communication and collaboration skills. Employers seek soft skills across the many market sectors to complement the technical skills they assume are present. These two groundbreaking books provide the fuel to propel your career.

Facilitating with FINESSE

The results of our work often depend on the quality of the facilitation. Facilitating with FINESSE addresses ways to improve interactive, peer-to-peer communication when working in teams.

The book provides the techniques to facilitate ten different technical applications from good to great. [Read more…]

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The #1 Thing That Changes Your Life and Propels Your Career

The #1 Thing That Changes Your Life and Propels Your Career

Effective communication is the one thing that makes your life better, more fulfilling, and more rewarding. That is equally true in life and your career. Give the soft skills and communication, in particular, the same emphasis that you give your hard skills. Soft skills are the difference makers.

My Religion is the Most Important

I agree with technical professionals who counter with this observation. We then agree that one of the first things they teach you in any church is how to pray.

My Family is the Most Important

Again, I agree with technical professionals who cite this one. Then we agree that every family has a fair number of poor relationships that could be improved if we all communicated more effectively.

[Read more…]

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Why Being a Successful Reliability Engineer Requires a Communication Approach

Why Being a Successful Reliability Engineer Requires a Communication Approach

Philosophies are for philosophers, theories are for academics, and approaches are for practitioners. That’s why when I go into an industrial plant, I ask the maintenance supervisor about their maintenance approaches, not their theories on maintenance. And the same can be said with business leaders. When I talk to executives, I don’t ask about their philosophy on running their business. I ask them to describe their approaches to running their business.

FINESSE as a Communication Approach

FINESSE is a cause-and-effect approach for effective communication with high levels of complexity and uncertainty. Said another way, FINESSE is an approach used for big, strategic decisions that take months or years to make. FINESSE facilitates the memory of effective communication: Frame, Illustrate, Noise, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics.

[Read more…]

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So, You Want Better Team Dynamics and Collaboration? Try CATER

So, You Want Better Team Dynamics and Collaboration? Try CATER

 

The mental model CATER will help you recall the five techniques that improve collaboration and team dynamics. CATER does two big things necessary for all greatly facilitated sessions. The mental model creates comparable knowledge among participants and opens feedback channels for successful collaboration.

CATER

CATER is a mental model that identifies the core components of a system and helps you wrap your head around how the components interact. [Read more…]

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Communication and Facilitation Secrets for Reliability Engineers

Communication and Facilitation Secrets for Reliability Engineers

Things get a little dirty when humans get involved. In any system, human involvement can sometimes cause delays or issues. Here are some effective communication and facilitation secrets for reliability engineers.

Communication

Communication is the exchange of information from one person to another.

Communication requires a sender, a receiver, and a message. Technical professionals (sender) usually believe the decision maker (receiver) cannot understand the message because the decision maker is not as smart as they are. Most of the time, the lack of understanding comes from the noise the sender generates. The burden of effective communication is on the send (technical professional), not the receiver (decision maker).

[Read more…]

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What is the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram?

What is the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram?

FINESSE is a fishbone diagram, a mnemonic, and a mental model. FINESSE stands for Frame, Illustrate, Noise Reduction, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics. Systems thinking as applied to effective communication is the cornerstone of FINESSE. We’ll briefly explore these aspects in this article.

FINESSE as a Mnemonic

Acronyms are a subset of mnemonics that use the first letter of each word to create another memorable word. FINESSE is both an acronym and a mnemonic. [Read more…]

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Why Systems Thinking Produces Effective Communication

Why Systems Thinking Produces Effective Communication

Have you ever heard of a communication system? You likely have, but you’ve probably not considered what that means. The good news for most of us is that communication is indeed a system. Even better, as technical professionals, we are blessed with the reality of what that means. The next time you serve as a trusted advisor, remember that effective communication requires systems thinking.

System Defined

A system is a collection of interrelated or interacting parts, each of which can affect the behavior or outcomes of the whole. One defining property of a system is that it provides a function that none of the parts can accomplish by themselves. The corollary is that a system is not the sum of the parts but the product of their interactions.

Simple examples include the mechanical advantage gained from a system of pulleys or a gearbox. Sports teams or work units are examples of human systems. Systems are essential aspects of our everyday lives.

.

[Read more…]

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These 5 Writing Tips Make Reliability Reports ‘Easier to Read’

These 5 Writing Tips Make Reliability Reports ‘Easier to Read’

The “Easier to Read’ series on writing tips helps reliability professionals make their reports easier to understand. The series heps technical professionals gain an understanding of how social media has impacted traditional writing. In some cases, the shift is obviously toward shorter, direct styles. In other cases, the shift returns to good practices that we have simply forgotten. Either way, the shift is real and impacts all of our reliability reports and other forms of technical communication.

What Inspired the “Easier to Read’ Series

Most of my inspiration comes from the people and projects we encounter through our consulting practice, JD Solomon Solutions. Such was the case here.

A few months ago, one of the technical professionals on a reliability assessment project commented that I posted a lot of articles on social media. He asked what I got out of it, and I replied that one of the things was improved writing. I suggested he give it a try. The idea for the series came when he asked me to give him some tips on how to get started.

[Read more…]