Page 88 - Serious Incident Prevention How to Achieve and Sustain Accident-Free Operations in Your Plant or Company

CH06pp060-67 4/10/02 12:50 PM Page 66

66 Serious Incident Prevention

recommendation for management. Such an approach is at best a time-con-
suming process with many pitfalls. A more productive approach is for the
team to narrow the list of 25 to the critical few items that have the most po-
tential benefit before proceeding to more detailed discussions. The Pareto
voting process is an ideal method to accomplish this objective. Since there
are 25 items listed, Pareto voting rules allow each participant to have 5 votes
(20 percent of 25). Figure 6-2 presents the tabulation of votes after each par-
ticipant has stated his or her top five selections.
My experience has been that this systematic process quickly narrows
the list of potential actions down to a manageable number of items that
clearly have the most support from team members. These critical few items
can then be discussed and researched in more detail by the team.
Since the process is an open one and viewed as fair and equitable by
team members, it greatly facilitates the achievement of both quality solu-
tions and the consensus support of team members. In this case, the voting
process has identified three potential reinforcement actions for facility em-
ployees with broad support from team members: (1) a company picnic with
families invited; (2) a $30 gift certificate for each employee to a local
restaurant; and (3) the choice of a $30 item to be selected by each employee
from a catalog. After detailed discussion of the three potential actions, the
team’s ultimate recommendation is for the facility manager to mail a per-
sonal letter of congratulations to the home of each employee with a $30 gift
certificate to a local restaurant enclosed.
One variation of the Pareto voting technique is to provide each partici-
pant with 100 points to spend, rather than individual votes. In using the
“100-points method,” it is best to provide some up-front rules of play to en-
sure fairness. For example, rules may be established requiring participants
to spend no less than 20 points on any single item with a maximum limit of
no more than 50 points on any one item. An advantage of the 100-points
method is that it provides a more accurate quantification of the differences
in team member support for potential choices.

The Right Team Atmosphere

The right team atmosphere as described by Figure 6-3, sets the stage for
teams to achieve greatness. Such an atmosphere results in an environment
that team members find to be challenging and a source of positive rein-
forcement. It is an environment where members feel free to speak their
minds, and diversity in backgrounds and areas of expertise is valued.
Leaders of effective teams recognize the importance of team synergy and
ownership.