Dirty places
In the 1970’s my Dad worked for British Steel. Can you can imagine what a Steel works was like 40 years ago? Noisy, hot, dirty, smelly and downright dangerous.
The enlightened manager
One evening he came home singing the praises of a new plant manager. The new boss had insisted that the workforce cleaned the plant up and kept it clean. First they cleaned up the ash, oil, swarf and general filth. Then they put away the tools and scrubbed up the big metal job tickets on each batch.
At first the labour force hated it. It is no mean feat keeping a factory clean. But after a while they started to like it. They could find their kit, the work moved faster, people knew where things were and it became more obvious which job was scheduled next. Best of all it became a whole lot safer.
All that for a little cleaning and tidying.
The gurus today call it 5S
They will tell you what the 5S’s are in Japanese at some length, but they are a lot easier in english
- Sort – remove anything you don’t need
- Straighten – put things where you can find them
- Shine – clean the place up so it is obvious if things are out-of-place
- Standardise – create order, do things the right way
- Sustain – keep at it
I love a little alliteration, but sometimes it is good to get to the point — sort things out and tidy up.
Rule 13: Clean the work place
It doesn’t matter if you work in a steel works, on a battle ship or in a kitchen. How do you expect the work to work if the place is a pigsty?
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Image by Doug
Read another opinion
James,
Can you go too far with this? Particularly when we see some of the impacts that minimalist office design, clean desk policies, hot-desking and other tidying measures can have on productivity and engagement?
Adrian
I guess, as with all things, the trick is to know how much is enough, and how much is too far.
I once talked to a consultant who was hell bent on putting tape around every phone on every desk in a call centre, so they were all in the right place.
To the best of my knowledge I have never had an abandon rate problem because the agent couldn’t find his phone.
Thanks for making the point
I try to convey this same message to my kids everyday. Maybe once they’re old enough to work, they’ll have learned this is a good thing. :-)
I have to agree with premise… when my office and desk are organized, it’s much easier to feel/be productive.
Annette :-)
I do hope so Annette, it would be nice if mine even learnt how to create a pile of dirty clothes. Mine are adept at what is probably best called a slew.