This working lark is quite tiring at time. It's been a week of good progress overall, with some positive developments within the team, building towards where we need to be in terms of production, but the cost in terms of physical and mental exhaustion is significant. It is interesting that, from the perspective of managing a production process it feels like the harder you drive efficiencies and the more progress you make, the more you can see clearly how much is left to be done. And there is a lot. In the drive for a perfect set of processes there will inevitably be the discovery of new and interesting bottlenecks that have to be understood and opened out to smooth the flow of projects from inception to completion. Being responsible for the overall system brings both benefits and drawbacks, but one of the biggest frustrations is in having to rely on external factors.
I guess one of the indicators that perfection is being reached will be the point at which external factors have only a minor impact and one which is easily resolved. Once we reach a point that we are not having to resort to fire-fighting every time something beyond our control happens, we will be able to become truly proactive rather than having to temper that with a good dose of reactivity. I guess a big part of this process is in understanding the processes themselves and how they inter-relate and how they influence one another. I think you could liken it to the difference in a manufacturing process between "just in time" production techniques and the rather more troublesome states of "not quite in time" and "not at the right time at all" which at times seem to be where we are currently at.
Only time, and effort and better awareness and responsiveness and understanding will bring the benefits of not having to be constantly flat out and under tremendous pressure, and it is a case of ploughing through the tough times as best you can whilst still maintaing a steely gaze on the prize and the route to it without being distracted and sidetracked dealing with incidentals. Perhaps this is why many of the very best business leaders are sociopathic by inclination.......
I guess one of the indicators that perfection is being reached will be the point at which external factors have only a minor impact and one which is easily resolved. Once we reach a point that we are not having to resort to fire-fighting every time something beyond our control happens, we will be able to become truly proactive rather than having to temper that with a good dose of reactivity. I guess a big part of this process is in understanding the processes themselves and how they inter-relate and how they influence one another. I think you could liken it to the difference in a manufacturing process between "just in time" production techniques and the rather more troublesome states of "not quite in time" and "not at the right time at all" which at times seem to be where we are currently at.
Only time, and effort and better awareness and responsiveness and understanding will bring the benefits of not having to be constantly flat out and under tremendous pressure, and it is a case of ploughing through the tough times as best you can whilst still maintaing a steely gaze on the prize and the route to it without being distracted and sidetracked dealing with incidentals. Perhaps this is why many of the very best business leaders are sociopathic by inclination.......
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