“Consider, for a moment, the circuitous journey of the insecticide called thiamethoxam, on its way to killing a wild wasp,” writes Dan Charles in their recent NPR article entitled “New Evidence Shows Popular Pesticides Could Cause Unintended Harm To Insects.”
“Alejandro Tena, a researcher at the Valencia Institute of Agricultural Research, in Spain, mixed the chemical into water used to irrigate clementine trees. This is a common practice among citrus farmers. As intended, the tree roots absorbed the insecticide, and it spread throughout the trees' branches and leaves,” Charles explains.
The article continues, “A mealybug landed on the clementine tree, bit through the bark, and began feeding on tree sap underneath. The bug ingested traces of the insecticide. This, in fact, is how thiamethoxam is supposed to work.”
“Unfortunately, though, the pesticide's journey wasn't over. Traces of it showed up in a sticky, sugary, substance called honeydew that the mealybugs excrete. Honeydew is an important food for other insects, such as wasps and hoverflies. In Tena's experiments, wasps and hoverflies that fed on this contaminated honeydew died in large numbers. Wasps and hoverflies are a fruit grower's friends, because they help to fight harmful insects,” Charles writes.
According to the NPR piece, “Tena's study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is just the latest evidence that a family of pesticides called neonicotinoids, sometimes just called ‘neonics,’ can pose risks to the insect world that are not fully understood.”
We read this NPR article and thought, “wow.”
Talk about severe implications from an approach you believe to be working.
But the evidence is clearly proving the opposite.
It’s a contrast we can relate to with property operations.
Your property’s reactive mindset could be causing unintended harm.
But to what?
Everything from your awareness, to your communication to your documentation, and your ability to analyze valuable information is affected.
Not to mention, the long-term effect of this is on your staff and customers.
That’s dangerous.
Let’s change what you can control using the Proactive Operations methodology.
HARM CAN STEM FROM 4 AREAS OF YOUR OPERATION
You can control many of the outcomes on your property.
We want you to know that.
The differences between high-performing, proactive operations to reactive operations are crystal clear to us after over a decade of working with hundreds of properties.
Harm to your property and everything you’re charged to protect can stem from four areas of your operation.
It starts with your Strategy pillar from Proactive Operations.
Similarly speaking, it’s your mindset.
These four areas make up the ACDA Principle™, which requires you to examine and scrutinize all areas of your operation to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for advancement.
Use the Principle to understand, apply, and continuously improve your Awareness, Communication, Documentation, and Analysis.
By doing this, you fight your reactive mindset and make the transition to Proactive Operations.
Then, what’s even better is you can work to achieve maximum performance.
You’re not only functioning as a property – you’re advancing!
Mark your calendar for time to dig into these four areas with your team.
Reap all the benefits of maximizing each.
Here’s what we mean:
Awareness
Increased awareness affords your operation the ability to anticipate and even prevent threats from impacting your organization.
When stuff does happen, you can mitigate it with operations management software.
Communication
Real-time communication leads to real-time data.
This data gives you a powerful way to communicate critical information.
Operations management software affords your staff the communication capabilities necessary for the demands of today’s operational environment.
Documentation
Accurate documentation is the ultimate factor in providing your operation with clear-cut risk reduction.
With operations management software, you can capture complete and accurate digital documentation for real-time review and future analysis.
Analysis
You can’t analyze what you don’t know.
That’s why having and using the reporting features of operations management software for analysis is crucial for long-term performance.
Customize data the way your operation needs to improve and optimize every day.
There’s much more to Proactive Operations. Keep reading about the two pillars that follow Strategy here.
Over to You
We’re of the Proactive mindset. But not all properties operate this way. It could be out of tradition or a way of thinking that claims the status quo is working. But we [24/7 Software] know that could cause unintended harm, even with the best intentions.
Although, we could argue that having the best intentions would mean employing Proactive Operations ASAP. Have you or are you doing that? It’s time to consider whether your mindset is already causing unintended harm.
