INSIGHT
blocks. People get stressed, relationships
deteriorate, and production suffers. This
could have been avoided if a little extra
time was taken in the beginning and the
‘why’ and the ‘how’ were well planned
and clearly communicated.
Experience has taught that
communication is never only verbal.
Remember that you want to change the
culture at the quarry. Therefore, you must
bring the new message across in such a
way that new behaviour can be learned.
When you really want to get a message
across, you need to follow a multi-
sensory approach — incorporate several
senses. People have different learning
styles:
• Some learn through hearing
(aurally), which is the approach most
commonly followed in business. We
give verbal instructions. The challenge
is that only about 25% of people learn
in this way — so only a quarter of
your people get your message.
• About 30% of people learn through
visual communication. We think if we
give them written instructions it will
be enough, but visual learners need
the opportunity to see how something
is done. An engineer I know does this
very well. If there is a requirement of
5–10% moisture content, he takes the
time to make up a small sample and
bottle it. Then he gives it to the plant
operators and tells them this is what
the required moisture content looks
like.
• Another 15% learn through the
kinaesthetic approach. This means
that they need the opportunity to
experience it. They must move,
physically, and do it the right way in
order to learn. We have now covered
70–75% of people.
• The remaining 25–30% learn through
a combination of these approaches.
The point is, when you want to get a
message across that will change the
culture of your quarry, you must follow
all these approaches to get the buy-in
from all your people.
Communication also has another side.
One of the most used communication
tools is the telephone. Have you
ever noticed that a telephone has a
microphone and a speaker? This is
because communication consists not only
of talking but also of listening.
It is of no use to have a vision for
quality if management does not listen
when lab technicians or operators are
38_QUARRY SA | MAY/JUNE 2019
Scenes from Afrimat Glen Douglas testing laboratory. Saartjie Duvenhage was previously chairperson
of Aspasa’s technical committee on quality management.
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