“I entered the packed cafeteria with tray in hand, searching for the right food to eat,” writes Marcelo Gleiser in their recent NPR article entitled “At CERN, In Search Of Nature's Building Blocks.”
“Around me, hundreds of people of all ages spoke excitedly in dozens of different languages, commenting on each other's ideas, asking questions, and thinking of the next steps in their research programs,” Gleiser continues.
“Lunchtime at the United Nations?” he asks in the piece.
“No. Lunchtime at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics, home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — the huge machine that famously discovered the Higgs boson in 2012. I'm spending a month here as a visiting scientist to keep up with the latest results and present some of my own,” Gleiser clarifies.
Gleiser explains to us that, “High-energy particle physics sounds like a very esoteric subject. And, to most people, it is. But once you step into CERN, it's a way of life. Everything here revolves around solving one of nature's most stubborn mysteries, the fundamental material composition of the universe. The essential idea, reminiscent of ancient Greece, is that matter is made of basic building blocks, chunks of stuff that cannot be broken down into smaller constituents. Particle physicists do many things, but the grand task is to find these constituents and figure out how they interact with one another.”
Of course, we read articles like this and always strive to determine how they apply to proactive operations.
This article couldn’t be any clearer.
Do you know what your operation is made of – how’s that affecting your efficiency?
The Building Blocks of Infrastructure
You quickly realize that your process is made of fundamental ‘materials’ that shape your infrastructure.
We’re not talking about the composition of nature, but the concept is still important here.
Just like nature, your operation requires certain blocks in order to function. And, those components can influence your output or effectiveness.
You can be reactive or proactive, but that all depends on what you put together.
Making a choice of what your operation is made of is a benefit you’re afforded.
You get to design and put the various building blocks of it in place.
Choose your foundation wisely, and make sure it’s a reliable one. It must be streamlined and efficient.
The last thing you need is a foundation that’ll crack under pressure.
Do you agree?
Let’s get your ‘fundamental composition’ in order.
Examine Your Current Structure
As you look at your current operation, what is it made of and how does your performance reflect?
It’s critical to look at it in this way because your performance will certainly be an echo of how things are put together.
You can tell the difference between a reactive and proactive operation by looking at efficiency.
But, before you break down your operation’s makeup, ask yourself a few simple questions:
- In terms of response times and execution of operational tasks, how efficient are you?
- Is communication amongst departments seamless or is there a lot of noise?
- Do you have a defined framework for the flow of information between mobile staff, supervisors, and your command center?
- Do you find out about issues or incidents several minutes or even hours after something occurred?
- Is your current foundation negatively affecting your bottom line?
We get it; this exercise isn’t easy, and it’s certainly eye opening.
But, you’ve got to do it to understand what your operation is made of.
What do you say, are you ready to build a proactive structure?
Fusing Your Infrastructure
Now that you’re aware of your current state let’s take advantage of your ability to change things around.
You don’t have to settle. You get to decide on the building blocks of your operation move to Proactive Operations.
Here’s the simple format we recommend for your infrastructure.
- Centralize your front-of-house command center departments in a location that offers the best visual of your property. Departments could include Police, Fire Rescue/Medical, Guest Services, Parking Operations, and any other unique guest-facing resources you manage. This command center should only have one dispatcher.
- Centralize your back-of-house command center departments, inclusive of Maintenance/Engineering, Housekeeping, Concessions, and any other behind-the-scenes departments you manage. This command center should only have one dispatcher to communicate with your front-of-house.
This setup appears simple.
It is, but setting it up to be proactive requires effort on your part. You’ve got to put in the work and get everyone on board.
Take your strategy and fuse it with your physical operation to produce a structure that stands the test of time.
You don’t want anything to slip through the cracks, right?
Then, take the time now to create an operation that proves consistent and reliable, and that results in maximum performance.
Over to You
We see it all the time: operations get excited to employ progressive solutions, but all that does is surface more issues. Do you know what that means?
You’ve got to nail down your fundamental building blocks before you can introduce solutions to achieve the effect you need.
Proactive Operations is a methodology that comprises of your strategy, infrastructure, and technology. You can’t improve one and not the others.
So, what’s your operation made of? Let us know.
