Fortune Cookie Wisdom: A Schedule Defends From Chaos and Whim

Curt Johnson, CPEA, STC Senior Program Director, Richmond, TX 

One of the most stressful times of the year for managers is budgeting season. You can almost see walls rise between departments as managers fortify arguments and justify their department's importance in the hopes of maintaining or even increasing their budgets. Prior successes may start discussions with the budget committee on friendly footing, but the inevitable "OK, what are you going to do for us now?" instantly makes managers defensive. And woe to the manager entering budget negotiations with failures on last year's books.

Glum faces, sunken eyes, and stale coffee followed by caffeine- and sugar-laden energy drinks for "lunch" seem to go hand in hand with budget planning spreadsheets. But before I let my clients and colleagues pass out from hunger, I make sure they eat some sweet and sour chicken or moo shu pork while I point out how having a health and safety and/or environmental management system in place strengthens their position. A recent fortune from our trip to the Chinese restaurant helps make the case:

Imagine losing your new assistant because you didn't thoroughly breakdown roles and responsibilities. Or what would happen to your training budget if you didn't have a thorough understanding of your training needs because you hadn't conducted a legal requirements analysis or performed a competency review to identify elements that need improvement? A management system can help eliminate errors and defend against the chaos and whim of budget time.

Clause 4.3.3 (Objectives, Targets and Programs) in the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard and Clause 4.3.3 (Objectives and Programs) in the OHSAS 18001 standard^[1] both ask organizations to establish, implement, and maintain objectives and targets, as well as the programs (or pathways) to get there. Include estimating the cost and you have a budget. When done correctly, the management system process for identifying objectives and targets builds consensus for what will be done in the programs and creates justification for these steps-absolute essentials for agreeing to a budget.

Why is implementing Clause 4.3.3 so influential? The central purpose of the clause is to set objectives, that is, the goals you're striving for. To get to that point, the clause lays out what you need to consider when deciding on your goals. Next it reminds you that to successfully get where you want to go, you need a program that describes the path you plan to take, who will help along the way, and when you expect to arrive. Importantly, the clause also requires you to define your target-that is, how you know if you got to where you wanted. If practical, the target needs to be measurable. The specifics of the target and the program (i.e., the where, the how, the who, and the when) are the "schedule" in my fortune cookie analogy.

Both the ISO and OHSAS management system standards require your objectives and targets to be consistent with your health and safety or environmental policy, including your commitment to compliance and continual improvement. An environmental management system's objectives must reflect the commitment to pollution prevention and take the organization's significant environmental aspects into account. Similarly, a health and safety management system requires objectives to further prevent illness and injury, while considering the organization's occupational health and safety risks. Both standards also expect that the process for determining objectives and targets considers legal and other requirements, available options and technology, business expectations, financial conditions, and the views of interested parties.

The aspects and risks being controlled, however, do not always need new objectives and targets. Objectives, targets, and programs should be established only for those things the organization wants to change. Unless systems are selected for further improvement, they can continue to be managed and monitored through existing systems. Furthermore, the ISO/OHSAS standards allow for the reality of what is actually possible, and prudence suggests that realistic achievable targets be set.

My personal hazard identification and risk assessment process determined that I enjoy regular meals, and, when subjected to a non-routine activity (like being stuck on a plane), I tend to get cranky. Interested parties (clients, colleagues, and the general public) let me know that they disliked my irritability, and I am nothing if not considerate of their views. The requirements analysis established that my body does require sustenance, so I established an objective of having lunch when I'm with colleagues. Without a specific target, however, there's a good chance we will work far into the afternoon and subject someone to my crankiness, so we need to make further considerations and then get specific about the day's program.

In my quest for continual improvement, prior experience has revealed a number of restaurants I won't go back to. In addition, I have pledged not to eat raw oysters again to prevent recurrence of a particular illness. Options are further narrowed when we acknowledge business expectations (a 90-minute window between the client conference call and the webinar), our financial restrictions, and the lack of teleportation to take us to that barbecue place in Memphis. Considering views from other interested parties-no one wants fast food burgers and fries-we settle on Chinese. So our target is to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant between noon and 1 and spend less than $10. After talking through a few logistics and with a little research, the program is set: before the conference call you make a reservation and get directions; I'll have the car out front 5 minutes after the call ends. Without the planning and detailed program, chaos would have ensued-or at least fast food on a whim because time was short.

Objectives, targets, and programs are as varied as the organizations that develop and implement them. Objectives frequently identified in environmental management systems include reducing the organization's carbon footprint and conserving resources to satisfy stakeholder's expectations and decrease operating costs (from lowered energy and water usage, for example). An organization's targets needs to have greater specificity, including a means to measure achievement when possible, and a time frame.  Examples might be to, within the next two years, reduce the energy needed per unit of product by 10% from a declared starting point, or decrease the total amount of fresh water used per month by 30%. Programs to achieve the target get more detailed and resemble project implementation plans, with assigned duties and interim and final completion dates. For example, Engineering will select a system to recycle rinse water during the first quarter; Operations will identify a contractor and oversee installation so the system will be functional by the end of the calendar year.

Consider carefully who needs to be involved in deciding upon the objectives, targets and programs. Large or complex organizations will have a management systems implementation team and a separate, more senior, management review team. The implementation team often identifies aspects of the business that need work as well as risks of changes, and they're familiar with the legal and other requirements (even if they don't record all the details). They understand what's happening in operations and what needs to be improved. Clearly, the implementation team will have ideas that influence objectives. The management review team, however, is better positioned to select objectives and determine targets. This team will understand the organization's strategic objectives, its business and financial realities, and the views of various interested parties (e.g., neighbors, investors, regulators, customers). As the team in control of budget and resources, without their agreement there is little chance of success. Finally, the Management Review required in Clause 4.6 expects this team to evaluate the management system and decide upon changes to ensure success and continual improvement.

With all their potential, management systems are often limited on their ability to promote and improve EHS performance by one factor: timing. Many organizations underestimate the time needed to properly establish objectives, define meaningful targets, and identify the steps in their programs. As you plan your timeline for implementing Clause 4.3.3, accept that the process will take several meetings. After all, you need to first make interim decisions for objectives. Then you need to gather sufficient information to understand details and decide on specific targets. Only then can you decide on formal programs or plans to achieve the targets. Finally, remember to synchronize your initial planning (setting objectives, targets, and programs) and ongoing management review with the budget process. It's frustrating and wasteful to have a great idea from the management review wait 6 months for budget approval.

To reduce the stress of working out your budget and to defend your management system from chaos and whim, initiate the planning process for your objectives, targets, and programs far in advance of actual budget discussions. Instead of entering budget time with glum faces and stale coffee, you'll already have an agreement on what needs to be done, a plan to do it, and maybe even the time and money to break for lunch.

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P.S. The management review that was the inspiration for this article did determine that targets were met.  We did enjoy lunch at the Chinese restaurant for less than $10 each and cheerfully made it back in time for our training webinar. However, we did cut it close since we delayed while waiting for our colleague to make a final email check. We'll discuss preventive action in a future column to address this improvement opportunity.

Curt Johnson, CPEA, is an STC Senior Program Director in Richmond, TX. He has more than 30 years experience in the development and implementation of environmental, health and safety management systems. Recent projects include assessing management systems conformance to the federal sentencing guidelines definition of an effective environmental compliance program for an offshore fleet operation and developing the management system and its documentation for a major food producer. Curt is the current author of ISO 14001: Environmental Management Systems-A Complete Implementation Guide, published by Specialty Technical Publishers of Vancouver, B.C.

To discuss this article or for more information about the ISO 14001 Guide, contact Curt at (281) 341-8289 or CJohnson@stcenv.com.