Synopsis
This groundbreaking book is an easy read primer on the crucial principles for achieving operational excellence in any work group, large or small. Through the use of clear and concise language that is accessible to a wide audience, and an exciting story telling style, the reader will gain an understanding of how to achieve a twenty percent improvement in productivity, while reducing accidents by seventy percent. Contrary to common belief, new understandings in the fields of physiology, psychology, neuroscience, show that the objectives of safety and productivity do not conflict with each other. The concepts and principles revealed in Work Smart, Work Safe! are found at the intersection of the leading practices of safety and productivity management. For the first time, the prescriptions to eliminate the root causes of accidents are linked to the same management and leadership principles which are effective in producing high levels of motivation and productivity. Rushing, fatigue, frustration and complacency are the root causes of accidents, and the enemies of Operational Excellence. Citing concrete examples from his own rich career, Vallez takes the theories taught in the B Schools and makes them come alive for the reader. Based on academic research, and a thirty five years of practical applications, Vallez offers some insight into the root cause of root causes, poor leadership. The first part of Work Smart, Work Safe! deals with the nitty-gritty of leading a successful project, team or business operation. The basic principles of goal setting, planning, organization, team building, and motivating, scheduling and ensuring safety are all covered in detail there. But the second part of this book takes the reader into another realm of leadership with what Vallez calls the right brain principles. These are the qualities which many leaders find so difficult to grasp and embody in their work. They can be taught in school, but they can only be learned through life s trials and challenges. Calling in his own stories of personal experience, Vallez courageously shares his own story to help lead the reader to the ultimate joys of serving in a leadership role. Being part of a high functioning team or organization is a magnificent experience which fulfills our higher aspirations as human beings. You don't need to be at the top of a large organization, or even have a formal position of leadership to employ these principles. When you apply both the right and left brain principles Work Smart, Work Safe! at your level and within your sphere of influence, you are truly an instrument in making the world a better place.
About the Author
Michael J. Vallez started his career at the age of seven, pounding nails with his father to build the family home. His ensuing experience in the engineering, construction and project development fields has ranged from work as a carpenter and underground miner all the way to company president. This unusually diverse background, along with a BS in engineering from Michigan Technological University in 1975 and an MBA from the University of Utah in 1983, gives Vallez a unique perspective on the qualities of leadership. Mike has led the development and construction of a diversified range of projects and facilities. In the power industry, he served as the on-site project manager for construction of Duke Powers Systems Operation Center (SOC) and corporate headquarters in Charlotte North Carolina. The SOC in Charlotte served as the integrated control and operating hub for Duke Energy s regional power generation and transmission system. He later served as the project director of a large EPC contract to replace two electrostatic precipitators with pulse jet filter fabric baghouses for Pacificorp at the Huntington and Hunter power plants in Southern Utah. He also secured additional EPC work with Pacificorp for flue gas desulfurization scrubber upgrades at those two plants. As project executive, he oversaw a major shut down for maintenance, repairs, and modernization for the Tri States Generation and Transmission Cooperative in Graig Colorado. On Hawaii s Big Island, he served as the on-site project manager for expansion of the Ormat Technologies Puna Geothermal Power Plant. More recently, he served as the project director of the EPC contract for the Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical scope for a 25 MW gas fired Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant for Molycorp at their Rare Earth Mine at Mountain Pass California. Resource Development: Mike has extensive experience in both underground and surface development, mine infrastructure and plant projects, and natural gas transmission projects. He started his career in the mining and industrial development industries on the underground development of the Walter Resources metallurgical coal mine in Brookwood Alabama. This project involved the sinking of six concrete lined mine shafts, twenty feet in diameter and two thousand feet deep. He later joined Anaconda Mining Company on the development and construction of the Carr Fork Mine, a 10,000 ton per day underground copper mine and concentrator located in Utah s Bingham Mining District. After completion of that project, he joined Kennecott Copper for the initial construction of the North Ore Shoot Shaft in Bingham Canyon, Utah. He also oversaw the engineering and construction of numerous mine plant projects. More recently he served on the resource development project team for Rio Tinto to commence the expansion of the Bingham Mine to an underground operation, and was the project director for construction of a 25 MW gas fired combined heat and power plant for Molycorp at their Rare Earth Mine development at Mountain Pass California. Commercial: Commercial experience is extensive. He has built projects in health care, mixed use projects, hospitality, office, retail, entertainment, sports, and educational markets. He also served the Yankton Sioux Tribe as consulting project manager for the design and construction of a tribal school located in the Yankton Sioux Reservation. Mike has four children, and still enjoys a dynamic career.
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