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It is human nature for people to point the finger at others when something goes wrong. Who doesn’t remember it as a kid? Breaking something, spilling something, or doing something you knew you weren’t supposed to and then looking for a plausible culprit to point the finger at when you were found out. Or hiding the mistake and hoping you didn’t get caught.

Unfortunately, the human tendency to point the finger elsewhere or pretend a mistake didn’t happen doesn’t completely disappear in adulthood. And there’s a good reason why. The truth is, it stinks to mess up. It is embarrassing and it usually involves fixing a mess, owning up to something in front of your peers and bosses, or even being disciplined or getting into trouble. All of those undesirable ramifications can make it much easier for us, as humans, to revert to our childhood tendency of deflecting the blame elsewhere.

But in a company, pointing the finger elsewhere can be an enormously missed opportunity.

See, often a mistake in a business is indicative of a much more systemic, deep-rooted issue. Maybe that person didn’t have the training they needed to do the task they were given. Maybe they didn’t have the context they needed to know the audience they were delivering a message to. Maybe a process or protocol wasn’t communicated to them, or its importance wasn’t reinforced. Maybe the necessary systems were not put in place to catch critical mistakes.

In business, the reality is that sometimes the mistakes made by employees tell a much bigger story. So it is crucial to create a culture that goes against this human tendency to point the finger elsewhere. Instead, when a mistake is made, everyone around that mistake – that person, their boss, and their entire team – should point the finger at directly him or herself and ask, “how is this my fault?” No pretending it didn’t happen. No moving on without dissecting the mistake. No pointing the finger at anyone but yourself.

So how do you create this culture of pointing the finger in the right place?

First, create an environment of doing postmortems on mistakes. Acknowledge the mistake. Get everyone around it to put their minds together to figure out what went wrong and why. Figure out constructive ways to fix the mistake and the broader company structure that let it happen in the first place.

Second, be an example. If you make a mistake, own up to it. Point the finger at yourself and let others know it was your fault. Show that it is okay to make mistakes and that the way to deal with it is head on, with everyone who has the power to keep it from happening again in the future.

Third, don’t overreact to mistakes. Some mistakes deserve big ramifications. But others do not. Keep your anger in check and work through the mistake rationally, instead of using anger or punishment as a first resort.

This list is just a start. But mistakes certainly cannot be dealt with by gossiping about them, sweeping them under the rug, or rushing to point the finger elsewhere.

Making a mistake stinks, but making a mistake can also be a great teacher. Don’t let your company suffer by passing over the lessons that teacher has to give. Instead, make a commitment to a culture of pointing the finger where it needs to be pointed.

Katie Johnson Treadway is the Head of Regulatory Affairs at One Energy.

Learn more about Katie and the One Energy team.

In last week’s Wind View, we discussed how our wind turbines rotate, or “yaw” to face the wind. This swivel helps them optimize the amount of energy they produce. But sometimes, you may see turbines facing different directions, like in the photo below. Why is that?

There are a few possible reasons why turbines might be yawed differently:

  1. To prevent the cables inside from becoming twisted, the turbine eventually must rotate in the opposite direction from how it was rotating before. Our turbines do this automatically to keep all the cables inside healthy and tidy.
  2. For turbine safety and longevity, One Energy intentionally limits the operation of our turbines during high winds. When this happens, they might still yaw, but since they’re not operating to capture the wind, the directions they face may not be uniform.
  3. To adjust for wind interference, a turbine might yaw in a different direction when a neighboring turbine is blocking it from catching as much wind.

For maintenance, a turbine might be shut down so it doesn’t yaw when under inspection, to ensure the safety of our technicians inside.

October 04, 2021 – Wind Study | Answer 24

You’ve been assigned to inspect the wind turbine blades at a One Energy project site. You packed the drone camera to capture photos (like the one below), but how many SD cards do you need to bring for storing image data? And how much storage should each card contain?

These were the math problems you solved if you completed last week’s Wind Study homework assignment. Check your answers here!

And be sure to share this educational series on Facebook and Twitter!

Combining strengths is helpful in many instances – like the different positions on a soccer team, mixing several ingredients to bake a cake, and blending materials to manufacture a wind turbine blade!

Today’s Science Short is about composite materials, like the fiberglass used to make wind turbine blades. Composite materials are substances made from combining two or more materials that have different properties on their own – in order to maximize desired properties (like strength or flexibility ) in the resulting material.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and don’t miss any future Science Shorts!

And be sure to share this educational series on Facebook and Instagram!

September 29, 2021 – Wind Views | Catching Wind

Today’s edition of Wind Views features five of the turbines at the North Findlay Wind Campus, on a beautiful sunny day! 🌞

In this photo, each turbine’s rotor (which is made up of the hub plus the three blades) is facing the same direction: southeast. This is because that’s the direction the wind was blowing from when this picture was taken! Our wind turbines rotate, or yaw to face the wind, helping them better optimize this natural source of energy. 💨

There’s a number of reasons why you may see a group of turbines facing different directions. Tune in to next week’s Wind View to learn more!

September 27, 2021 – Wind Study | Question 24

One Energy’s dedication to safety and maintenance does not stop at a certain height! Our wind turbines reach 405 feet tall. And while we can (and do!) inspect turbine towers by climbing on the inside, we inspect turbine blades using drone photography. (The same way the photo below was captured!)

Today’s Wind Study homework question explains how and why we use drones to inspect blades – plus information on the data-storage tool used for the resulting images: SD cards!

This week’s related math problems use storage units like bytes and kilobytes – download the assignment here!

And be sure to share this educational series on Facebook and Twitter!

It may seem obvious to use the proper tool for a given activity, but there are actually many ways workers can (and often do!) get it wrong. At One Energy, we don’t simply use the tools we CAN, but we use the tools we SHOULD –for safety, quality, and even financial reasons.

To demonstrate this concept, today’s Safety Minute focuses on using the right tools and methods for stripping high-voltage cable. See how a “stubborn electrician” might go about it, using fewer tools that may cost less, but are lazy, ineffective, and dangerous – then watch as we show how to use the RIGHT tools for this job. ️

Takeaways from this episode include:

  • A tool that works is not always the right tool for the job
  • Invest in the right tools to remove safety risk and improve quality
  • Injuries are more expensive than the price of the right tools

Watch the video below, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss a future minute.

September 22, 2021 – Wind Views | ManagedHV

If you follow One Energy, you’re probably aware that we’re on-site wind energy experts. Wind for Industry is One Energy’s flagship energy solution – it’s what got us in the industrial power business to begin with!

What you may not know of is another energy service we offer: ManagedHV (pictured in today’s Wind View!)

ManagedHV is One Energy’s high-voltage-as-a-service solution. ⚡ We offer this service because most high-voltage distribution backbones in existing industrial facilities (the kind of facilities our customers operate) were built 40 years ago or longer, and are ripe for a major update.

Our solution provides a state-of-the-art plant high-voltage distribution system that enables our customers to efficiently move power, monitor usage, and protect facilities from grid issues. The service also provides an expandable and adaptable platform, enabling customers to add more distributed energy resources (DERs) when desired – including (but not limited to) wind turbines!

Learn more about ManagedHV here.

September 20, 2021 – Wind Study | Answer 23

Hydraulic systems are a major element of One Energy operations – like the crane pictured below, which uses hydraulics to help lift and hoist items during construction.

And if you completed last week’s Wind Study assignment, you read all about how these pressure systems work!

Check the answers to last week’s questions by downloading here and don’t forget to return next Monday for another round of Wind Study homework problems!

And be sure to share this educational series on Facebook and Twitter!

WFIN Findlay reported on a recent event at the North Findlay Wind Campus, in which students from the University of Findlay toured One Energy and its component yard, getting an up-close look at wind energy to supplement the class’s discussion on different types of electricity generation. Learn more.