This week has been in Fort McMurray, the center of the mining industry, if you count by mass of material moved and the value of the companies involved. Much of what I did is confidential and not able to be shared in a blog. But here are a few thoughts prompted by the week’s doings.
The Expert Expert: The danger in any mining undertaking, and any human undertaking for that matter, is the problem of the expert Expert. By this I mean the person who is so skilled in their area of expertise and so admired because of past successes that they dominate every meeting and mislead the meeting to incorrect decisions by sheer force of personality. Beware this person and make sure you set up opposition in the project to the overwhelming force of such persons, for they will lead you and your project astray.
The Scientists in Practical Matters: Equally dangerous is the person who is a scientist by instinct and who will seek to explore the fundamentals when all you need is a practical answer. Keep them at bay; or at least keep them in the research arena and do not let them stray into practical matters where their insidious influence will bog things down in minutia when all you need is a practical approach that works, even if you are not one hundred percent sure why it works.
The Meeting Negative: This is my favorite hate—the person who excels in being a Meeting Queen mainly because they are skilled in the art of disagreeing with any statement made in any meeting. They delay progress, and should be summarily evicted from all meetings convened to find a way forward.
The Consultant Seeking More Work. This dangerous individual predicates consulting advice on the concept of “more work” rather than on the concept of what is cost-effective and in the best interests of the mine. They are difficult to weed out, for they are smart at underestimating the effort involved, persuasive in their concerns for continuity of investigation, and frightening in their predictions of what “will” go wrong if work is suspended to the cessation of their billable activities.
Can’t Make a Decision Clients: This is a basics mining inertia person who has a secure job on the mine, but is basically stupid and lazy and justifies their existence by demanding more meetings, more studies, more evaluations, more expenditure, but can never quiet get down to deciding, leading, or even managing. They are good for venial consultants but bad fo shareholders and upper management. Measure such people by the action that results from their activities and kick them out if they achieve too little to justify their existence.
Conversely, we have been blessed this week , because we have interacted with smart, intelligent, decisive, and committed mining folk. Some are even friends and all will go down in our books as admired people. We thank them for a good week, and the opportunity to be productive while increasing the mine’s profits and our income.
Great post Jack – I was nodding the whole way through!
I was in a client meeting two weeks ago and I think we had all those people there too. There were plenty of expert experts, one consultant seeking to maximise his work, and more than a couple of details focussed engineers (talking about which type of tooth they would use on a bucket when we are at scoping level for the mining study!).
Luckily our client was definitely not a “can’t make decisions” client. He did very well to keep the team moving and keep their thinking at the correct (higher) level.
Cheers again, great read and all too true!
Jamie
The best thing is when you have two Expert Experts in a meeting and you know they disagree with each other on certain points but refuse to take each other on. This may likely be due to professional courtesy or fear of making a renown enemy. Its hilarious to watch when you know what going on and the Experts are squirming not knowing how to make their points tactfully. Usually experts are accustomed to making comments without tact since they are generally dealing with peons, so Expert to Expert battles are awkward to watch but enjoyable.