Designing OHS Management Plan Solutions (pt 3)

This is part three of a design focused series, where the benefits of our template designs are explained, and some principles are shared. We hope will find them helpful. The templates solution we consider in this article is our OHS Management Plan. The Principles we now examine are ‘Constrained Focus’ and ‘Flexible Rigidity’.

The ‘Designing a Quality Safety Management Plan’ Series

In articles one and two we focused on issues of purpose, currency and the critical questions we should consider. We also looked at our WHS Management Plan Templates as relevant examples of these principles at work.

As stated already, we now move into two fresh principal areas:

1. Constrained focus.
2. Adjustable rigidity.

We also consider a new product as an example: our Safety Management Plan solution.

Planning for OHS Management Demands Focus

As soon as a template is created a constraint (or limitation) is introduced. Specific data is required in specific locations. There is nothing casual about this process.

Merely creating boxes for information, or fields for data to be entered into is NOT what we do. Our templates mediate legislative, compliance and information needs for your business. Our templates do this in a way that helps you reason and solve problems, again and again.

Focus is required. You can see this particularly at work in our OHS Management Plan template.

Achieving an Adjustable Rigidity

We needed to design a structure that allowed for variation, yet also provided enough boundaries to keep the process effective.

To do this, we needed to apply the rest of the principles taught through this series, but we also needed to look at OHS Management situations and data from different perspectives.

We call these ‘snapshots’, or frameworks through which we view each issue. Every location and process within a worksite has a potentially limitless number of snapshots.

Think of it this way. If you were to hand a camera to your 10-year-old son and ask him to photograph as many things as he can see from as many angles as possible, you begin to get an idea of what role snapshots play in our design process.

Both WHS and OHS Management Plan templates has been designed to accommodate a vast array of management planning factors, while not overwhelming you with unneeded repetition.

Just as you might delete 80% of the images your son captured, so to must a template designer eliminate repetitive or superfluous snapshots. Templates must be focused and efficient. This is a challenge! Interestingly, discussing the design principles behind template design is not easy to do either.

In our Management Plan template for example, we faced a particular challenge when dealing with the OHS Risk Management dynamics. This issue has many ‘snapshot’ options. We chose what we believed was the most effective perspective to work from, and designed our template accordingly.

A good template effectively says to your ten year old, as you hand him the camera, “Shoot 50 photos, 3 of each piece of equipment, 3 of each team member and 5 from the front gate at different levels of zoom with your back to the gate. Oh, and the rest of the time, take the photo with the sun to your back.” It guides the outcome.

A good management plan template brings predictability to your data input, and this brings predictability to results. Our OHS management template delivers this, and when dealing with the potential complexities of safety planning and management, that sort of adjustable rigidity is essential.

Our OHS Management Plan product helps safety management information be managed, translated and expressed. This makes it an effective template.

Why this is so will be further explored in the remaining three articles. These will explain the remaining principles, and feature more OHS/WHS template offerings.

As we approach our 6,000th template sale, the feedback we have received to date indicates we are achieving our goals. If we can help you, please don’t hesitate to call us on 1800 304 336 .

Footnote:

Also, a quick reminder that we referenced some helpful references in our first article if you wish to further explore the principles shared.