Be Honest with Yourself and Achieve Unity of Knowledge and Practice

At the morning meeting of all management cadres on Oct 22, 2022, Mr. Wang asked Long Weiquan, the director of the Standards Office, to share the case of a strategic customer, and with this as the introduction, Mr. Wang elaborated the management ideas of three aspects: to be honest with yourself, from "I" to "we", to achieve the unity of knowledge and practice.

The investigation result of a strategic customer case shows that there are some problems in the enterprise: for example, the barrel tumbling has not made the time record, the WI has not been updated in time, the operators do not understand the operation guidelines, and the process audit has the phenomenon of coping. These problems eventually led customers to question our production capacity and internal control ability. How to solve these problems from the root? I think we should take actions from the following three aspects: be honest with yourself, from "I" to "We", to achieve the unity of knowledge and practice.

Be honest with yourself

In the daily management activities, we will encounter many problems that cannot be solved for a long time. The fundamental reason is that we cannot honestly face ourselves and problems. Why do children learn so fast? Because children talk freely, they ask if they don't understand. Why do we learn things so slowly in our 30-40's? Because we are too proud to ask, do not want to face our own problems. We always think that at this age, we should know everything when we sit in this position. For example, the previous PE who was very good at making metal frames to set standards for acetate, and who was very good at making acetate frames to plan processes for metals. Everyone thinks that PE engineers should understand everything and be omnipotent. I remember that a student in the previous special training classes was just promoted from the management of the acetate temple to the production manager. One time when I was in a special training class, I asked him about his daily work arrangement, and he told me that one of the most important tasks every day was to go to the acetate garage to confirm the products. At that time, the garage was still handmade. Did a man who was a management of the acetate temple yesterday know more about garage than garage management just because he was a manager today? Obviously not. It's just because we don't face ourselves honestly. We think we are managers, so we are embarrassed to admit that we are inferior to our subordinates. The reason why the above phenomenon occurs also shows that we have problems in "knowing and not knowing". If we want to face up to our own problems and solve the problem of "knowing and not knowing", we must find a learning method suitable for ourselves. Two days ago, when I was giving a class to the students in the special training class, I told them a case, taking Anan and Duoduo as examples. The elder brother Duoduo likes reading books and can accept a lot of written information, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, Journey to the West, etc.; But Anan doesn't like reading extracurricular books with many words. He likes listening to and watching books or videos with pictures. We can't say whose method is better, which is suitable for us and can learn the knowledge we need. Every year, more than 50% of the company's grass-roots employees have a turnover rate, and 70% of them have a junior high school education or below. Who are our operation guidelines and quality standards for? It is for our grass-roots employees. If these standards are full text, do you think these grassroots employees can read them? Can they understand? Therefore, the company requires the standard office, the quality assurance department, the human resources department and other planning units to be grounded, go to the site more to understand the actual situation, the training materials should be illustrated, and the skills imparted to employees should be communicated in a way that employees can accept and understand.

From "I" to "We"

There were 180-190 people attending the morning meeting of management cadres on Saturday. If our factory counts more than 1800 people, and each person needs to manage about 10 employees on average, we must learn to change from "I" to "We". There are many large and small organizations within the enterprise, from teams and workshops to departments and business divisions. A small mistake made by each member of the organization will affect the performance of the organization. In the work, from the vice president to the manager, from the manager to the management, to the technician and operator, what should we do? Why we do? How do you do it? What are the results? Only by unifying thought and cognition, and strengthening faith, can we work hard and do things well. For example, when preparing process standards or operation guidelines, PE can go to the workshop to observe, ask and learn if he does not understand, and record the knowledge he has learned. If it is verified to be feasible, PE can formulate corresponding standards. The production department should also do the same. If the standards formulated by PE cannot be understood or the standards are not feasible, they should be put forward in a timely manner and require PE to organize training or require them to re-evaluate and change the standards. In cross department collaboration, the planning department, the executive department and the supervision department also need to have the same goals. Only when the superior and subordinate and the brother departments have unified their understanding and reached a consensus, can they work hard around the common goal and avoid coping in work.

Knowledge, action and result are consistent

Our ancestors told us to "listen to what they say, observe what they do, and find out the results". If the results are not good now, we should reflect on whether we have achieved the unity of knowledge and practice. And we should ask whether this "knowledge" is "true knowledge" and whether "action" is "true action". We must not only "know", but also "really know". A little knowledge is not true knowledge, ambiguity is not true knowledge, and only when we truly understand its causes, principles and underlying logic, and can guide our actions, can we count as true knowledge. In our daily management activities, more than 60% of our problems are caused by "knowing or not knowing". "Ignorance" will deal with work, and it is the biggest deal. With the guidance of "true knowledge", there will be "true action". True action is not done by others' reminding or supervision, but because we all know that this must be done. We have our own principles and bottom line, and know what to do and what not to do. We have our own rules and judgments, and know what is right and what is wrong. With "true knowledge" and "true action", there will naturally be a good result.

To be honest with yourself is to objectively recognize yourself and the subordinate team, not to determine your brain by your butt. When solving the problems that employees knowing or not knowing, they should be grounded, go to the site to learn more about the actual situation, and the training materials should be illustrated, and the skills taught should be acceptable and understandable. From "I" to "We" is to build a team with the same desire and effort, and work together around the goal. Only by truly understanding its causes, principles and underlying logic, and being able to guide action, can we truly know. With the guidance of "true knowledge", there will be "true action". True action is not done by others' reminding or supervision, but because we all know that this must be done. When true knowledge and true action are achieved, there will be a good result.