Creating The Future Is Hard: Reliability Leadership Required
There is a long story behind this post, however I will spare you from it. The names are changed to protect privacy. Here is the "short" version:
Several years ago, I worked with a large team of global plant managers who had literally just been informed that due to negative shifts in the global markets, Capex spending was suspended for the next few years. Talk about warming up the crowd! Wow. Let's just say it was an intense, interactive two-day workshop that centered on a Reliability-leadership first approach to a crowd of unhappy Plant Managers who generally sat with their arms folded for the next 48 hours. I am committed to my work, and of course convinced that focusing on reliability instead of relying on Capex was a reasonable alternative, especially when the decision to do so had already been made. I delivered with more energy than a prize-fighter, even if they landed some bruises too.
Then I came to the slide that stated:
"Reliability leaders create a new future that was not going to happen anyway" - Terrence O'Hanlon
For those who have experienced my Reliability Leadership workshops, you are very familiar with the quote above.
Creating new futures that were not going to happen anyway is not the normal concern of most people you work with, however if you carefully consider history of change at your company; you would find it always started because a leader took a stand and then spoke and acted consistent with that stand.
I will not take the time to try to convince you of that here, but I do invite you to stand in the questions around my statement and see what shows up for you.
I digress.
This week I got a message from one of the team members from that global organization who had posted a large poster version of that quote on the plant wall, and had just been asked by the Maintenance Manager to "take it down because it made no sense" and it was frustrating them.
Unless I would and could explain myself sufficiently, the poster would be on the way to the recycle bin.
I post my reply below in the hopes that discover some insights you might use if you recognize yourself or someone you work with.
Subject: The Core Context of Reliability Leadership – A Future Created, Not Inherited
Dear Frank,
Thank you for reaching out regarding the concerns about the statement: "Reliability Leaders create a future that wasn’t going to happen anyway."
It’s understandable that this statement can be frustrating to those viewing it through the lens of existing constraints—whether financial, operational, or cultural. However, its power lies not in a set of tactical actions but in the context from which those actions arise. Reliability Leadership is not just about doing things better; it is about leading from a space of creation—transforming reality rather than reacting to it.
The Context of Reliability Leadership: A 3D Perspective
Reliabilityweb.com research, validated by numerous 3rd party studies stretching over twenty-five years, show that most change initiatives fail—not because they lack technical merit, but because they are attempted from a disempowered context of constraint, resistance, and survival. Traditional approaches to asset management, maintenance, and reliability tend to focus on incremental improvements within existing systems, assuming that the future is merely an extension of the past. This approach is why 70% of maintenance improvement projects, reliability and technology initiatives fail to achieve sustainable business success.
The Leadership for Reliability (LER) Passport teaches that true Reliability Leadership operates from an entirely different paradigm—one that transcends constraints and shifts the context of the game from maintenance of the status quo to the active creation of a new future. This requires standing in the four fundamental dimensions of Reliability Leadership:
Creating a Future that Wasn’t Going to Happen Anyway
When viewed through this deeper lens, the phrase in question becomes a declaration, not an aspiration. It is a fundamental shift in what it means to lead reliability—not as a set of best practices but as a powerful stand for an entirely new future.
If we attempt to improve reliability without first shifting the context from which we operate, we may still achieve incremental improvements, but we will likely fall into the 70% failure rate that plagues so many reliability initiatives. However, when we lead from Integrity, Authenticity, Responsibility, and a Higher Aim, we flip the script—moving from 30% to 70% success rates.
The Uptime Elements People and Culture at Work domain provides a further roadmap that clarifies the main source of Asset Performance, your people!
What This Means for Your Organization
The frustration expressed by the maintenance manager isn’t unusual—many who have spent their careers inside a reactive, constraint-driven paradigm find it difficult to see how they could truly create a different future without CAPEX, without new resources, without a major change in external conditions.
But Reliability Leadership does not depend on external conditions. It depends on:
A New Lens for the Maintenance Team
Rather than seeing this statement as frustrating, I would invite the maintenance team to consider it as an access point to a more powerful way of leading. What if they truly were the creators of a new future for your organization? What if, even in the face of capital constraints, supply chain struggles, and operational pressures, they could alter the trajectory of reliability and operational excellence through leadership?
That is what this statement is about. It is not about slogans. It is about stepping into leadership, responsibility, and creation. That is what we call a Reliability Trim Tab!
I’d be happy to engage further with your team to explore how to shift their context so that reliability becomes an act of creation rather than reaction. Let me know how I can support you in reinforcing this powerful shift.
Best Regards,
Terrence O'Hanlon
Executive Director
Reliability Leadership Institute / Reliabilityweb.com
PS: Please send at least two team members to participate in the RELIABILITY Conference and learn how the world's best-run companies use Reliability Leadership to create a cross-functional, culture of reliability. Once they see it, they cannot unsee it!
Transforming MRO Material Catalogues to Improve Business Results
7 小时前I love this. Leadership creates the future that wasn't already going to happen!
Organizational Transformation Advocate using Digital Solutions.. advancing how people work better to get better results through strategy, product enablement and organizational transformation.
1 天前Terrence OHanlon I have always loved this phrase since I first heard you say it. It's a real testament to the idea that "leadership" is about creation, not sustainment. It's relatively easy to "lead" (i.e. manage the status quo) to where you were going to go anyway, maybe faster, maybe slower, but the outcome was already known. It's entirely different to look and say "that's not good enough for us, we can do better" and then lead teams (people, plus people and a few more people) to envision and then go after something that wasn't what they thought was going to happen. It can be "constrained" by things like financial limitations you described, but that's also when the creative juices start flowing. What can we do differently, better, faster, even if it means (short-term) breaking something. I think this last part is important. Lots of people talk about "fail fast" but they don't really mean that. They really mean "don't fail, we can't afford to" which leads to the culture of "pretend, but don't really try" to change. It's where true leaders are born, in the crucible of "we need to do something different."
CEO and Senior Consultant at Reliability Dude, LLC
1 天前It is a call to "do what you can with what you have." What you don't have is no longer relevant to your equation. How can you create a new future with the tools in your hands right now. Get about doing that and you'll create it.