Every plant has them — the creative fixes, clever tricks, and undocumented steps that keep things running… sort of. A wrench left on a valve to give it “just the right” seal. A reboot sequence that only one operator knows. A piece of cardboard wedged behind a relay. A pump with a water hose running over the seal. These are the workarounds, temporary patches that have quietly become what appear to be “permanent solutions”.
They’re born from good intentions. Talented people under pressure find ways to get the job done. But over time, these unofficial fixes become the standard. The workaround becomes “the way we do it,” and the real problem remains buried under habit and hurry in the form of increasing risk.
This normalization of deviance, a term coined in safety circles, creeps into maintenance, too. Systems that should raise alarms don’t. Problems that should be engineered out are merely sidestepped. And equipment that was once reliable slowly becomes a liability, not because it changed, but because we did.
The cost? It’s hidden at first. You won’t see it on a single work order. But over time, these shortcuts erode reliability, create safety hazards, and lock in tribal knowledge that disappears the moment someone leaves. Even worse, they send a dangerous message: “This is good enough.”
What starts as a workaround becomes the way—until it breaks something bigger.
To be clear, there are times when a quick fix is absolutely the right immediate response. But when it happens, it must trigger a follow-up work order and be followed by urgent action to implement a permanent solution. Otherwise, temporary fixes silently become permanent risks, and we can’t afford the hidden joke of duct tape and bailing wire to become the standard.
Good enough will never be good leadership. And it certainly doesn’t exhibit the reliability culture we need.
Raising the Bar Requires Intentional Culture Change
Fixing this isn’t just a technical problem — it’s a cultural one. Shifting away from a “just make it work” mindset toward a culture of high reliability demands more than procedures. It demands leadership that is driven at the plant level by the plant’s leadership.
Because let’s be honest: changing a reactive culture is hard. It’s easier to celebrate the technician or mechanic who kept the line running with a clever workaround than to pause production and fix the root cause. It’s easier to say, “We don’t have the time,” than to admit we’ve accepted too low a standard.
Every accepted shortcut rewrites the standard – usually in the wrong direction.
But every time a leader accepts a shortcut, a patch, or an unofficial fix as the new normal, we’re silently lowering the bar. And once the bar is lowered, it becomes the new benchmark, one others will follow. A culture that may have once been proactive can quickly slide into one that is reactive. I’ve seen this happen many times in my career, particularly when a change in leadership occurs.
Leaders must set and defend a high standard. That means holding ourselves and our teams accountable for doing things the right way, even when it’s inconvenient. It means rewarding those who address problems at their root, rather than those who merely mask the symptoms. And it means making reliability a core value, not just a line on a scorecard.
Culture doesn’t change with a speech or a memo. It changes when people see standards consistently upheld, especially when it’s difficult.
What Leadership Looks Like in a Proactive Culture
Shifting from reactive to proactive isn’t just about raising expectations — it’s about leaders consistently demonstrating the behaviors that support those expectations.
Proactive cultures emerge when leaders:
- Model curiosity, not blame. When something goes wrong, ask why, not who.
- Prioritize long-term solutions over short-term heroics. Celebrate the fix that prevents failure and that eliminates bad actors, not just the one that cleaned it up, even if it means a little longer downtime.
- Show up on the floor. Visibility matters. Walking the process and asking thoughtful questions builds trust and surfaces hidden issues. Why is that duct tape there? Have you put a work order in for that leaking pump seal? Why are there extension cords running across this walkway? What piece of equipment gives you the most trouble?
- Empower teams. Give technicians and operators the voice and tools to address recurring problems at the root and back them when they do.
- Expect high levels of Preventive Maintenance and Predictive Maintenance execution, and drive optimization of production schedules to ensure they get completed.
- Show urgency for their teams to know when known defects in the plant are going to be removed, especially those identified with proactive strategies.
- Support teams when budgets are tight and the decision of executing the long-term fix vs the short-term fix is taking place.
- Hold the line. When pressure mounts, don’t fall back on shortcuts. Set the tone by reinforcing that “good enough” isn’t enough.
- Make reliability everyone’s responsibility. Build shared ownership between maintenance, operations, and leadership, and reward cross-functional wins.
Leadership behaviors set the tone for what is tolerated, what is reinforced, and ultimately, what becomes the culture. You can’t delegate culture change. You must lead it, one consistent decision at a time.
Closing Thought: Model the Standard, Don’t Just Talk About It
Proactive cultures are built, not declared. They grow when leaders model the behavior they want to see. When they walk the floor, ask hard questions, and challenge “that’s just how we do it” with curiosity, not blame.
Just as important as modeling the right behaviors is recognizing them in others. When teams see that proactive thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and root-cause problem solving are valued and celebrated, those behaviors multiply.
When a leader raises the bar and keeps it raised, others will follow. Not immediately, and not without resistance. But over time, accountability becomes contagious. So does pride. So does trust.
And when that happens, you’ll see fewer workarounds, fewer failures, and a lot more people showing up to make things better… not just keep them running.
