Things are not always perfect - how could they be?

Life is not perfect, but it still provides the opportunity to use processes that can make things better. So, despite things not going well right now, the potential for success remains, and we want to give you some ideas about how to turn your reuse project around…

Go back to the business case

There was a reason you commissioned a service, perhaps many of them. Ask yourself, or your team, if that reason still persists, if the problem is still apparent. Are people are still buying assets that you already own? Are they still buying assets that you’re being forced to throw out? Is your Procurement Department still putting through orders for assets that you’ve got sat in storage?

If there’s something that hasn’t changed and you have to find out if people still want to fix the problem. 

‘Am I getting the support required to match assets with new owners?’

You’ll need to ask these questions and get some solid answers:

• Ask the Procurement Department if they’re helping to match surplus assets with new owners.
• Ask if they are directing people towards the reuse platform, and if not, why not?
• Ask porters and Facilities Management if they still want to fix the issue. 
• Ask Senior Management if they really back the project and are using their means to encourage participation.
• Ask if the problem is being illustrated well enough to staff and Senior Management so that they understand the severity of the problem that you are trying to solve within the organisation.

‘Wait, how do I illustrate the problem better?’

Start taking pictures. Take pictures of the surplus assets sat in corners. Take pictures of the items gathering dust in storerooms. Then, take photos of assets being scrapped, thrown in skips, sat by bins, or being dismantled. Present this portfolio of images at Senior Management committees and show them that reuse is not being taken seriously enough.

Once you’ve got the recognition, again…

Get the Senior Management team to agree to add the discussion of reuse to each staff meeting. That might be tricky, so if the notion gets rejected, get them instead to send a memo or email to all staff to accept that the organisation is trying to make a positive change and that people need to search through the reuse portal before they buy new assets.

This email sounds ideal, right? Well, it’s not a solution, it’s just a short-term fix, it just boosts reuse on that occasion, but it does very little for strategy.

To provide a long-term solution, you need to increase the visibility of surplus assets designated to reuse to a greater number of staff members who will actually engage with the system. You don’t want bottlenecks, you don’t want to depend on senior management, you need a democracy of information.

You need policy change,  green champions, you need word of mouth, you need incremental change.

You need to start working through the Warp It guides to get your reuse system back on track.

Give us a call on 0800 0488755 or email daniel@warp-it.co.uk.

We will help you turn things around.

Let's get past the objectors together...