I have been fortunate to have worked in many different industries and have experienced a variety of complex operational environments. Twenty years later, It’s interesting to reflect on the comparison between two: military and banking.
To start with the similarities, both have multiple checklists, strict processes and are heavily reliant on people with a focus on success metrics. However, in the military, you are trained to look out for one another. One missed check or cut corner, could cost the lives of one of your “mates”, someone that you have most likely trained, worked and socialised with—someone you have built a strong bond with and would not let down.
On the contrary, if you make a mistake in the bank, the worst that could happen is that you lose your job. For some, this is considerable distress, but for others, it may not be as daunting. So, how do we change this and enable operations to take a more military approach? I don’t mean it in a life or death manner, but one where you take full responsibility, work as a team and do everything you can to get it right the first time- every time.
When I reflect on my time in the air, we all had our role before every flight; the pilots would check what aircraft we had, talk to the ground engineers and check fuel capacity. The air engineers would join the pilots to check that nothing was overlooked. The navigator’s jobs would sometimes overlap with the pilots: they would check the mission, the required route, and the weather. The navigators would plan the itinerary, check diversion airfields and fuels needed. On completion of the pre-flight planning, a pre-flight briefing is held with the entire 13-man crew. Everyone had a part, and there was always cross-checking of all calculations to ensure nothing was overlooked. Checks on checks! It was essential to ensure we had the same number of take-offs to landings and a successful mission, and only then would we approach the aircraft when the next set of checks began.
At the bank, planning starts first thing in the morning. After checking the work that has come in, plans are set for the day, and the leaders ensure that the workload can be covered/prioritised. Next, the “pre-flight” or more commonly known as, “morning stand-ups” are performed. We know it should happen, but is it vital? In the military, without the pre-flight, nobody knew what anyone else was doing. We worked as a team for 8 hours in the air, and the most crucial part of our mission — whether the mission is operational or in training — is that every member of the team wanted to be successful. Team camaraderie was an indispensable component to success.
Without the stand-ups, how do you know that everyone in the team is ok and understands what they need to do? After creating our processes and checklists, does anyone even follow them? All too often complacency can seep into the workplace, including experienced team members who know their roles “like the back of their hand.”
Even for those most experienced, checklists are a vital operational tool for all highly functioning areas. If it were your money, application, or claim would you be content to know that someone had cut corners or hadn’t followed the proper process? A streamlined process ensures that the fastest and best outcome is achieved. However, when you start to cut corners, errors and delays begin to creep in, and the customer experience is affected. How do we teach our operational teams to think more like military colleagues? How do we see these transactions as a necessity in life with real-life consequences? How can we create a more team-focused culture?
How do we create #OperationalExcellence?
About the Author
Davina Brown
Davina is a most experienced and highly energised operational improvement leader and coach offering that rare love of problem-solving with an innovative thinking style and an agile approach to transformation. Her experience spans from frontline productivity and cost improvement to strategic business planning. An accomplished thought leader with excellent problem solving, communication and negotiation abilities.
Davina has extensive experience working with businesses to understand their key issues, identify performance improvement opportunities and effectively realise benefits from complex change projects. She is particularly interested in people strategies relating to transformational and disruptive change, which all organisations are now experiencing.
Davina is passionate about building high performing collaborative teams; to grow their talent, reach their goals and produce sustainable outputs and long-term development.
Specialties include:
• Transformational business improvement
• Operational efficiency and productivity improvement
• Project and Program Management
• Leadership
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