So an energy manager is someone who takes care. We should all care and all be energy managers, but from the professional more is required. What more is there beyond caring ?
A manager lacking the authority to act or delegate is useless.
This implies trust. Trust, is earned, which takes experience, integrity, effective communication skills and always the evidence to hand that ideas have been carefully
considered and are grounded
on well-documented principles.
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| Wounded arriving at triage station, Suippes, France from sanitary train. Selected by Scott. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
So as an energy manager you must be (and
be seen to be) informed, organised, objective, reliable, and always encouraging while at the same time exhorting greater efforts.
To allocate resources and work flow
effectively requires awareness of priority.
The process of classifying by priority is triage.
Triage is no “wooly“ process but is run on crystal
clear lines just as on the battlefield or in the emergency room.
Anything less causes dithering which costs lives.
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| Inside view (right side) of a standard medical tent for triage categorie 1 as used in Bavarian Red Cross (Germany) 50 victims/hr. disaster casualty station, featuring equipment of 2nd medical rapid disaster response group of county of Ebersberg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Triage must be conducted with
unwaivering confidence – it is a leadership role.
The nurse on intake in a hospital is very clear on who must wait as he or she is the essential filter that ensures skilled resources are not wasted.
She cannot be over-ruled because triage that can be bypassed is as useless as a manager who is not respected!
Note: A triage nurse can always be tasked to modify the rules that she applies.
The nurse on intake in a hospital is very clear on who must wait as he or she is the essential filter that ensures skilled resources are not wasted.
She cannot be over-ruled because triage that can be bypassed is as useless as a manager who is not respected!
Note: A triage nurse can always be tasked to modify the rules that she applies.
Triage is a first step towards diagnosis
Triage requires a means to broadly
classify.
This may be conducted by some machine or with gentle bedside manner - “What appears to be the problem?”. It is useful only together with experience to extract reliable metrics or “take the patients history” - this is known as domain specific expertise.
Triage relies on pattern recognition, whether by an individual or some automated process. Anything that tests with clarity can contribute to triage, a thermometer, a rate of energy spend, a pattern of behaviour.
This may be conducted by some machine or with gentle bedside manner - “What appears to be the problem?”. It is useful only together with experience to extract reliable metrics or “take the patients history” - this is known as domain specific expertise.
Triage relies on pattern recognition, whether by an individual or some automated process. Anything that tests with clarity can contribute to triage, a thermometer, a rate of energy spend, a pattern of behaviour.
The result of triage is a set of groupings for action
These classifications are for specialists to attend to, and a related priority
order. In hospitals doctors are responsible for "a list" .
Groups may be visualised with badges, or referenced in databases, or in the hospital they may simply be put on chairs and seen one at a time - But the priority standing and the group to which they belong is recognizable.
Groups may be visualised with badges, or referenced in databases, or in the hospital they may simply be put on chairs and seen one at a time - But the priority standing and the group to which they belong is recognizable.
kWIQly can triage tens of thousands of
buildings continually, looking for, quantifying and grouping types of
energy waste into priority sets for action. The diagnosis produced is
just as relevant for a single hairdressers salon as for a twenty story office block - Only the cost implications differ.
Delegation
An authority – the energy manager, hands over tasks to investigate further, to implement
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| Hurricane Sandy Long Island overflight - Hurricane Sandy (Photo credit: U.S. Coast Guard) |
change, to ignore, or simply put on a watch list and survey for evidence of
improvement or worse.
It is important that a delegate is “a person authorized
to act as representative for another; a deputy or an agent”.
In other words the energy manager or triage nurse holds superior authority over the engineer or brain surgeon in terms of allocation of resource - until but only until the point of delegation.
In other words the energy manager or triage nurse holds superior authority over the engineer or brain surgeon in terms of allocation of resource - until but only until the point of delegation.
Trace-ability and ticketing
Known in many circles as workflow management; the delegation of a classified case requires tracking of the issue through an energy management system.
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| English: The sailmaker ticketing the hammocks on board 'Pallas; (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
There is an implied transfer of ownership of a
problem from this point.
The trail of evidence or audit history may be extensive or lightweight. It may mean recording “Who said or did, what to whom at what point and why?” or “talk to Bob to get the latest on this”.
But - the facts must be organised and accessible!
Otherwise a case of "Who's on First base!" ensues
The trail of evidence or audit history may be extensive or lightweight. It may mean recording “Who said or did, what to whom at what point and why?” or “talk to Bob to get the latest on this”.
But - the facts must be organised and accessible!
Otherwise a case of "Who's on First base!" ensues
Generally organisation and accountability goals require “ticketing” through a system, but the system must fit local workplace practices and organisational structures or it becomes a barrier to efficacy or inefficiency and will fall into disuse through frustration.
Diagnosis
Work-loads must be collated, evidence weighed, and ultimately expertise must be applied - a diagnosis is conducted.
Diagnosis (literally meaning “two beliefs” - is the
separation of a case into two (or more) supposed root causes through
pattern recognition.
A useful diagnosis leads to the definition and
further delegation of necessary tasks to treat the problem.
The distinction between energy manager and engineer should be clear at this point (though it is often a shared role).
The distinction between energy manager and engineer should be clear at this point (though it is often a shared role).
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| Principle of the model-based diagnosis (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The engineer is involved in assessing the cost for a solution, but the energy manager is responsible for making the case for that cost.
Presentation
Presentation of findings in a clear understandable manner is important (as
motivation may be an issue), and determining appropriate treatment often relies on it.
Treatment
When diagnosis is agreed, delivery of a solution may be obvious or highly complex, but this also needs to be controlled from a time-to-results perspective, as it is a project to be managed (whether large or small- it has been considered worthwhile by triage)
Observation
Of essence to all the above is the process of meaningful observation. A complete energy management system, must not only observe what occurs, and trace it, but also move cases through the system from state to state, from competence to competence, and be able to justify each transition in a context that is understandable.
kWIQly Launch
We will be launching kWIQly at Paris LeWeb 2012 on 4th December. It supports the energy manager in all the above, in ensuring that the processes that are applied are deliberate, compliant with best practice ( ISO 50001 ) , well documented and effective.
