Stephen Hay

Stephen Hay is a consultant who helps his clients build tomorrow's service organisations. His career has allowed him to live and work in eight different countries and visit a further 25. He has worked with international development agencies, corporates and government bodies.

Non-service

Mar 172012
 

Strangest form of “service” I’ve yet experienced.

I boarded my train one evening and it left on time – nothing unusual in that other than the fact that it’s not very common.

About 10 minutes into an 18 minute ride, the train stopped and the train manager came through and informed us that there was a points failure and we had six trains banked up ahead of us. There would be a 30 minute delay.

So we sat in a train in the middle of nowhere waiting. Why couldn’t they have told us before we boarded? At least that way we could have called ahead to let family know of the delay or make other arrangements.

I still haven’t worked out the motivation for not doing so.

Metropolis and the NZSO

Mar 102012
 

On Saturday 5 November last year, we attended a screening of the recently restored complete, uncut version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, first screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in Feb 2010. Gottfried Huppertz’ score was performed live by the NZ Symphony Orchestra.

The setting was fitting. The film was projected onto a large screen above and behind the orchestra which used small lamps to light the music so as not to distract the viewers.

The film iself is just stunning. First released in 1927, it flopped in Germany and was then severely hacked for the American market, “one of the great artistic butcheries of the twentieth century” (Programme Notes, NZSO).

The version we saw was the recently restored, complete uncut version discovered in the archives of… Argentina. How it got there is a story in itself.

Watching it though, I had to think that Fritz Lang was frighteningly prescient. If we replace the “machines” of the film with the machines of today, there is very little difference in mood and ambience. There is still a need to moderate the excesses of head and hands with the heart and the recent “Occupy” protests combined with the Euro meltdown show that we are far from learning the lessons of the past.

A colleague described it as, “a wonderfully evocative NZSO rendition of the film score to Metropolis. Very much a once in a lifetime experience…”

I couldn’t agree more.

Organising boats

Mar 032012
 

A lesson in team process.

  • Democracy
  • Autocracy
  • Initiative

These are the three phases I observed when organising the transport of boats and children to a sailing camp a few weeks ago.

It all started when I didn’t move quickly enough when the call went out for volunteers but the experience was well worth my sloth-like reaction to the call for volunteers…

Democracy

The only time that democracy and consultation really happened was when the children present were able to choose their own boats. After that, boats were allocated. It’s a bit like voting. If you are there, you can vote. But if you’re not able to attend on the day you go with the decisions that are made afterwards.

Autocracy

From the beginning, autocracy was the way, especially in the collecting and collating of information. There are some things that one person just has to take control of and make happen.

Initiative

The initiative happened when I realised that I couldn’t solve the problem myself. We had more boats than trailers and I was working on a contingency plan of all children and some boats in the first trip over, then a second trip for boats only.

Then someone, also in possession of full information, turned up with a covered truck into which we put the boats, their rigging and spars. Problem solved.

My lessons from this?

Be autocratic in collecting information but then disseminate all information to all concerned so that they can work out how to help. The solution will be unexpected in its simplicity…

Tools focus…

Feb 242012
 

By dint of marketing noise, tool vendors have captured the hearts and minds of most executives. The temptation is now more than ever to adopt the operating model delivered by the toolset and, or is that “to”, stop thinking…

But what do your employees look to you for? Leadership and guidance.

Why hand that over to a vendor? Tools are coded methodology and can tell you how to do something but not what or why.

That’s the executive’s job.

Operations are key

Feb 172012
 

Operations, and nothing else, is the area of your company that creates value for your customers and generates revenue.

IT doesn’t do it, finance just reports on what is achieved through operations and HR provides the people needed to deliver service.

For all the talk of strategy, and the amount of money spent on it, there is also a strong argument that, if you understand your operations to the finest detail and have a commitment to constantly increase customer value, there is little need for strategic planning. Your plan is to increase value to customers, employees and stake- or shareholders.

Only operations will help you implement that plan. You know what you need to do…

 Older Entries  Newer Entries