Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 11 M AY 2 , 2 0 2 2 Whether you're starting your first job or retiring from your last, we understand that every financial situation is different ... just like the people we serve. WE'RE A BANK FOR EVERYONE. www.KennebecSavings.Bank We invite you to experience the difference. A S K AC E Answered by Carrie Green Yardley, vice president of the Association for Consulting Expertise The Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE) is a non-profit association of independent consultants who value "Success through Collaboration." The public is welcome to attend its regular meetings to share best practices and engage with industry experts. For more information go to www.consultexpertise.com. Q: Something's off. Top management agreed on a new workflow system to improve productivity, but implementation is all over the place, and we're not seeing any improvement. One department in particular seems to be the problem. What do we do? ACE Advises: Renee Kelly, vice president for innovation and economic development at the University of Maine, says, "Workplace system failures fall into two categories: 'common cause' and 'special cause.' Common cause failures arise from the system and make up 94% of all failures. The remainder may be attributable to individuals not following the system." Given the odds, start with the system. When the problem is systemic, no worker has the ability to resolve the prob- lem. "They may be willing, but they are not able," says Kelly. Perhaps the system is not documented. For instance, there's no roadmap explaining the goal of the system or who the stakeholders are or how success is measured. There may be a lack of milestone measurements that allow participants to track progress. The system may lack consideration of practical constraints, such as budget or time constraints. Even when workers under- stand the overall system, they may lack adequate train- ing or they may not have the right tools to do the job. In a common cause failure, the system is the problem, and changing the system can help. However, in a special cause failure — attributable perhaps to an individual who won't play ball — tinkering with the system to address the actions of a single individual often leads to needless rules for everyone else. As Kelly would say, "the worker is able, but not willing." In this case, the individual needs to understand the sys- tem's goal, and how the system has been designed to achieve it, and how the individual's contributions impact the perfor- mance of the system. A system may have constraints, but the people charged with implementing it should not create them. Contributing writer Carrie Green Yardley of Yardley Esq. PLLC is a lawyer in greater Portland serving small businesses and their owners. She is vice president of the Association for Consulting Expertise. For more information on this topic, check out Renee Kelly's program "Innovation for Improving the Way We Work," pre- sented by ACE and the Greater Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. youtu.be/UTYSOgmq53I @ Avangrid Foundation, in partner- ship with Central Maine Power, awarded a $10,000 grant to New Beginnings Inc., a Lewiston-based nonprofit serving homeless and at-risk youth, to help promote the safety, connections and growth that runaway and homeless youth need to thrive in 2021-22. Baby eels translate to big bucks e season for baby eels known as elvers is close to winding down, with dealers buying more than 9,200 pounds valued at an average price per pound of $2,161. e Maine Department of Marine Resources, which released the harvest numbers, said the price per-pound was a 20% increase over last year, when elvers sold for $1,800 a pound. e average per pound value this year has also exceeded $2,000 per pound for only the fourth time in the history of the fishery, the Department of Marine Resources said. Most of the elvers M I D C O A S T & D O W N E A S T

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