REMANUFAC TURE, REBUIL D, REPL ACE How do maintenance folks listen? How does anyone listen? Are there diff erent kinds of listening? I submit there are vastly diff erent kinds of listening. Th e kind of listening applied to a situation will determine the amount and quality of information you receive. Visualize human listening as a sensitive microphone that vibrates to all the sounds within its operating specifi cations. Th ose vibrations are transmitted to the brain and interpreted. You, as the brain’s boss, have a lot of information coming in, so you set up “fi lters” to suit the situation. By way of example, your listening fi lters will be diff erent if: You’re in a high-rise building, you smell smoke and you hear noise outside your door. It is night and you are in a strange city in an iff y neighborhood. You are at a party with friends. You are diagnosing a problem on a unit that rolled into the shop. The Brain’s Focus Th e instrument doing the work – your ear – will continue to hear everything. Th e input to the brain will not appreciably change. 36 Fleet Maintenance | April 2017 Th e interpreter – your brain – will focus on certain sounds and give them priority. If you change the circumstances in a common situation, your listening will change. You listen one way to the safety speech given on an airplane before take-off . You listen entirely diff erently to the same safety speech aft er the plane starts to dive, twist, turn and shudder. People don’t seem to listen unless there is a very good reason. Th is is almost a stereotype. Th is is a capability designed to improve survival in the many situations where attention to some sonic detail will make a diff erence. What is not so clear is that the fi lters are activated by the opinions, emotions and history you have with the situation. Filter Activation If you have a driver or equipment operator who always complains about everything, it is extremely diffi cult to give him or her your full listening attention. Th is fi lter is oft en more insidious even then that. Th e fi lter is colored by your history with the person, whether you “like” the person and, perhaps, even whether you share the same politics, religion or other beliefs. Your beliefs drive some of the listening. Psychologists call elements of this tendency confi rmation bias. Th is is the tendency to interpret new evidence as confi rmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories. Books by Joel Levitt Complete Handbook of Preventive and Predictive Maintenance – This book shares best practices, mistakes, victories and essential steps for achievement gleaned from working with organizations around the world. An in-depth resource, it focuses on the four aspects of success in preventive and predictive maintenance systems: engineering, management, economic and psychological. Handbook of Maintenance Management – In its second edition, this comprehensive and easy-to-understand reference resource for maintenance professionals covers every specific maintenance management subject. Lean Maintenance – This practical book takes the reader on a journey, uncovering sources of waste, designing projects to address inefficiencies, selling projects to management and delivering project results. Every area in maintenance is covered. Basics of Fleet Maintenance – A comprehensive look at the management necessary to run a fleet in today’s environment. It includes audits, work sheets and ideas for all aspects of fleet maintenance. Topics include: lifecycle costing, storeroom management, shop layout, supervision, CMMS, budgeting and PM. For example, how hard is it to listen when you are arguing with someone who violently disagrees with you, and you them? It’s An Art Listening is an art that the best professionals – including maintenance personnel – practice. Th e person coming to you oft en does not know what information they have that could be critical to your diagnosis of an equipment problem. You might have to probe and listen carefully, plus listen without some of the fi lters that are usually present. When you think, “I’ve heard this a hundred times before,” you are not listening. You are actively fi ltering. Your spouse nags you to fi x something for the 10th time. What are they saying under the surface? Is there a message you are missing? Is there something serious going on? Practice being a better listener. Learn to identify your fi lters. Can you “see” the fi lters active in the people around you? Practice listening with your fi lters turned off . Do You Listen Well? Does it depend on the situation? By Joel Levitt DIRECTOR OF PROJECTS, RELIABILITY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE, RELIABILITYWEB.COM Joel Levitt is director of projects for Reliabilityweb.com’s Reliability Leadership Institute. Reliabilityweb.com provides the latest reliability and uptime maintenance news and educational information. » Different situations require different types of listening. This becomes more complicated because the “filters” in our mind can distort the message we are “hearing.” Photo from iStock “Filters” can alter the message.
FleetMaintenance_April_2017
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