The energy transition away from fossil fuel is a three-legged stool - public policy (legislation), rule-making, and rate-making. Asset managers have a key role to play when it comes to evaluating life-cycle costs, stranded value (if investments happen too fast), and understanding risk-based tradeoffs.
JD Solomon will discuss this important topic on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, at the North American Conference of the Institute of Asset Management (IAM). Registration information can be found at https://theiam.org/events/iam-north-american-conference-2021/
JD will be providing his personal perspectives as a program developer, asset manager, and member of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission. North Carolina has been a leading state in terms of renewable and clean energy for more than two decades. In 2021, two radically different proposals, one legislative and one rule-making, were placed in the public domain for moving forward through 2050.
A key aspect of organizational capacity is the nexus of workforce capability, information, and decision making. The success of any organization depends on their balanced integration.
The alignment of how an organization’s capabilities, information support systems, and written (or tribal) decision-making structure fit together is essential for organizational success. Collectively, these are called the CID Nexus (Capability, Information, and Decisions). The CID Nexus is essential for the success of any organization.
Capability
At least three elements should be considered in reviewing an organization’s capability: current foundational skills and those to be taught to the majority of the staff; the level and degree of theoretical understanding, or knowledge, that is appropriate; and the degree to which management does or should understand varying approaches to managing in-game situations. Collectively known as Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs), these areas are the focus of many Workforce Development initiatives. However, KSAs and Workforce Development are not enough when considered in isolation.
Decisions
A nexus between decision making, organization structure, and decision support (information management) systems. Traditional thinking is that organizational structure should be constructed around decision making, and, in turn, the organization structure should drive the decision support system and the KSAs required by staff. In small- and medium-sized organizations this is usually the case. A key takeaway is that the decision-making and organizational structure should be considered ahead of workforce evaluations.
Information
There is also a valid argument that the types of decisions and the decision support system should drive the organization structure — if you have worked in large organizations with Oracle or SAP environments, you can probably attest to the feeling that the organization is built around software applications. A key takeaway here is to analyze the information needs and platform of the organization before considering the workforce evaluations.
Moving Forward
The context of the organization directly influences its type of decisions, information systems, and staff capabilities. Most organizations are frustrated in their attempts to improve these three areas in isolation. The key is the integration of both the assessments and the improvements.
JD Solomon Inc provides solutions for program development, asset management, and facilitation solutions at the nexus of facilities, infrastructure, and the environment. Sign-up for monthly updates.
Solomon and Wojak advise addressing organizational capacity as the nexus of secure harbor, the CID nexus, and organizational culture.
The secret (and the art) is the “how” to do something. Just think of the time you learned to play a sport, play a musical instrument, or do key aspects of your profession – there were plenty of books to read, guidance documents to review, and plenty of people to tell you “what” to do (or more likely, what not to do). However, it was the true coach or dedicated mentor that showed you “how” to do it successfully.
Too Many Initiatives
Organizations drown themselves with new initiatives, process improvements, and best practices. Drown is the operative word because most disappear beneath a sea of lost dollars and wasted time. If you do not understand the “how”, the “what” really does not matter. The key is Organizational Capacity.
The CID Nexus
Organizational Capacity is defined as having and maintaining a Secure Harbor (safe place) that is ripe for continual improvement, maintaining an organizational structure focused on core functions and the nexus of workforce capabilities, information systems, and decision making (CID nexus), and recognition of the personality of the specific operation.
How You Do It Is Key
If that sounds like gobbly-gook, we’ll break down the three aspects of Organizational Capacity in upcoming posts. For now, remember three important aspects – it is about the “how” rather than the “what”, reduce everything to core functions tied to your mission because we waste a lot of time doing things we do not need to do, and focus on your staff’s Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) because the people must make it all happen.
This article is based on the paper "Implementing Asset Management: Organizational Capacity as Primary Challenge," available in the proceedings of the 2017 Conference of the Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP).
JD Solomon Incprovides program development, asset management, and facilitation at the nexus of facilities, infrastructure, and the environment. Sign-up to receive monthly updates.
