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Our Proven Process:
Fostering Breakthrough Thinking

Product : Best Ingredients Ensure Best Outcomes

Abstract: Textron Specialty Materials, a northern MA producer of carbon impregnated cloth, resolved a fire safety system maintenance issue using Collaborative Coaching techniques developed by Matthew Weilert, co-founder of Rock Eel Café.

The Problem

In a large industrial facility like the Lowell plant, keeping the sprinkler valve wheels painted [code compliance] was no mean feat. The issue was an excellent example of the breakthrough thinking that systems thinkers bring to the table. The wheels could not be painted while on the valve, because code prohibited paint on the stem; it must be free to rotate. While the wheels were being painted, the options included:
  1. swap out with a spare wheel
  2. post a fire watch
  3. go without and risk fines, or worse, an actual fire with no way to respond.

The Solution

During increasingly vocal discussion, our systems thinking suggestion was to anodize the wheels.

  1. they won't ever need painting again
  2. in the long run, considering the fully-burdened overhead of labor; far, far cheaper
  3. by suffering through a temporary inconvenience while they produce a long-term solution, the fire safety team “evangelizes” creative solutions throughout the company.

Simple. Elegant. Cost-saving. Systems Thinking Works. It can work for you, if you work it through.

Have you encountered similar situations that can benefit from the creative, problem-solving capacities of our business coaches? For more information, or to put the power of Compressing the Learning CurveSM to work in your organization, contact us, or e-mail mailto envelopeMatt Weilert, founder of Systems Thinking Institute LLC (STI) and publisher, STI Press to get your whole management team scheduled for a Fabric of Facts Focus Session.