It doesn't matter which way the pressure is coming from, it should always be respected. If you have this visual aid and can analyse this scenario, the power of balance and the line is constantly being pushed up and down or side to side with equal pressure on both sides. If you incrementally push your case, allowing time, that will become the winning element. Whoever is more honest, open and transparent in their approach, will win in the end, as they have nothing to hide.
Sometimes the pressure snaps if, from time to time, something goes wrong. This could be, for example, the staff members not realising the ageing infrastructure and the wear and tear of equipment. It could also be in that higher management want to take a different operational direction. Whatever the reason, if both parties are respecting each other's role and the pressures are always there and respected, all parties win.
But, like anything these days, often something goes wrong – an unexpected twist or an unforeseen expense occurs. If it's a negative result, it's human nature to reflect the focus
YOU NEED A PLATFORM TO KEEP EVERYONE HONEST! My graphs illustrate this pattern in a visual way, which can be broken down even further to visualise daily work performances and predict behavioural patterns in staff.
There are many ways in which the BALANCE LINE can be pushed: up and down, down and up, side to side and from left to right and right to left. It can easily become confusing.
So, I've started my own process, it may not be great but it's a start.
An example was here in the Sydney region.
A dramatic shift occurred in recent years in the koala industry with the case of the Pennant Hills Koala Park who failed to manage their koala population properly and were convicted of animal cruelty by the RSPCA in 2016. Why? Because they couldn't put a working strategy together (a visual aid) to help see their own strengths and weaknesses in Sydney's rapidly-changing landscape. This event was due to lazy private owners. To think that new investors from overseas would understand the culture here in SYDNEY, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ITS CHANGING NATURE is absurd.
As new investment and new higher management entered the zoological industry, everyone wanted to place their own stamp on things. But for some reason, businesses are using a method where they would rather cut costs, always looking for ways to reduce business expenditure. There was one particularly interesting case that occurred in Blacktown, west of Sydney at a place called "Featherdale Wildlife Park".
There was resistance where New management couldn't understand certain parts of the old-school behaviour of the long-term planning by middle to lower management, as they had a huge amount of practical skills, knowledge and years of setting up their large koala infrastructure. Sure, this was a bit expensive, but it's a proven business strategy, for this line of work, especially when
Today's big business culture has moved in such an aggressive way, in a conflict-riddled direction. In Featherdale, pressure from the new higher management witnessed strong opposition who only wanted a cull of expenses, which would undermine all the preventive measures that were already in place. They found a strong undercurrent of behaviour that represented a strong working culture. But, rather than work with that, they simply removed the barriers altogether, instead of sitting down and seeing the lower management structure as a form of strength. Five odd years ago, Featherdale had the best koala infrastructure in NSW, only known within the koala industry itself, as the strongest here in the Sydney REGION. But for some reason, the newer type of investors, who entered this different type of tourism market, failed to cash in on that strength and use it to their advantage. By only concentrating on the
Featherdale, at the time of change with new higher
A tug of war between two sides would have been evenly matched- but higher management had that advantage, and they simply removed the two strong lower managers within weeks. This replacement was given by the third manager who suddenly flew up the ranks to become the top manager for the new higher management team. Ultimately, this reduced the strength of the black bar, AND THAT 50% LINE that was present before, that simply disappeared.
In the past, Featherdale past owners had a healthy respect of the line and lower management who ran the park well, with a normal tug of war of support and resistance lines between higher and lower management. But in recent times, the new management style sought to capitalise on the lucrative koala industry and eventually made it clear, the direction this new management were educated, which was cut , cut and cut the business expenditure, and to some degree, this form of action should be challenge, from time to time, but under a watchful watch of a regulator, which we in Australia don't have!. They did lose koala numbers, soon after the removal of the two well experience lower and middle management. Even now, they have increased their volunteer program, using more and more volunteers, which I'm sure looks good on the balance sheet, but this means that there are less experienced staff, with an inflow of young and green volunteers.
This can leave them vulnerable, particularly in terms of koala food supply, which is linked to behaviour. They recently had to change koala feeding tactics, because they found a rare plant close to their main koala food plantation site. And now, because they left all their eggs in the one basket (in terms of koala food supply), they been asked to leave their main koala food plantation site in near Richmond area. Because of this sudden change, they have a much weaker skill level and knowledge compared to as little as 15 years ago. These days, Featherdale are currently working on a koala food plantation site in Lithgow, which means that the younger staff and volunteers now have to travel at least 2 hours one way. This is 4 hours of driving that is completely unproductive. If anything, they are increasing the chance of something going wrong. Previously, koala food plantations were roughly 20-30 minutes away.
This new style of higher management now faces a bigger threat of the new Blacktown Safari Park opening soon. If they only respected the strength of the previous lower management and understood how important that black-bar is (where it was at the time of change and how far or close it was to the 50% line) they would be in a stronger position, today. They could have unionised Blacktown Council ambitions to create a new tourism park (the council had a huge advertisement along the Great Western Highway for a couple of years). The new investment of Blacktown at Featherdale either didn't recognise or didn't want to recognise the support and resistance lines that occur in and outside their own environment.
Every industry has them, its whether you recognise it or not. This new higher management made the support and resistance lines crumble. By removing the top two lower managers and filled that gap with a third ranking staff member who found himself suddenly promoted. And who would knock back the opportunity for higher pay and a higher position in an industry known for its low wages!? It is questionable whether the individual who inherited this new role is ready for it.
The picture below to the right, illustrates the changes of the Horizontal support and resistance lines.
In this illustration, shows that the newer higher management has total control of both sections of the line. The resistance line is so low that it removes the honesty from the profession, compromising the entire koala profession incrementally. This type of behaviour does spread over time! Everyone in the koala industry in NSW KNEW THE IMPLICATION OF THEIR REMOVAL AND WHAT IT MEANT to place third management in the firing line. Any low-ranking manager can become a scapegoat for any unforeseen negative events to higher management.
Why has the practice of the long-term thinking, combined with the workmanship of reducing risk become such a forgotten business structure? Especially when you're working with one of the highest profile animals such as the koala! Long term prevention work is now an outside practice- where it should be on display, where guests and visitors should learn of the workings behind the scenes, and the reason for it. It's all about a new approach and developing that NEW storyline.
This showcases the layers of human behaviour with the same layers of evolution. Creating this type of story allows for kids and families to learn about layers of evolution in-line with human emotions.
Our next Article: is part-3 of the captivity sector and the merger of the Horizontal and Vertical lines into a table.
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