5.2 Role Models Defined

Role models are people within organization who exhibit traits that appeal to us and which we can apply to how we conduct our business. These role models are usually at or near the top of the organization; they have been successful within the organizational culture. They demonstrate a successful behavior style within the business culture, one that we feel comfortable adopting as our own.

Let us discuss further the three key components of a role model.

Top of the organization

Most people who are used as role models are at or near the top of the organization’s hierarchy. These are the people we view as the most successful. They are the managers of our departments, the leaders, the ones who set the direction for the business. The key word here is success. Because those at the top are perceived as successful, we tend to use them as role models.

There is another reason why we often choose our leaders as role models. They set the expectations of what we are to accomplish at work. In most cases, these expectations are in line with their expectations for themselves. As a result, we emulate and assume their style because we are all working towards the same end. In addition, failure to achieve these expectations usually has severe negative outcomes. Therefore, modeling the manager to achieve the desired results makes sense.

Successful within the organization’s culture

The second component is that role models are not just successful, but they are successful within the existing culture. This is very important. Think about how I used my former managers as role models. In each case, they were successful in their respective cultures and, therefore, were good models for me. But what if the situations were reversed? Suppose the manager who was reliability focused was placed in a reactive maintenance work culture. How well do you think he would have succeeded? Who would have wanted him as a role model?

A style we can identify with and adopt

Even those some people are successful within the culture, there still may be reasons why we would not choose them as role models. If we truly want to use people as role models, we need not only to view them as successful, but also to feel comfortable adopting their style of management.

Suppose you are the type of person who firmly believes that all people within the workforce have unique value and should be treated with dignity and respect. Further suppose that your manager (who is a successful part of the organization) has achieved this position by acting and behaving in exactly the opposite fashion. Could you accept this person as a role model? Your answer would probably be no. Although you want to behave in a manner that will provide you a successful career, the behavior of your manager could never fit your personal beliefs and manner of conducting business.

5.3 Strategic or Tactical Alignment

From my previous examples, you can see that role models are aligned with the culture in which they exist. Reactive role models succeed in reactive cultures as do proactive role models in proactive cultures. Role models are also strategically or tactically focused regarding how they conduct their work and how they support change within the work place. Furthermore, their work is often either short term or long term. This comparison can be best viewed in the quad diagram shown in Figure 5-1.

In this figure the type of role models (strategically or tactically focused) is depicted on the y-axis. Their focus – short or long term – is shown on the x-axis. In this way, we can represent the different components and discuss the role each plays in changing an organization’s work culture.

Let us review this quad diagram from the perspective that we want to change from a reactive to a proactive, reliability-focused culture.

Short Term – Tactical (Quadrant 1)

Role models who fit Quadrant 1 work on the front line; they are viewed by their peers as the best at what they do. They typically have a day-to-day tactical focus and know how to get things done no matter what problems confront them. In most plants, these role models are the best at firefighting and reactive repair. However, we want to change to a more reliability-based model, and they need to change their focus. This can be accomplished, but not without difficulty. As you learned in Chapter 4, the organization’s values must be reliability centered. You will also see in Chapters 6 and 7 how rites and rituals as well as the cultural infrastructure can make this change a difficult task.

Long Term – Tactical (Quadrant 2)

The role models found in Quadrant 2 do day-to-day work, but are more focused on longer-term goals. Typically these are the field superintendents – the people who manage the foremen and field work crews and who have the responsibility for leading their portion of the organization.

Short Term – Strategic (Quadrant 3)

The role models in Quadrant 3 support the line organization in a staff capacity. They include planners and schedulers, engineers, and possibly even consultants hired to implement reliability improvement processes. They are not directly involved in the day-to-day effort, but their work direct influences it. They keep the strategic initiatives of the organization in front of those immersed in the day-today work activity.

Long Term – Strategic (Quadrant 4)

Quadrant 4 is filled by the organization’s managers. Their responsibility focuses on the longer term strategic goals and with those in the other quadrants to accomplish them. Figure 5-2 shows how the quadrants described fit with the Goal Achievement Model, as discussed in Chapter 3. The quadrants from Figure 5-1 are also shown in brackets.

Different groups and people select their role models based on where they work within the organization. Those on the line may select short term models, either tactical or strategic, because the majority if not all of their work is short term in nature. If you were a foreman or mechanical engineer trying to implement a preventive maintenance program in the field, you would probably look for a role model in quad 1 or 3. These people are the ones who have been successful getting similar things accomplished within the culture.

Conversely, if you were trying to develop a strategic direction for the business such as self-directed work teams at the maintenance level, you would select role models who were successful in quads 2 and 4. These individuals have been successful in developing and implementing a vision and supporting goals for cultural change.