There is a familiar tragedy in the world of Asset Management.

A company decides to get certified in ISO 55001. They hire a top-tier consultancy firm. Smart people in suits interview the management team, analyze the data, and retreat to a conference room for three months. They emerge with a Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP)—a beautiful, 200-page document perfect in its logic and compliance.

They hand it to the Operations Manager, who hands it to the Supervisor, who hands it to the Operator.

And the Operator ignores it.

Why? Because humans are wired to resist command-and-control mandates. In psychology, this is called Reactance. When we are told we “Have To” do something, our brain pushes back to preserve our sense of autonomy.

However, if you invite that same Operator to help write the strategy, you trigger Octalysis Core Drive 4: Ownership & Possession (The IKEA Effect). Suddenly, they don’t just follow the rule; they defend it.

Here is how to stop inflicting strategy on your teams and start building it with them.

1. The 80/20 Rule of Procedure Co-Creation

The most common objection to letting operators write procedures is, “They aren’t engineers! They’ll skip the safety steps!”

This is a false dichotomy. You don’t hand over the keys to the castle; you hand over the furniture arrangement.

• The Strategy: Split your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) into two buckets.
  • The Non-Negotiables (20%): Process Safety limits, environmental compliance, chemical compatibility. Engineers write this. It is locked.
  • The Workflow (80%): The sequence of steps, the location of tools, the timing of checks, the visual layout of the checklist.
• The Gamification: Tell your teams: “Here are the safety constraints (the walls). You design the workflow (the furniture).” When Shift A designs their own startup sequence (within safety limits), they own the efficiency of that sequence. They won’t shortcut it because they decided it was the best way.

2. Frame New Standards as “Beta Tests”

Nothing kills engagement faster than a “Final Version” document dropped on a desk. It implies perfection and demands submission.

Borrow a page from Silicon Valley. Frame every new Asset Care standard as a “Beta Version.”

• The Strategy: Release a new pump maintenance protocol as “Version 0.9.”
• The Ask: Explicitly ask the operators to “break it” or “debug it.” Use Core Drive 3 (Empowerment of Creativity). “We think this works, but you guys know the reality. Run this for two weeks and tell us where the bugs are.”
• The Result: Instead of complaining about the new procedure in the breakroom, they are critiquing it constructively to the engineers. When “Version 1.0” is released incorporating their feedback, it is no longer Management’s Plan. It is Our Plan.

3. “Bug Bounties” for Bad Strategy

In cybersecurity, companies pay hackers to find weaknesses in their code. In manufacturing, we usually punish people who point out flaws in our logic.

If you want an ISO 55001 strategy that actually survives the real world, gamify the feedback loop.

• The Mechanic: Create a “Bug Bounty” program for your Asset Management Strategy.
• The Reward: If an operator identifies a line in the strategy that is physically impossible to execute or contradicts another standard (e.g., a maintenance task that requires three hands), reward them. Give them “Strategy Points” or public recognition.
• The Shift: You turn the “complainer” into a “consultant.” You validate their expertise.

The Bottom Line

ISO 55001 requires “Stakeholder Engagement.” Usually, companies interpret this as “sending an email to stakeholders.”

That is not engagement; that is broadcasting.

Real engagement means co-creation. It means accepting that an imperfect strategy fully owned by the workforce is infinitely more effective than a perfect strategy they resent.

Stop treating your operators like the end-users of your bureaucracy. Treat them like the architects of their own reliability.

Don’t build it for them. Build it with them.

The information in this article was partially generated by Google’s Gemini, an AI language model, and has been reviewed/edited for accuracy and relevance.