By Amy Blakely.
When Craig Stevens teaches a class on operational excellence or change management, the coursework might include reading a novel, studying a mobile, or playing a game.
It’s his creative way of simplifying complicated concepts.
Stevens, who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial and systems engineering from UT and is working on his doctorate, is an adjunct lecturer in the college’s Center of Advanced Systems Research and Education. He’s also the founder of Westbrook Stevens LLC, a consulting firm that helps organizations manage change and improve operations, and he serves as president of the Nashville (Middle and East Tennessee) chapter of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.
“Industrial engineering prepares you for many jobs,” Stevens said. That’s because industrial and system engineers are concerned with operational excellence and look at systems, processes, products, and services, and how people fit in. They focus on operations and projects, effectiveness and efficiency, productivity, safety, quality, change, and all the ways people interact with the workplace. They look at an organization or company as one system.
Throughout his career, Stevens has tried to find fun, easy-to-understand ways to teach people how to do their jobs better.
For instance, he’s written a novel that serves as a case study and introduction to one of his models, the seven attributes of excellent management.
Geronimo Stone: His Music, His Love and the Mobile of Excellent Management: A Business Adventure Story (geronimostone.com) is an action-packed tale of a small music company trying to avoid a corporate takeover after its founder dies and his nephew and widow take over.
“There are gunshots and car chases. It’s a page-turner,” Stevens said.
In the book, the nephew discovers that his uncle has left him a series of packages to help preserve the business. These include notes that introduce the reader to the seven attributes of excellent management: leadership, culture, customer focus, teams, problem-solving, continuous improvement, and performance measures.
Stevens, who said he “sees things in pictures,” likes to use illustrations to explain concepts.
In his mobile of excellent management, a hand holding the mobile represents leadership. The cable of the mobile, representing culture, is tied to the bar of customer focus. Along that structure, people and team building are balanced with core competencies and problem-solving, continuous improvement of processes and systems, and performance measures.
Stevens is now working on a game-like version of his training models where participants will earn points, badges, and colored belts as they learn.
Born in Key West, Florida, Stevens has called at least 10 Tennessee towns home over the years. He and his wife, music attorney Denise Stevens, have three sons and two daughters ranging in age from 14 to 32. They live on seven acres in Franklin, Tennessee.
Stevens also expresses his creativity through painting. In that respect, he is most recognized as the Flags of America artist. The project involves a unique flag painting for each state. As with many of his other paintings, the names of fallen police officers, firefighters, veterans, and those missing in action appear in the background. His paintings can be viewed online at www.craigastevens.com.
For Stevens, creativity—whether it’s writing, coming up with simple illustrations to explain complicated concepts, or painting—is an integral part of his industrial and systems engineering persona.
After all, he said, “every product ever designed was designed by someone acting as an engineer.”