We didn’t start the fire.

Reliability is the matter of being dependable in achievement (dictionary.com/reliable).  Professionally reliability is the easiest attitude I have, and it is simply that an attitude, a choice, a conscious decision to accept the consequences of any relationship.  Those consequences, for good or ill, I gladly accept.  On a personal level, it is the cost of doing business I am in the business of service, solutions, and resolution.  My value is that I believe in work, which is derived from my motivation to perform as well as I can, as often as I can and as rapidly as I can regardless of the potential for reward or recognition.

One of the single most important aspects of this Entrepreneurial Psychology course that I have re-embraced is consistency.  I fully appreciate the elegance of a consistent message, method, and identity.  Consistency is the basis of reliability.  When I am assisting a member for work I will resolve a situation to my satisfaction which is designed to exceed the expectations of those people I am helping.  Reliability for these situations boils down to a formula and it always starts with a cause or a situation that needs to be in some way resolved.  That process follows these steps observation, identification, evaluation, resolution, and maintenance.

Step one, observation, is an opportunity to see or hear or feel a situation within a context the act of experiencing, entering into a different frame of reference in order to understand the inherent nature of a given system.  Step two, is the identification, of what needs to be addressed as a part of the situation once identified it is then step three.  This is taken care of in a variety of ways changing, eliminating, adding, encouraging - the options, and I stress there should be more than one, here are context dependent and must fit each unique situation.  This is why the understanding must come first.  Step four is a matter of taking the best, or barring that occasionality the most viable solution and seeing it’s implementation.  Once those steps are complete it is necessary to review the result and repeat the process if necessary.

I do not believe in follow up, I strive for follow through. It is one of the easiest things in the world to follow up, reliability only begins with follow up.  If that is where it ends then sadly, as my class has taught me ”they don’t get it.” I believe in fixing things, improving things, and occasionally creating things.  The long and short of it is that it does not really make any difference where, how, or why I am encountering a problem but what happens when I do. Follow up and follow through.

Adhering to this “process”, or the simple implementation of these ideas allows me to fill various roles.  There is a great analogy that was part of a comment left on Bob Sutton’s blog: What are the dumbest practices used by companies?  In there Pat discusses the rewarding of “firefighters” the individuals more or less on the front line who put out fires.  Furthermore the oversight by neglecting the “fire inspectors” those people who strive on a continual basis to ensure the prevention of fires.  I synthesize the two roles in to a more viable and practical approach for me.  That is of a fire safety instructor, and in that role I not only rush in to put out fires and take continual efforts to prevent fires but most importantly I instruct those whom I serve on how to avoid and prevent the fires I would normally be called upon to put out and barring that insuring they know what to do if they come across one of our fires.