VIEW POINT / PERSPECTIVES
TAM SIN TWE D DE LL
N ICK FOX
EXPERTISE ARMOUR
THE KEY TO AUDIT SUCCESS
TAMSIN TWEDDELL is a leadership and learning coach, and former Soft Landings expert
NICK FOX is deputy director of capital projects and estate management at North Bristol NHS Trust
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’ve noticed a common theme among the engineering leaders I coach. You need to build a lot of knowledge to be an engineer, and getting things wrong can have serious consequences. So being a ‘knower’ becomes second nature, and being seen as a knower can be core to your professional persona. The trouble is, it can sometimes inhibit the development of the people you lead. Instead, leaders need to model that it is OK not to know something, and to get things wrong occasionally. Otherwise, your colleagues will not feel comfortable admitting to what they don’t know and may try to conceal their mistakes. This hinders growth. I am coaching an emerging leader who wants to bring out the best in the people she manages. She feels that they don’t share much with her and are reluctant to ask questions when they are having difficulties. She assumed that to maintain
her authority she needed to have all the answers to their questions. She had also told me she had a strong relationship with her own line manager – she could tell him anything, including personal issues. He would share his challenges and struggles with her, which made him seem more human and approachable. Then there was a light bulb moment. She realised that sharing her own uncertainty with her team would not lead to a loss of respect, but might make her more approachable, permitting them to share their own struggles. Social psychologist Brene Brown describes the ways we unconsciously hide our vulnerability as “armour”. Expertise can be used as armour against vulnerability and we may feel the need to be right all the time. By having the courage to admit to what we are unsure about, we can model curiosity and being a learner, encouraging others to do the same.
Expertise can be used as armour against vulnerability and we may feel the need to be right all the time 40
read an interesting post recently about how a ‘dip sample’ type approach to compliance auditing gives adequate assurance. Except it really doesn’t. Auditing by task, asset, building and site is my chosen technique. Compliance is one of the main challenges for facilities professionals, but I refuse to believe it’s complicated – it normally comes down to process, systems and behaviours. I have written before about a measurement for ‘compliance’. What does it even mean because when do you become compliant? I break compliance into two parts: ● Engineering activity compliance – have you done what the law says you need to do from a maintenance perspective? ● Management-type requirements – including permits to work, ladder registers, working at height, COSHH and risk assessments. Clients often take audits verbatim. If they are not comprehensive enough you often have gaps and leave clients with a false sense of compliance. I always ask clients: to what level do you want me to prove compliance? I ask you all to consider the ‘audit golden thread’:
● Audit to determine the right tasks are taking place; ● Audit so the CAFM system contains these tasks on the right frequencies in the right buildings; ● Audit to ensure evidence can be provided to support completion of tasks at asset level, not just task level; ● Audit to ensure all assets are linked to PPM regimes;
Compliance is one of the main challenges for FMs, but I refuse to believe it’s complicated ● Audit so the person who does the work has the right credentials; and ● Audit so the company who you employ has the right credentials. This is the only way to prove compliance at the level I believe it should be evidenced at, but I rarely see this level of assurance being sought. ‘Dip sampling’ isn’t for me (unless that’s what the client asks for). If we are going to provide assurance, let’s do it properly.
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