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Identifying the Critical Work—Management of Change 99

An equally high level of understanding and commitment is clearly feasi-
ble in the workplace environment where individuals earn their living.
Training, communications, performance measures, feedback, reinforcement
systems, and understanding of objectives are particularly critical in achieving
the desired level of understanding, commitment, and effectiveness throughout
the organization. I have become a true believer in the power of committed in-
dividuals and teams to make a real difference in workplace safety.

Planned Changes

A Texas city recently announced that it was refunding a Wal-Mart store
for an overcharge of $283,000 on its water bill. The city had replaced the
store’s water meter several years earlier with a new meter that measures the
volume of water usage in hundreds of gallons instead of in thousands of gal-
lons like the old meter. The new meter functioned as designed, but after its
installation the city failed to change a factor in the computer system used to
calculate water bills. The system continued to assume that the number en-
tered from the meter was in thousands of gallons rather than hundreds, re-
sulting in the store being charged for a thousand gallons of water for every
1
hundred gallons used. How fortunate that this failure to manage change did
not involve life-threatening or other similar consequence.
In a large organization, the frequency of planned changes can be high,
with changes initiated at many different organizational levels. Even though
improvement is the ultimate objective of most planned changes, some have
the potential for unintended consequences not readily apparent. Introducing
a new raw material into a chemical manufacturing process to reduce costs
may also result in an unintended increase in process piping corrosion.
Similarly, air bags installed in vehicles to protect passengers have been
found to be potentially hazardous for the elderly and small children.
Specific methods for evaluating planned changes prior to implementa-
tion may vary with the size and type of organization. However, each of these
methods has a common objective—to ensure that planned changes involv-
ing equipment, facilities, procedures, and processes do not adversely affect
employees, the public, or the environment. Systems to effectively manage
change generally require documentation of the planned change, a review by
appropriate technical experts and managers, pre-startup inspections of
changes involving facilities or equipment, development or modification of
procedures to address the changes, and employee training on the revised
procedures.
Several excellent publications are available that focus on effective man-
agement of planned changes. The American Chemical Society’s publication