UPT IME
Why you need to revise your
“sky is falling” attitude
Clearly, the world of fleet maintenance,
service and repair is continuing to change
rapidly, bringing about new challenges and
opportunities. Change is also intensifying
the essential importance of vehicle uptime
and productivity.
Consider all the matters that fl eet maintenance
managers have to deal with nowadays.
Among them:
Keeping up-to-date on new vehicles, components
and systems, as well as fl eet maintenance,
service and repair products and
practices.
Th e accelerating rise in advanced onboard
technologies.
Th e increasing availability of vehicle data
and information from the proliferation of
onboard sensors and telematics systems.
Expanding regulatory requirements on fuel
economy and emissions.
Th e growth of increasingly intelligent, interconnected
8 Fleet Maintenance | AUGUST 2017
and instrumented vehicles.
Th e evolution of autonomous vehicles.
At times, fl eet maintenance managers end
up narrowing their focus and limiting their
fi eld of vision. Overwhelmed, they’re running
around espousing Chicken Little’s theory that
“the sky is falling.”
To those who take this view I say: Take
another look at the sky. It’s not falling. It’s
expanding.
Some Constants
Some things have remained constant for fl eet
maintenance managers:
Keeping vehicles operating with maximum
uptime.
Maintaining a safe, effi cient and
profi table fl eet.
Improving their personal performance.
Fleet Maintenance, and its offi cial website –
VehicleServicePros.com – continue to serve
as the only ongoing resource that delivers
valuable information and knowledge to help
managers continue to reach these objectives.
You, our readers, take to heart the words of
management guru Peter Drucker: Learning is a
lifelong process of keeping abreast of change.
It’s about One’s Viewpoint
Th e doomsayers have the wrong perspective
and attitude. Th ey are not making the eff ort
to view every situation as an opportunity to
be taken advantage of. Change is an unavoidable
must that brings with it opportunities,
although they are harder to spot.
I advocate not getting caught up in the
tumult of change. Rather, embrace it. Th is is
essential to take the necessary steps to modify
your organization and working practices
accordingly.
I advise thinking unconventionally.
Experiment and test. Stimulate creativity. Try
diff erent ways, methods, processes, systems,
etc., to adapt and, more importantly, to evolve
into the future.
As was noted in my previous Uptime column,
Jeff rey Hayzlett – primetime TV and podcast
host, keynote speaker, best-selling author
and global business celebrity – says that for
organizations to prosper, their leaders “must
fearlessly” do what it takes to be successful,
and that means “throwing out conventional
wisdom, reframing limitations and steamrolling
obstacles.”
Inspiration
To help you get into the right frame of mind for
doing this, I off er some motivational thoughts
to contemplate:
Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow
I can accomplish what others can’t. – Jerry Rice,
National Football League wide receiver.
He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
Harold Wilson, former British Prime Minister.
In times of rapid change, experience could be
your worst enemy. – J. Paul Getty, American
industrialist.
Progress is impossible without change, and
those who cannot change their minds cannot
change anything. – George Bernard Shaw,
author and playwright.
If the rules aren’t yet written, then there’s no
better opportunity to write them yourself. – Kara
Goldin, CEO and founder of Hint.
Th e battlefi eld is a scene of constant chaos. Th e
winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both
his own and the enemies. – Napoleon Bonaparte,
French military leader and emperor.
Th e Navy Seals have this saying: Th e only
easy day was yesterday. Th is means that no
matter how well you performed yesterday, it
is necessary to work hard every day and adapt
to whatever new challenges come your way.
Learn from Failure
You don’t need to have everything fi gured
out. Change inherently entails risk. Don’t be
afraid to fail. As Henry Ford observed: Failure
is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time
more intelligently.
Failure is a part of the learning process. Find
positive ways to interpret unexpected results.
Inventor Thomas Edison made 1,000
attempts at inventing the light bulb. When
asked how it felt to fail 1,000 times, Edison
reportedly responded: I didn’t fail 1,000 times.
I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways not to
make a light bulb.
Ruminate on naturalist Charles Darwin’s
adage about adapting or dying: It is not the
strongest of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent that survives, but the one that is most
adaptable to change.
Change is Unrelenting
Today, and for the future, the biggest challenge
to you and your organization is massive,
continual change at an ever-increasing pace.
How well you and your organization respond to
change, uncover opportunities and capitalize
on them is essential to evolution and success.
To sum up, understand that there will
always be some uncertainty and unknown
risks. Chuck conventional wisdom, rethink
limitations and overpower obstacles. Don’t be
worried about failing because failure is instructive.
To quote German author Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe: By seeking and blundering we learn.
Chicken Little
Was Wrong
By David A.
Kolman
Editor
» Although change is occurring at an
ever-increasing rate, it is essential
to not get caught up in the chaos.
Rather, devote the time and resources
necessary to evolve your organization
and working practices accordingly.
Photo from iStock
Tune in to this
exclusive bi-weekly
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Fleet Maintenance
Editor David A.
Kolman at:
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com/videos/
kolmans-korner
Failure can be
instructive.