Sailed4seas的部落格

Chapter 12

Running efficient ship – Objective and satisfaction– Attitude Change

Running efficient ship: Situational Leadership

To reach the common goal of running an efficient ship in 20 century is by situational leadership which means use different levels delegation and instruction to approach different subordinates we had on board. Namely these delegation and instruction are with four levels of: Telling and Directing to 0 % expertise, Selling and Coaching to 50% expertise, Participating and Supporting to 75% expertise, Delegating to 100% expertise while the leader still make the decision of the general direction. General George Patton is one of the high-ranked leaders of the American military. As a famous situational leader, his philosophy to win the war was focused on analyzing the situation. The result of the situational analysis became the foundation in planning the course of action. He believed that it was necessary to change plans to fit the unexpected situation.

The situation leadership seems defined by the knowledge and experience of our subordinates. This is not the case at sea. Our situation change is dictated by the navigational hazard and Mother Nature instead. Namely are collision, grounding, firing, flooding, oil pollution and weather condition. In shore base job, the leadership is the matter of efficiency which is core competition power to every company’s survival. At the sea, the leadership is matter of life or death sometimes. The price is so huge to bear if something is gone wrong and the monetary reimbursement for the work is good. We are willing to sacrifice some part of our dignity, freedom or self respect to reach the intermediate goal in our life. The unbearable shouting and scorning are not formidable to scare us out of business and leave the ship immediately. However, the trauma is made. On the reflections back to the life we had at sea it consume us inside and hesitate our further career at sea. It is not a healthy situation to work like this.

In the chapter 10 working with others, the communication effectively and decision making objectively are discussed. The leadership needed on board is not decided by our subjective willingness. We all want to lead the team with a nice and easy manner even in an emergency and our subordinates are all willing to tolerate the temper of their Captain or Chief at that time. The hidden factor of this leader face change at intense emotion is the Pressure. There is no pressure medicine if you are sure of what to do next. This uncertainty is certainly ruining every man in command when the shouting and swearing could be heard by his subordinates. All in all, our non-technical skills all are only one of the facets of our expertise. Our situational leadership is the way they feel about you while you are handling the crisis.            

If you know how to cope with the pressure already you may need to enhance your decision making skill. If you are good at your decisions you may need to enhance your situational awareness. Situational awareness is our emotional reactions to the danger which were largely decided by our experiences. Young Captains or senior chief mates are usually the victim of the complacency, another word for lacking of situational awareness. In academic research the ability to distinguish different concepts through one single case is a blessing. If you can derive a mathematic model to do the prediction or verify the experimental result again you may award with a Master or Doctor degree. In the sea of the marine knowledge you only need to concentrate a piece of it. You can become a professor of Marine expertise but not knowing how to maneuver a ship. What is the virtue of this for a mariner?

This academic skeleton of our techniques and non-technique skills may become the reason of COMPLACENCY to us. There is no flesh in this structure (skeleton) prepared for us. It is like we have all the mathematic skills already. Once inside the market, we still cannot distinguish which vegetable is fresher or does the smell of fish is always like that.    

The ancient wisdom of knowledge passage is always through the story teller. It is the case study in modern time. The school education is lack of these stories like they are for literature purpose only, not for a serious mariner. In Chapter 5 situational awareness, we have some marine authorities investigation report could be used for shipboard reference and training in all levels OOW/EOOW.      

Objectives and Satisfactions

Regardless of the size of the organization, leadership and management are two integral elements of successful enterprises. Good management include many kind like job, schedule, fuel consumption, time… physical management facets and pressure, communication, personal, relationship, emotional management facet. Management is like the leadership has to face four directions, inward, downward, upward and outward. Management also have to control five “W”s, why, when, where, who, what and one how. It is our objectives in every work we did. In monetary term, management is the most cost effective and time efficient way. In our personal level, management is the part of our expertise, like leadership. In these pursuits of successful management, human factors are treated like other assets on the list. So, the humanity is lost due to materialization. There is nothing wrong about this; the dirty/hot/noisy/Squeezed work must have someone to do. As a professional seaman, we cannot complain about it. It is our work and what we are paying for. So the managements are not always the bad thing as it can also save us from the sufferings we endured.

How can a management be success? It has to control five “W” and one how as mentioned. Management’s main purpose is to deal with complexity. No matter how complex the work is? Good manager can always doing his study first to modularize the works at hand. Most of standard operation procedures (SOP) are developed for management purpose. “It is relatively unusual for new types of accidents to occur on board and many of those that continue to occur are due to unsafe acts by seafarers.  These errors, or more often violations of good practice or established rules, can be readily avoided.  Those who make them are often well aware of the errors of their ways.  They may have taken short-cuts they should not have taken.  Most will have received training aimed at preventing them but, through a culture that is tolerant to the 'calculated risk', they still occur. (Quoted from IMO safety culture) ”

Good management emphasizes rationality and control in bringing discipline and order to the complexity inherent. “It is to do the right thing at the right time in response to normal and emergency situations in term of shipboard operations.” The point of good management is to bring out the good side of seafarers whether it is their “discipline and order” or their safety culture as IMO defined. What’s the difference of these two management style? One is “carrot and bat” objective management toward others; another is subjective management inward.      

Without management, leadership becomes victim to complexity. Leaders who do not employ good management expose their teams to things like lack of proper coordination, insufficient reporting procedures and inadequate planning. The responses to normal and emergency situations have three kinds of initiatives: reactive, proactive and automatic. Proactive: creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened (reactive). Proactive is better than reactive. But nothing can compare with the value of automatic response; it is the working habits as we always said. Something we will automatically comply to help each other without second thought of what expense we might have to pay. It is part of our safety culture.     

The motivation to safety culture is the satisfaction we had in our work and good feeling to our colleagues. How can we have the satisfactions from the job we did? How can we find our soul inside the team on board? How to motivate others to bring out satisfactions and objectives we want?      

The key to attitude change : Promise Consistency.

This is not a management problem. This is a leadership issue. Leadership is the forces to keep things going in a group. The way to influence people to do things we want them to do is by motivation. Once again we have to use the psychology concept of consistency to achieve motivation. This is the most powerful weapon in history, or at least in Chinese history.  

The leader is to achieve team goal by efforts of his fellows.

Zhuge Liang (181–234), was a chancellor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He is recognized as the greatest and most accomplished strategist, scholar and inventor. In the spring of 222, Liu Bei retreated to Yong'an after his defeat at the Battle of Xiaoting and became seriously ill. He summoned Zhuge Liang from Chengdu and said to him, "You're ten times more talented than Cao Pi, and capable of both securing the country and accomplishing our great mission. If my son can be assisted, then assist him. If he proves incompetent, then you may take over the throne." Zhuge Liang replied tearfully, "I'll do my utmost and serve with unwavering loyalty until death." Liu Bei then ordered his son, Liu Shan, to administer state affairs together with Zhuge Liang and regard Zhuge as his father.( From Wikipedia)

Liu Bei is the boss of Zhuge Liang. He can get Zhuge Liang’s dedication even after his own death by give him a trap and a name. The trap is un-loyalty to the Kingdom by taking the throne of his boss. The reply he got from Zhuge Liang is the tear of appreciation and unwavering loyalty. The name is to let his son called Zhuge Liang “Father”. Father cannot take away the kingdom of his son. Just by one meeting, Liu Bei gets the promise of Zhuge Liang to work for his kingdom/son for unwavering 12 years till Zhuge Liang died at 234 although he is talented and capable.     

The best motivation like best leadership is always comes from our own personal will. If others want motivate us to some job/work whether it is for the team or for ourself. We hear thousands of excuse/complain from our inner Child to say no. But we have no power to disobey our inner Adult once our words are given out ( we had made promises). Otherwise we will feel bad about ourself even the most precious things or most beautiful lady could be our price if we follow our heart. This is the Power of Consistency. Self respect is powerful than our own will.

“The theory of cognitive consistency implies that where people act inconsistently with their attitudes that this is likely to lead to a change in those attitudes. On this basis it is thought that attitudes follow behaviour in order to maintain cognitive consistency. In negotiation, consistency, or the consistency principle, refers to a negotiator's strong psychological need to be consistent with prior acts and statements ( approved actions or promised). The consistency principle states that people are motivated toward cognitive consistency and will change their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and actions to achieve it. “( From Wikipedia)

The key to attitude change : Behaviour Consistency.

Asking the help from your opponent will change their attitude to you. We all have some colleagues cannot get well all the times. To ease the tension, it is a very good idea to ask his favor. The favor you asked need not to be part of job you are doing. It could begin from just asking him to bring some fruit or bread for you while he goes ashore; or pass the salt on the table; fetch the tools back in his way… etc. Every little thing is counted. This is the secret of relationship, just little things. Little things can consist of our life structure which is needed in all man.

If you two are not in same department, the favor is by asking some techniques questions you need to know from him. The expertise of his can raise his self respect. If he cannot answer the questions you asked he probably annoy and doubt of your real intention. He may not possess very good talent to explain everything to you. So be sure the question is just inside his ability.

The key to attitude change : Self-Image Consistency.

We all have the experiences that young OOW need lots time to teach. Now we know people’s long term memories will only form after two months time. Everything we learned within two months can vanish in any time especially while we are in great pressure. Have you the experiences that you had done everything to let him understand the points of the work? After all that have been done he still cannot do his job correctly. What is his attitude to the job you had teached him?  If he do appreciate the importance of this job he will despite you. Although he knew in his heart that you are kind and nice to him he just cannot despite himself. To maintain the consistency in his mind he had no choice but to despite you. It is not a choice of his but an intuition inside his subconscious.

People are driven to be consistent in all areas of life — in their words, deeds, attitudes, opinions, beliefs, values, habits, and promises. Once a person makes a decision, takes a stand, or performs an action, he or she strives to make all future behavior match this past behavior.

Why does the Rule of Consistency work like this? Consistency is what psychologists call a "decision heuristic" — a shortcut for making decisions. Life is too complicated to carefully evaluate every element of every situation, so we learn to take shortcuts to help us make what are usually reasonable and reliable decisions.

Consistency is a valuable adaptive behavior. Socially and personally, consistency is beneficial, a practical survival skill in a complex world. Doing things the same way time and time again, or maintaining the same ideas about things, gives us helpful shortcuts.

Consistency makes thinking easy, because there's little thinking needed. Make up your mind about something once, and you never have to think about it ever again. Faced with new situations, you simply recall how you handled it before and the problem is solved. When the Rule of Consistency is triggered, decisions are made almost automatically.

In addition to simplifying our thinking, Consistency also helps us avoid unpleasant emotions. It helps us stick to what we know and avoid the chance of disappointment, embarrassment, failure, and loss. Moreover, people are not only driven to "be" consistent, but are also driven to "appear to be" consistent. That's because, socially, consistency is a desirable personal trait. It is seen as rational, trustworthy, stable, and decisive. Inconsistency, on the other hand, is usually frowned upon. It is seen as irrational, deceptive, unstable, and indecisive. Think about the people you most admire. Aren't most of them remarkably "consistent" in their actions and beliefs? Don't they seem incredibly decisive and sure?

The researchers said:

"What may occur is a change in the person's feelings about getting involved or taking action. Once he has agreed to a request, his attitude may change, he may become, in his own eyes, the kind of person who does this sort of thing, who agrees to requests made by colleagues, who takes action on things he believes in, who cooperates with good causes."

Commitment, then, is the key to triggering the Rule of Consistency. Simply put, if you can get someone to make a commitment, even a seemingly inconsequential one, you automatically trigger the Rule of Consistency, which can then help trigger the "yes" response for later, and much larger, requests.

According to Dr. Robert B. Cialdini, the psychologist and author responsible for collating most of the research, "Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision."

In fact, he goes on to say, "You can use small commitments to manipulate a person's self-image. And once you've got a man's self-image where you want it, he should comply naturally with a whole range of your requests that are consistent with this view of himself."

The way to motivate seafarer

• Field meetings with your crew casually. Instead of focusing on what they are doing wrong, it is easier to find the real problems while there are working.
• Arrange some personal meetings to address their worries, sufferings and work environment are also very helpful if it is not convenient to discuss at scene.
• Appoint seaman to train their peers. This is an excellent way to recognize special skills and encourage interaction which can help the younger to work through the growing pains of a new job. This is also good for team building.
• Encourage a team environment. Crew can often feel like they are alone. Create a team incentive where they are encouraged to help each other and share knowledge for a common job.
• Recognize each achievement, no matter how small it is. The time you take to congratulate someone on their hard work may decide how hard they work next time. Congratulate them publicly. Bring up their achievement as specific as possible with the details of their work in front of someone he thought important. Recognition in upper management is hard to get, especially he is only a new hand on board.
• The experience and skill is hard to get on board. Congratulate young staff even with their attitude only. This will create a positive atmosphere for everyone to do his best for the challenge ahead of them.

Dale Carnegie : Major sections and points in his book

Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Published in 1936,

How to Win Friends and Influence People is still a popular book in business and Business Communication skills which could be used as our reference.

Twelve Things This Book Will Do For You

1. Get you out of a mental rut, give you new thoughts, new visions, new ambitions.

2. Enable you to make friends quickly and easily.

3. Increase your popularity.

4. Help you to win people to your way of thinking.

5. Increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done.

6. Enable you to win new clients, new customers.

7. Increase your earning power.

8. Make you a better salesman, a better executive.

9. Help you to handle complaints, avoid arguments, keep your human contacts smooth and pleasant.

10.Make you a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist.

11.Make the principles of psychology easy for you to apply in your daily contacts.

12.Help you to arouse enthusiasm among your associates.

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don't criticize, condemn, or complain.

2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.

3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six Ways to Make People Like You

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.

2. Smile.

3. Remember that a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

5. Talk in terms of the other person's interest.

6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say "You're Wrong."

3. If you're wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

4. Begin in a friendly way.

5. Start with questions to which the other person will answer yes.

6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.

7. Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.

8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.

9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.

10.Appeal to the nobler motives.

11.Dramatize your ideas.

12.Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

1.Begin with praise and honest appreciation.

2.Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.

3.Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.

4.Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.

5.Let the other person save face.

6.Praise every improvement.

7.Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.

8.Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.

9.Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest.

End of Chapter 12