SOURCE: Kay Sever | November 26, 2025
In 2025 we focused on sustaining gains achieved via the optimization process. Why did we spend a year talking about sustainability? Your optimization gains are at risk of being lost in future months/years unless certain preventive actions are taken. This risk is worth some investigation and contemplation.
The secret to sustaining optimization gains over decades is making strategic management choices that 1) preserve the gains already captured AND 2) maintain access to potential gains not yet discovered. The entire management team must unanimously agree to each choice and remain aligned each day to sustain their gains long-term… just as a sports team would all work to win during each season of play.
Following is a brief month-by-month summary of all the topics (and management choices) covered in 2025. You can access these articles on the Aggregates and Mining Today website.
January – This first article summarized why it was important to spend a year learning about Sustaining Optimization Gains… a topic that most executives and management teams never consider before or during an optimization initiative. They promise a certain ROI from optimization spending and assume the gains will continue, unaware of the potential for losing their gains, the causes of this risk and how to minimize it.
February – We introduced several “Sustaining Optimization Gains” concepts… including having a mindset where you are actively looking for the obstacles that erode gains or prevent future gains from being captured and sustained for the long term. Risk of loss is addressed as it pertains to optimization.
March – We compared the choices one must make when losing weight to the choices that management teams must make to preserve optimization gains. In both scenarios, there are choices that are NOT OPTIONAL… choices that require you to STOP DOING some things and START DOING other things to achieve your goals. There are no “gray” choices and no “middle of the road” choices to consider because those choices prevent you from achieving your goals for pounds lost or gains preserved.
April – We talked about the value of Hazard Training for Safety… how it prevents accidents from occurring by removing the hazards that are the root cause. We compared Hazard Training for Safety to Hazard Training for Optimization, a training that prevents financial losses from occurring because it reveals the hazards that cause losses to occur and arms management with strategies to remove them.
May – We expanded our discussion on Hazard Training for Optimization and emphasized that this training should be a management team’s first action item after they make the decision to move forward with an optimization initiative. In this training, I emphasized the importance of including the management system as a source of “hazards” because it can cause unknown/unmeasured losses.
June through November: Six action items that are NOT OPTIONAL (i.e., they require unanimous management agreement and participation) were introduced. A separate article was dedicated to each action item over that six-month period. Here’s a brief paragraph explaining the content for each action.
June – We compared management teams to sports teams… how excellence was a critical factor in the success of both teams. Both teams must be UNITED in a common goal of being the best to achieve that goal! With that kind of thinking in mind, a lot of invaluable information was shared about Action Item #1: Incorporate a few new data-points into numbers-based decision-making. Examples of optimization data and how they affect management decision-making were included.
July – Action Item #2: Communicate in a slightly different way about performance was covered from two perspectives… communication within the executive team and management team and communication between management and the workforce. Both types of communication must change when optimization is the goal. Examples of those changes were provided.
August – Action Item #3: Build a team with an “expanded goal” of achieving “best” performance. If your team is unable to unite around this goal, you cannot sustain the gains or work practices that support your optimization initiative… or any change initiative for that matter! The definition of “expanded goal” is provided, as well as 16 benefits of making this action item a high priority.
September – Action Item #4: Adopt new standards for communicating about problems and involving the right people in solutions. Solving recurring problems that generate unreported losses are a key source of income from optimization efforts. As these losses go down, reported income goes up. These problems are often caused by organizational dysfunction and management system weaknesses, which is why new communication standards are required. Success with this action item depends on having a corporate culture based on trust and an expanded paradigm for WHO needs to be involved in problem resolution work. A lot of detail on both of these points is provided.
October – Action Item #5: Support each other so all team members remain aligned with a goal of “best possible” results. Success with this action item depends on tactics for choosing to stick with new ways to work together. Listed are eight categories of management responsibilities that promote team unity and dedication to new ways of working together. The impacts of inconsistent management actions are compared to the impacts of consistent management actions.
November – Action Item #6: Design/implement a training plan for new employees and management personnel. Sustaining your optimization gains is one of the first things to think about when starting an optimization initiative. Most companies don’t think about it until the end… by then barriers are reducing gains and risk of lower ROI is the greatest. Building a training system and plan into the front of your initiative optimizes your chance of maximizing profit and sustaining earnings at that new level over time. Six categories of training content are included.
Thought for the Year (2025): Connecting intentional strategies to the sustainability of optimization gains is a winning combination. Your team can maximize the chance to sustain today’s gains (and gains yet to be discovered) with tactics designed for that purpose. Taking intentional actions to sustain gains is an overlooked strategy for “being the best” in your industry and maximizing shareholder value long-term.
My Thoughts: This paragraph was written in December 2024 to appear at the bottom of every 2025 article. After writing about this topic for 12 months, every word is still true. Everything I shared with you in 2025 was linked to the goal of “being the best” and maximizing shareholder value.
TOPIC FOR 2026: After being on an AI learning curve for several months, I’ve decided it’s time to write about my observations, insights and possible ways to selectively apply AI within the optimization framework to create a better result. Therefore, our topic for 2026 will be the intersecting points of Optimization and AI as they relate to productive assets, the organization and the management system. There are many unknowns at this point in time, so I expect significant discoveries to be made on this journey… so many that we may need more than 12 months to cover them all. We will be exploring these topics together, so join me for a ground-breaking and unforgettable year ahead!
Kay Sever is an Expert on Achieving “Best Possible” Results. Kay helps executive and management teams tap their hidden profit potential and reach their optimization goals. Kay has developed a LIVESTREAM management training/coaching system for Optimization Management called MiningOpportunity – NO TRAVEL REQUIRED. See MiningOpportunity.com for her contact information and training information.
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Kay has worked side by side with corporate and production sites in a management/leadership/consulting role for 35+ years. She helps management teams improve performance, profit, culture and change, but does it in a way that connects people and the corporate culture to their hidden potential. Kay helps companies move “beyond improvement” to a state of “sustained optimization”. With her guidance and the MiningOpportunity system, management teams can measure the losses caused by weaknesses in their current culture, shift to a Loss Reduction Culture to reduce the losses, and “manage” the gains from the new culture as a second income stream.
