You may not be surprised to know that most companies need a culture intervention – something like a 12-step program. This column will discuss behavioral issues that are often at the core of a culture of neglect and mediocracy. It borrows much from management science and leadership principles.

Over the years, we have had hundreds of conversations on this topic with individuals working in the field of maintenance and reliability. Some come from organizations infected with culture problems, while others represent businesses that have emerged from a successful transformation. Then there are those organizations that achieved transformation but regressed to their bad habits and past addictive practices.

Of course, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Past behavior establishes reputation, which many people use to judge others. You can judge culture in a similar way to help predict future maintenance and reliability performance. Behavior, values and decisions are all components of employee engagement. Engagement sharply impacts individual and business performance.

A positive, nurturing maintenance culture is a critical plant asset. Consider that when people do good work, they feel good about themselves and their job. When people do bad work, they feel bad about themselves and their job. Feeling bad is a serious morale problem that multiplies and spreads. The simple solution is to enable people to do good work that is recognized and celebrated.

This is both problem and solution. Culture drives behavior. Behavior influences quality of work. Quality work is fundamental to plant reliability and the cost of reliability. Why do we care? Reliability fosters job security and builds shareholder value.

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People resist change not because they love the status quo but because they fear the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Yet, without change we are destined to repeat the past. After all, machines that are operated and repaired the same way will tend to wear out and fail the same way. And, for most organizations, what’s needed is not the tweaking of existing practices but rather throwing them out and starting over. Like people, organizations struggle through the transition period (denial-anger-bargaining-depression-acceptance). We all have vivid memories of change–even small things like the seatbelt law can cramp our style.

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