( March 18 2018 Workshop Project MGT 567 – 01W Patrick Osborn, Debo Ogun seinde , & Gilbert Ortiz ) Introduction / Background Working in a coal power plant I today’s energy utility market presents an individual with unique situations, distinct challenges, and opportunities. The effects of the political environment are felt very heavily in this industry. I have only been working for AEP/SWEPCO and more specifically Welsh Power Plant, for a short seven years. In this short time period, I have seen the method by which we operate our generating units drastically change due to politics and environmental regulations. To elaborate, this plant and just like many others in the AEP system used to operate at base load. Operating at base load meant that he units operated at full capacity the entire time they were in service. These generating units were only shut down for maintenance during planned outages and/or equipment failures which were far and in between. This particular plant, has received national recognition for operating entire years without failures or malfunctions. This is classified as low EFOR which stands for Equivalent Forced Outage Rate and in our system, the lowest EFOR classified operating plants were deemed as critical for the system grid and recognized through an annual national convention. This method of operation has drastically changed in the last four years due to stringent EPA regulations and the government paying subsidies (taxpayer revenue) to renewable energy companies with wind generation having the most growth margin. The challenges my company now encounters is remaining complaint and in business despite the stringent EPA regulations and government subsidies favoring renewable resources. For my company, this implied investing millions of dollars in capital to add further filtration systems to trap the ash and further limit emissions while saving costs and increasing revenue at the same time. The revenue increase came from investing capital in sectors the company that would provide returns, which coal generating plants did not so as well. Something to note, multiple coal generating plants have been retired over the last six years. Therefore and as a result, our coal generating units are being forced to operate outside manufacturer specifications by dynamically altering the load capability curve. Depending on multiple factors, with wind generation being one of them, our units our now being operated anywhere from 20% to 100% load throughout the day. If the forecast is for long periods of mild weather and high winds, then coal generating units could potentially be asked to shut down and reaming off, until market conditions improved to avoid higher costs for the customer. This new way of doing business has also affected our culture. Where in the past, silos were the norm, every department had the funding and budget (which was significantly more) necessary to cover all planned repairs/projects/tasks. Teams were se ...

1. (
March 18
2018
Workshop Project
MGT 567
– 01W
Patrick Osborn, Debo Ogun
seinde
, & Gilbert Ortiz
)
Introduction / Background
Working in a coal power plant I today’s energy utility market
presents an individual with unique situations, distinct
challenges, and opportunities. The effects of the political
environment are felt very heavily in this industry. I have only
been working for AEP/SWEPCO and more specifically Welsh
Power Plant, for a short seven years. In this short time period, I
have seen the method by which we operate our generating units
drastically change due to politics and environmental
regulations.
To elaborate, this plant and just like many others in the AEP
system used to operate at base load. Operating at base load
meant that he units operated at full capacity the entire time they
were in service. These generating units were only shut down for
maintenance during planned outages and/or equipment failures
which were far and in between. This particular plant, has
received national recognition for operating entire years without
failures or malfunctions. This is classified as low EFOR which
stands for Equivalent Forced Outage Rate and in our system, the
lowest EFOR classified operating plants were deemed as critical
for the system grid and recognized through an annual national

2. convention.
This method of operation has drastically changed in the last
four years due to stringent EPA regulations and the government
paying subsidies (taxpayer revenue) to renewable energy
companies with wind generation having the most growth
margin.
The challenges my company now encounters is remaining
complaint and in business despite the stringent EPA regulations
and government subsidies favoring renewable resources. For my
company, this implied investing millions of dollars in capital to
add further filtration systems to trap the ash and further limit
emissions while saving costs and increasing revenue at the same
time. The revenue increase came from investing capital in
sectors the company that would provide returns, which coal
generating plants did not so as well. Something to note,
multiple coal generating plants have been retired over the last
six years.
Therefore and as a result, our coal generating units are being
forced to operate outside manufacturer specifications by
dynamically altering the load capability curve. Depending on
multiple factors, with wind generation being one of them, our
units our now being operated anywhere from 20% to 100% load
throughout the day. If the forecast is for long periods of mild
weather and high winds, then coal generating units could
potentially be asked to shut down and reaming off, until market
conditions improved to avoid higher costs for the customer.
This new way of doing business has also affected our culture.
Where in the past, silos were the norm, every department had
the funding and budget (which was significantly more)
necessary to cover all planned repairs/projects/tasks. Teams
were secluded to individual departments and did not work well
with others. The environment was all about autocratic
leadership with subordinates imply doing as instructed.
Today, we have reduced funding and a very limited budget, this
is labeled as BCO or basic cost of operations. Today, the work
has to be prioritized with some departments having to reduce

3. their budget to allow other departments to do their work based
on priority and criticality. Where in the past, we took care of
our department, today we focus on overall teamwork to
prioritize critical work that needs to get done. Today, the plant
leadership has shifted focus and asks for input from the
members doing the actual work. We are asking every team
member to provide ideas and how we could save costs by
assessing the actual work. Where in the past, we had the
funding to purchase any parts and materials, today we don’t,
and the members that do the work can share valuable
information with regard to saving maintenance costs on
preventive, corrective maintenance, and contractor spending.
To get to this point, the company took a proactive approach to
change our culture by engaging employees and providing the
time required for team workshops to learn about LEAN concepts
revolving around taking in consideration employee input and
finding ways to do things more effectively. The objective was to
find ways of doing something faster, safer, less frequent and
with less defects, and reduce waste while focusing on customer
value to reduce contractor spending by doing some of the work
ourselves. This radical idea/movement was presented and
influenced through a need for change due to externalities
outside our control.
Like any change, there will be resistance. However, through
training classes, workshops, and focus on team work, our
employees will understand the company’s goals and objective.
Most importantly, they will understand how their input can
affect the outcome by engaging in cross training and helping
other departments when required.

4. Work Shop Objective:
The objective is to educate employees of the importance of
overall teamwork and address the prevalent issues that are
currently affecting safety, funding, performance, and culture.
Master Outline:
a) Introduction/ Get to know each other activity – 5 min.
a. Provide name, title/role, and name of favorite movie
b) Section 1: Understanding Safety and the ZERO HARM
CONCEPT– 12 min.
a. What is employee safety and ZERO HARM
b. Explaining defenses (SWISS Cheese Model)
c) Section 2: The importance of O&M budget control – 12 min.
a. Understand the market
b. Relentless O&M optimization
d) Section 3: Plant Performance – 12 min.
a. Identifying performance metrics
b. Revaluating performance metrics
e) Section 4: Team Culture – 19 min.
a. What is a TEAM

5. b. The purpose of teamwork
c. Learning from failure
d. How individual contributions fit into context
Introduction/ Ice Breaker activity – 5 min. depending on the
number of participants
Objective – The objective for this portion of the workshop is to
welcome and warm up the conversation among the participants
by stating your name and role in the organization followed by
the name of the participant’s favorite movie.
Estimate of time- 5 min
Principles to teach– The leader of the activity will explain to
the group what the expectations of the activity are for everyone.
The facilitator will also explain to the group the meaning
behind the activity and what they hope to accomplish. In an
“Ice Breaker” activity the goal is to get everyone to start
warming up into conversation and feel more comfortable with
the group. After those points are made the facilitator will being
the activity leading by example and creating the foundation for
everyone else in the group.
Ice Breaker Activity
Materials needed: N/A
Activity description – The facilitator will begin by explaining
that this activity is designed to share and disclose the

6. participants thought processes with a small glimpse at their
personality.
The facilitator begins with the participant closest to him and
goes around the room listening to each individual. If the group
is bigger than 12 participants, consider limiting their
introductions to less than one minute of interaction.
Key takeaways – After completing this this activity, the
audience should feel more comfortable having shared something
personal with the group. In some instances, strong connections
will be made through having something in common. Conclude
the activity by implying that an active participation is strongly
encouraged to make the workshop a fun and learning experience
for all.
Section 1: Understanding Safety and ZERO HARM
Objective – The objective of this section is for the audience to
understand that employee safety and the ZERO HARM concept
is the number one priority for the company.
Principles to teach
In an organization the people are what matter most. At the end
of the day the workers are who get the job done and keep the
business functioning. The activity facilitator will emphasize to
the group why they should view all members of the organization
as valuable and the importance of placing others needs before
their own. As leaders they should never instruct someone to do
something they would not do themselves. Emphasize the fact
that employees with the right skillset, values, personality, and
decision making process will impact our culture in a manner
that is currently necessary given the market conditions. It is the
empirical factor of establishing a safety culture alone that will
allow the company to succeed by being each other’s keeper.
Presenter – Project slide 1 to introduce the ZERO HARM
CONCEPT
ZERO HARM CONCEPT - The Presenter should emphasize and

7. present the ZERO HARM Concept by allowing a volunteer
participant to read the following projected statement.
· AEP Generation has a high expectation when it comes to
safety. We believe all injuries are preventable and we expect all
of those coming to our facilities, to share and practice this same
belief. We expect all workers to be involved in safety and at no
point should safety be compromised for quality, cost,
production, or scheduling. We expect you to stop the job when
hazards are present. We expect you to address these hazards,
either by correcting them yourself or if necessary, by bringing
these hazards to the attention of plant personnel to assist in
correcting them. Your safety is important to us in AEP
Generation. It is our commitment to make sure all of our
employees go home at the end of the day without any injuries.
Thereafter, the facilitator should ask for feedback and
understanding of the statement. The participant’s response
should be connected to the explanation that “you are your
brother’s keeper”. In other words, we should look out for each
other. Emphasize the fact that the company is in full support of
saying something and doing something when an employee sees
another fellow employee working in unsafe conditions. The
company is in full support of providing a safe condition to work
in by providing the right tools (defenses) for the job.
Presenter - Project slide #2 to emphasize different defenses that
can be used to increase safety and prevent all injuries to our
most valuable asset.
Facilitator- Present the model to the group using the above
example. Highlight details from each point:
1. Brief explanations of the model beginning with the trigger
event being blocked by the multiple layers of defenses.
2. Special emphasis should be taken on the holes of the cheese
lining up resulting in an event or some cases employee being
injured.
3. The last layer of defense involves identifying specific

8. performance standards or cultural defenses that represent the
norm that needs to change. The presenter should emphasize that
the last line of defense resides in the culture, a system of shared
beliefs, values, and assumptions that determine what acceptable
and unacceptable behavior is.
Activity - Presenter should engage the group and ask for
specific examples of defenses that they are aware of pertaining
to each individual layer of cheese.
Example – Procedure could imply prints, referent
documentation to a piece of equipment, or manuals. Training
implies educating employees on the clearance procedure.
Supervision includes the front line leadership and the support
they can provide for the employee. Engineering system refer to
protective systems that can be engaged when certain activities
are taking place. PPE is the personal protective equipment that
an employee can wear to avoid injuries such as fall protection.
Closing discussion – During this time, the presenter will lead a
discussion where the audience will be able to comment on the
material and ask questions about any principle regarding the
overall culture focus in safety and zero harm.
Key takeaways – After all the content has been taught and
discussed, and the activities have been completed, the presenter
will review the following critical points:
a. Safety is every employee’s business and at is core; is about
sending everyone home safely to their families after a great day
at work.
b. ZERO HARM is a concept of belief in that all injuries can be
preventable through establishing and always adapting solid
defenses and most importantly; through our culture of looking
out for each other.
Section 2: The importance of O&M budget control
Objective – The objective of this section is for the audience to
understand the why and how the modern market conditions
dictate how we need to operate and maintain the generating
units to contribute to the continued success of the plant.
Estimate of time- 12 Min

9. Principles to explain
Introduction -The activity leader will begin by giving examples
of positive traits or behaviors of the organizations team
members; providing specific examples of the values those team
members provide for the organization. This will show the value
that each person has and set the stage for encouraging everyone
to find the value in others. If time permits, the following
explanation should be given to emphasize the need for change.
Example: The presenter should exemplify the fact change is
inevitable and that as a team, we must adapt, achieve, and
overcome. Elaborate on how the change in funding has
compelled to reassess where and how we spend our limited
budget.
The Presenter will now explain the process by which the plant
will have to adapt to remain viable through the changing market
conditions. The process of team motivation through clarity,
transparency, and culture alignment is broken down below:
1. Elaborate on revenue – How important is revenue for the
continued success of the unit. The fact is that is not anymore.
This is due to market regulation changes and the returns on
capital investments that will continue to provide revenue until
the plant book value is diminished. Therefore, emphasize the
importance of plant reliability and the opportunities to add to
revenue through operations when the market is in high demand
for power generation.
2. Elaborate on expenses – How can the employees contribute to
the success of the plant? The presenter refers to revenue
through operation being lowered; therefore this is done by
controlling expenses. These expenses are in the form of parts,
materials, and outside services that could be reduced. When
generating units are not required by the market, this could imply
that we have opportunities to inspect/repair/maintain our
equipment more efficiently with our employees doing the work
instead of rush jobs by outside services.
Presenter - Project slide #3 and # 4 to emphasize on the current
market conditions and the need for change in the way we do

10. everyday business.
3. Future state – The presenter takes this time to embellish on
the necessity for change and future state of the plant’s culture.
In this state, employees are engaged and looking for methods by
which to reduce waste and increase customer value. This is by
lowering expenses through less use of outside services and
instead taking up some of the work themselves or optimization
of equipment maintenance programs. The whole plant is now a
single team trying to achieve one common goal; high reliability
and low cost operations.
Activity case – The presenter takes this time to assess the
retention level of information from the audience based on the
observations just portrayed. The question that follows to
audience is, “what changes would you recommend based on the
material we just learned?”
The presenter should give about 20 seconds for the audience to
think about their responses and based on time limitations, pick
1-2 individuals to come to the front to explain their responses.
To finish the activity, the presenter should reinstate the fact that
culture change focused in coherent teamwork to relentlessly
optimize our operations and maintenance budget will be key to
achieving our ultimate goal of maintain high reliability while
lowering our expenses down.
Closing discussion – During this time, the presenter will lead a
discussion where the audience will be able to comment on the
material and ask questions about the energy utility market and
new limitations on funding.
Key takeaways – The presenter will now turn to Slide 5 in the
power point presentation and go over the following bullets:
· The utility market has changed and the need for culture change
has therefore been established and we must follow suit.
· Culture change begins with our front line employees.
· Optimization of our budget will allow the plant to remain
viable and operational through coherent teamwork.

11. Section 3: Plant Performance
Objective – Describe the current training and skills that the
workers of the plant hold and how we can establish certain
metrics to measure continuous improvement efforts and support
the organization’s strategy.
Estimate of time- 12 minutes
Principles to Teach-
Presenter - Attention getting Activity: To Start this part of the
section, the instructor will open up with the question located in
slide 5 of the PowerPoint slide.
· Has anyone been involved in an activity that involved tracking
progress?
· If yes, how did this impact your effectiveness and outcome?
Due to the time limitations allow 2-3 people to explain their
answers. Leverage their answers to teach that establishing
metrics are extremely important as they empower the employee
to ramp up on the job, perform better, and improve their
perception of the organization.
Bring up the fact that metrics provide a base or foundation from
which improvements can be made about a process under
question.
After concluding with the activity, explain the following types
of performance metrics:
1. Operational – This are metrics that will focus improvements
on qualitative values, such as; culture meetings, success stories,
lean events, learning teams, and hazard recognized.
a. Culture meetings – In these weekly meetings, volunteers from
every department will have the opportunity to contribute into
developing and sharing ideas of how to positively impact our
culture in the form of approved social gatherings. Participation
metrics will be kept until every employee has had the
opportunity to contribute.
b. Success stories and hazard recognized experiences by
employees will be shared with the plant with a target goal of at
least two stories shared per week per department.
c. Lean or learning team events will assist in developing

12. continuous improvements ideas with savings in associated cost
being recorded and reported on a bi-annual basis.
2. Financial – These metrics will assist in evaluating the ability
of the plant to convert operational performance into financial
goals. This metrics will demonstrate quantitative values in the
form of time saved and spent on high customer value tasks,
costs saved form work taken back from outside services, and
expenses saved from optimizing maintenance programs and
inventory control/management.
a. Time savings – This factor will come into play when an
employee shares ideas of process that can be accomplished
faster. In some cases and as the front line employees suggest,
some maintenance programs can be adjusted to allow parts and
materials not to be used as often and only when truly required.
By optimizing preventive maintenance programs, this will
enable employees and front line supervision to save and spend
time on other tasks.
b. Costs savingsfrom outside services– As the organization
saves time from optimizing preventative maintenance programs.
This will allow employees to take back some work that is
currently taken by outside contractors saving costs associated
with contractor fees. Explain that internal labor is a straight
pass through and does not affect the budget and taking back
work from contractors is a direct method of cost savings.
c. Costs savings from optimizing maintenance programs-
Optimizing preventative maintenance programs will allow some
equipment to operate at longer intervals with less shutdowns
and use of parts and materials. Taking in consideration
suggestions from our front line employees, the employee
recommendations will go through engineering and
manufacturing for approval. Reducing costs associated with
parts and material while saving time to spend on other tasks will
overall reduce costs.
3. Effective preventative maintenance programs
Presenter - Turn to slide 6 of the power point presentation and
use the exhibit to elaborate on the advantages and disadvantages

13. of preventative maintenance programs and the unnecessary costs
associated with doing it when is not required.
Presenter – Turn to slide 7 and emphasize the necessity for
establishing key performance metrics and the continuous change
of those metrics to resemble adaptation to the environment
through the concept of PDMA.
Activity
Presenter – Transition to slide 8 in the power point presentation
and open discussion on the following questions to be asked;
Has anyone being in a position and asked yourself;
· Why are we doing this so often?
· There is nothing wrong with this piece of equipment, why are
we doing this again?
· We are just wasting time and money doing this job, when I
don’t think that is necessary?
After listening to 2-3 participants give their response move
forward to reinstate that fact that is all about culture. We need
to change our culture, have a questioning attitude and adapt
wherever necessary to able to overcome and achieve the
organization’s goals.
Closing Discussion – This will be a great time for the members
of the team to discuss the workshop and what aspects they will
bring back to their department to work on growing as a team to
work toward a common goal to achieve success as a whole. The
main topics should revolve around the importance of employee
engagement, having a questioning attitude, changing our
culture, and establishing a method of tracking improvements. If
the participants do not bring up the fact that in the past there
has been a lot of wasted resources, this topic should be brought
up by the presenter for further discussion.
Key takeaways
Presenter - Turn to slide 8 in the power point presentation and
go over the following bullets:
· Metrics are used to define our organizational model or our

14. business as usual behavior.
· Performance indicators will be used to drive a specific
outcome by adjusting the way we do everyday business by
assisting in setting clear expectations.
· Efforts and resources will focus on what is important to the
organization to be successful by supporting the overall strategy
in elaborating about the following factors;
· Where it has been
· Where it is heading
· Whether something is wrong
· When targets are reached
Section 4: Team Culture
Objective – The overall objective of this section is to teach the
audience of the value of working together with a shared
responsibility for a specific outcome with regard to the
organization’s overall success.
Estimate of time- 15 Minutes
Principles to Teach – Begin this portion that change is coming
and motivating the team to see it as a positive time to improve
the organization. This is something they will be a valuable
contributor of and the necessity to change our culture to be able
to adapt to changing market conditions. The emphasis of this
section will therefore be to teach the audience the importance of
teamwork and how each individual can contribute by
understanding the concept of teamwork and the new approach to
failure. The presenter will exemplify the concept of teamwork
by elaborating the understanding of four perceptions;
a. What is a team – The team concept is something that we as
humans spend our lives talking about. As children, some play
sports and in teams of soccer, baseball, and/or football. At other
times, we invest time in math teams, debate teams, and/or
different associations. In the workplace, you are part of a team
as well. Generally, you are part of a group of individuals who
will work interdependently and cooperate to accomplish the
same purpose. At this time, the most basic team is your
individual department. The goal is for this different department

15. to each contribute to work together for an overall contributory
effort to reach the organization’s goals.
b. The purpose of teamwork - No more silos or playing the
blame game, we need teams to take accountability, ownership,
and create a support system for each member of the
organization. The purpose of a team in its most basic concept is
that we are all in this together. If one department fails to meet
expectations then we have failed as well. Teamwork will
increase emphasis on problem-solving, process improvements,
and group identity which will serve to positively impact our
culture.
c. Learning from failure – Team cohesion will begin with our
culture and how we deal with failure. The new approach will be
focused on learning from failure to prevent reoccurrence. We
are moving away from the standard punishment and focusing on
improving our culture by recognizing four factors:
Presenter – Turn to slide 9 and state the following;
1. Without failure we don’t expand
2. Without failure we don’t develop better technologies
3. Without failure we don’t improve our buildings
4. Without failure we don’t build bigger bridges
Presenter – Turn to slide 10 and emphasize of the following
concept.
The presenter acknowledges to the audience that everyone
makes mistakes and our best people are the one that make the
biggest mistakes. What contributes to that is the simple fact that
the best performers usually get the most difficult assignments.
Presenter – Presenter turn to slide 11 and do this exercise with
the audience to emphasize that learning form failure can lead us
to an improved state of mind, since failure is not attributed to
an employee intentionally coming to work to do a bad job, but
quite the opposite. The difference will be in how we react to
failure.

16. After allowing the audience to read this, go around the table and
ask;
· How do we typically react to failure today, followed by why
do we typically react this way?
Presenter – Turn to slide 12 (video) to elaborate on the concept
how easy it is to use an escape goat and point fingers without
taking accountability.
After the video, the presenter takes this opportunity to talk to
the audience about the changing our culture for the best. Where
in the past, silos and disciplining an employee for failing to
meet expectations, today our first focus will be to learn by
asking better questions;
- Expand from the standard “why” to “how.”
d. How individual contributions fit into context
Presenter – Turn to slide 13 and begin the discussion about
individual contributions by asking this question;
The presenter takes this opportunity to emphasize the concept of
perception referencing the images and how it can affect our own
memory to influence our mind into believing that we are better
than we actually are. Add the fact that this concept can
influence and fulfil a stereotype of an individual and affect the
team dynamics.
Presenter - Turn to slide 14 and ask for a volunteer to read the
following statements.
After the statements have been read, the presenter takes the time

17. to open discussion by asking for feedback and understanding of
these statements. If the audience fails to give an example of a
situation in which the outcome did not result in desirable
results, the presenter will need to be prepared to give an
example in which he could have contributed more, however
deiced against it because it was not his or her
responsibility/job/role.
Activity
Individual contributions can influence behavior and overall
results. Performance of the team can be affected by behaviors
that heavily influenced through cultural norms.
Presenter – Turn to slide 15 to emphasize on the accepted
behaviors through cultural norms.
The presenter takes the time to ask for comments about the
image. Take this opportunity to exemplify the fact that in this
country and due to possible low resources, this mode of
transportation is normal and viewed as acceptable behavior. Just
like in our organization, it has a system of shared assumptions,
values, and beliefs that dictate what acceptable and
unacceptable behavior is.
Presenter – Turn to slide 16 and play video to emphasize on the
concept of influenced behavior.
After video is finished playing, the presenter should conclude
and takes this opportunity to further emphasize the fact that
behavior at the workplace is heavily influenced through norms
and standards that are rewarded and should thereafter be
focused on results of teamwork.
Closing discussion – During this time, the presenter will lead a
discussion where the audience will be able to comment on the
material and ask question s about any principle taught in the
section. The conversation should be primarily focused on how
the team concept in the workplace can be influenced by the
norms or the established standard acceptable behaviors that are
in need of improvement or change.

18. Key takeaways
Presenter - After all the content has been taught and discussed,
and the activities have been completed, the presenter will
review the key takeaways in slide 17.
· Culture is the assumptions, values, and beliefs that show
people what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
· Learn from failure to prevent future events and people are
fallible.
· Idividual behaviors are heavily influenced through cultural
norms.References
Thompson , L. L. (2014). Making The Team: A Guide For
Managers. New Jersey: Pearson Educational, Inc.
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