Clearly, the world of fleet maintenance, service and repair is continuing to change rapidly, bringing about new challenges and opportunities. Change is also intensifying the essential importance of vehicle uptime and productivity.
Consider all the matters that fleet maintenance managers have to deal with nowadays. Among them:
- Keeping up-to-date on new vehicles, components and systems, as well as fleet maintenance, service and repair products and practices.
- The accelerating rise in advanced onboard technologies.
- The increasing availability of vehicle data and information from the proliferation of onboard sensors and telematics systems.
- Expanding regulatory requirements on fuel economy and emissions.
- The growth of increasingly intelligent, interconnected and instrumented vehicles.
- The evolution of autonomous vehicles.
At times, fleet maintenance managers end up narrowing their focus and limiting their field of vision. Overwhelmed, they’re running around espousing Chicken Little’s theory that “the sky is falling.”
To those who take this view I say: Take another look at the sky. It’s not falling. It’s expanding.
Some Constants
Some things have remained constant for fleet maintenance managers:
- Keeping vehicles operating with maximum uptime.
- Maintaining a safe, efficient and profitable fleet.
- Improving their personal performance.
Fleet Maintenance, and its official website – VehicleServicePros.com – continue to serve as the only ongoing resource that delivers valuable information and knowledge to help managers continue to reach these objectives. You, our readers, take to heart the words of management guru Peter Drucker: Learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change.
It’s about One’s Viewpoint
The doomsayers have the wrong perspective and attitude. They are not making the effort to view every situation as an opportunity to be taken advantage of. Change is an unavoidable must that brings with it opportunities, although they are harder to spot.
I advocate not getting caught up in the tumult of change. Rather, embrace it. This is essential to take the necessary steps to modify your organization and working practices accordingly.
I advise thinking unconventionally. Experiment and test. Stimulate creativity. Try different ways, methods, processes, systems, etc., to adapt and, more importantly, to evolve into the future.
As was noted in my previous Uptime column, Jeffrey Hayzlett – primetime TV and podcast host, keynote speaker, best-selling author and global business celebrity – says that for organizations to prosper, their leaders “must fearlessly” do what it takes to be successful, and that means “throwing out conventional wisdom, reframing limitations and steamrolling obstacles.”
Inspiration
To help you get into the right frame of mind for doing this, I offer some motivational thoughts to contemplate:
- Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t. Jerry Rice, National Football League wide receiver.
- He who rejects change is the architect of decay. Harold Wilson, former British Prime Minister.
- In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy. J. Paul Getty, American industrialist.
- Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. George Bernard Shaw, author and playwright.
- If the rules aren’t yet written, then there’s no better opportunity to write them yourself. Kara Goldin, CEO and founder of Hint.
- The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies. Napoleon Bonaparte, French military leader and emperor.
The Navy Seals have this saying: The only easy day was yesterday. This means that no matter how well you performed yesterday, it is necessary to work hard every day and adapt to whatever new challenges come your way.
Learn from Failure
You don’t need to have everything figured out. Change inherently entails risk. Don’t be afraid to fail. As Henry Ford observed: Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Failure is a part of the learning process. Find positive ways to interpret unexpected results.
Inventor Thomas Edison made 1,000 attempts at inventing the light bulb. When asked how it felt to fail 1,000 times, Edison reportedly responded: I didn’t fail 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb.
Ruminate on naturalist Charles Darwin’s adage about adapting or dying. It states that it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives, but the one that is most adaptable to change.
Change is Unrelenting
Today, and for the future, the biggest challenge to you and your organization is massive, continual change at an ever-increasing pace. How well you and your organization respond to change, uncover opportunities and capitalize on them is essential to evolution and success.
To sum up, understand that there will always be some uncertainty and unknown risks. Chuck conventional wisdom, rethink limitations and overpower obstacles. Don’t be worried about failing because failure is instructive. To quote German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: By seeking and blundering we learn.
