6 Stage Lighthouse

Purpose

Function

Safety

Risk

Economics

P - What overall outcome you want to achieve.

F – The mechanics of achieving the Purpose

E – Ensuring that ongoing Time, Money & Effort is in place to complete the Purpose.

S – Assuring core stability of the function throughout its application.

R - That the influence of uncontrollable external factors will not de-stabilise the function and obstruct achievement of the Purpose.

Peter Hanley © 2013 Peter@RealSafetyToday.co.uk

O – The Overall Outcome in action.

6 Stage Lighthouse – How it Came AboutA client asked me how I did Safety. So I took them through the steps I work through,starting with Purpose and going through to Outcomes. They looked at me inamazement. “Wow, it’s a long time till you get to Safety isn’t it!” It is then I realisedwhat was missing from the whole business improvement process; and I had drawn out a six layer process to achieve success, not just for Safety, but attending to everyaspect of the business.

With a maritime background, it didn’t take long to reflect on the 6 layers I had drawn, to discover that the pioneers building lighthouses had gone through exactly the sameprocess and thinking. They didn’t pore over risk registers and safety managementplans before they had worked out the Purpose of their lighthouse, how they weregoing to build it [function] and whether it was economically viable. The only mistake toour modern eyes, was that they didn’t get to address the risk and safety issues until itwas too late.

And so the lighthouse model became a basis for exploring any business at any stage ofits life; start up, operation and through to disposal.

Peter Hanley © 2013 Peter@RealSafetyToday.co.uk

6 Stage Lighthouse – Summary (1)All businesses and organisations need to produce Outcomes, that much is obvious.

It can’t have escaped the notice of the majority of Businesses that great attentionneeds to be paid to Risk and Safety. Not least to avoid prosecution or sanction.

The modern business world has pushed Outcomes, risk and safety so far up the Agenda, that you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s all that needs to be done. Yet important as these three features are for business to get right, they depend onsome less obvious foundations; economics, function and purpose.

The modern business world has reached a pinnacle in its performance since the startof the Industrial Revolution. Outcomes used to come quickly and easily. Now they arenot so easy to maintain, we have started to work our way down the list of items toattend to; risk, safety, economics and then function. Purpose has proved a difficult Foundation stone to get to grips with. It’s often mixed up with function, which is allabout Action, which we feel comfortable with.

So there is a big business puzzle to be unravelled.

Peter Hanley © 2013 Peter@RealSafetyToday.co.uk

6 Stage Lighthouse – Summary (2)Part of the puzzle is to recognise that unbeknown to us, we could be tackling our Business problems upside down; starting with Outcomes instead of Purpose.

Even if we tackle these six business factors in the right order, there is yet anothercomplication; another reason why success resists our grasp.

The challenge is that there are 85 components to this business machinery which needs to produce the outputs. Getting all these components to cooperate with eachother so that the 6 layer operation delivers, needs care and attention to all aspects of the business at the same time. The Lighthouse model helps achieve this in as lowcost and controlled way possible.

Peter Hanley © 2013 Peter@RealSafetyToday.co.uk