By Katherine Bethany, FSAVE – President, SAVE International
Greetings from Vienna, Austria – what a beautiful city. I am writing this on the day after the 1st Austrian “Sound Value” conference. It was a great event with thought provoking and interesting presentations. Congratulations and thank you to Ortfried Friedreich and Hans Staudinger for the wonderful event.
While at the conference I had several thoughts, ah-ha moments, and take-away ideas. Two of which, Mentoring and Implementation, I am sharing with you in this article.
Mentoring: (Thank you Dorine Cleton for this idea.) When we talk to “active” members of SAVE International, a common theme comes out – most, if not all, fondly remember one or more people who assisted them navigate their learning, understanding and use of the Value Methodology. Comments like, “I remember the first time I met XXX, they explained YYY to me”, “XXX took the time to show me the job plan” and “XXX introduced me to YYY who is in my field and they are always available to answer my questions” are sprinkled through the conversations. In order to grow and maintain our membership we really need to make sure this mentoring continues.
So here is the challenge for all of you who have been SAVE members for longer than one year – have you mentored someone new yet? It does not have to be a formal relationship and you do not need to be a CVS to do this. Just walk up to someone at your local chapter meeting, at a conference on Value or even when someone asks you what you do and talk to them. As you talk to them, think of ways you can assist them on their value journey – maybe introduce them to others who have similar backgrounds, explain to them the difference in terms or even encourage them to attend future SAVE events. You never know, you might make a friend from the simple hello.
The challenge for those of you reading this who are new SAVE members – please do not be afraid to walk up to any member and say hello. We have all been in your spot before, panic over “what is this thing called Value Analysis?” or “What is the difference between Value Analysis and Value Engineering?” Even if the first person you meet doesn’t know the answer for you, don’t be afraid to ask a second person. One of them will be able to at least direct you in the right direction and ease some of your questions.
Implementation: At the Austrian conference there were a couple of great presentations from people who are tasked with the job of running the Value Management programs at their companies. As a former Value Engineering Program Manager, I really could relate to their presentations. One theme that came from these is the fact that Implementation of the Value Recommendations, or what happens once the Value Engineering/Value Analysis report is delivered, should be a big issue for all of us. No matter how good the recommendation is, if it is not implemented it is only lines on paper. We need to ask ourselves how we improve the implementation phase of the process. I do not have the answers, but if the methodology is to continue it must be relevant to the project managers, owners, plant managers, etc. We cannot continue to sell the methodology as practitioners and just assume that when engineers, architects, business leaders, etc. hear about it they will want to use it again.
Print 
PDF