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(The Company, names, and situations are disguised due to a confidentiality agreement. The actual client approved the case study.)
It may not be a great time for business in Australia right now, yet even in the bad times some companies thrive, even while the majority struggle.
Too many organizations seemingly make no effort to improve there market position, quality of major processes and their product or service, even in the good times, never mind the bad. But the successful are different. They use the specter of shrinking markets, tighter budgets, and scarce clients as a lever for propelling organizational change.
Within a large Sydney-based packaging company, new Projects Manager Shane gathered the support of his executive management and then offered employees a vision of how their lives could improve. Competition from cheaper imports, a frequent challenge in the packaging industry, could be reduced, work practices would be eased and employees further encouraged to devise better ways to do their jobs--all the while aiming to improve organizational efficiency and make work more interesting and rewarding.
Assisted by Production Manager Dean and a Moravec and Associates Consultant, Shane laid out the realities of increasing competition, changing industry standards, consumer attitudes, financial needs, and work practices. There was little fat to trim, so improvement would have to come from new ways of organizing and operating. This would be determined largely by the employees themselves.
Efforts were initially undertaken in the Brisbane plant where Shane was located. The support of the plant's 7 major department managers was essential to the major change effort proposed. Shane's approach, along with the respective department managers', was to talk with every employee in the department-one-on-one and in groups--about ways to fully utilize essential resources and to assess current work methods.
For example, when Tobin, the Warehouse Manager, lobbied for additional staff, Shane asked him to first look at his own operational methods and to see if, utilizing available staff in a new way, he could achieve his goals. When the same question was put to the warehouse staff, the manager was amazed at the number of positive and worthwhile recommendations his employees came up with. "It's easy to figure out ways to do things better," says Shane.
Adds Dean, "The hard part is communicating to the people affected why you're doing it. You have to make clear that the changes are not punitive. It's strictly a shift to use their talents in the best way and broaden their skills."
"If you pledge your support, make sure that outputs are identified and then leave people alone so that natural leaders emerge. They often have better ideas and ways of executing than we, as managers, are able to come up with," observed Bruce, the Marketing Manager.
Indeed, throughout the company, employees have responded to the challenge, proposing and implementing dozens of innovations:
The company saved $355,000 in the first 24 months of the Renewal program. In addition, internal employee surveys showed increased employee satisfaction in 22 of 25 criteria rated. The key to success so far? Training and making the external consultant expertise available to each department head and his or her staff, says Shane.
Moravec and Associates conducted all required evaluation and training on site. Every employee received 2 days of on-site quality improvement training; supervisors received 4 days, middle managers 5 days. Senior executives went though Moravec and Associates' 5-day management development program spread over a month before rolling out changes in their departments.
Not every department has signed on for Renewal--to the irritation of those that have. But that will change in the next quarter when all managers are required to meet specific goals in 7 areas:
The two that have not participated can now see the benefits evident in employee attitudes and output in the other departments.
Senior managers have been free to experiment. Warehouse Manager Dean, for instance, says less management has left some employees high and dry. He is now tapping front-line employees to lead and coach those needing more direction or support. But these new supervisors differ from their predecessors in at least two significant ways:
Those leading change must be more inventive than their business counterparts. Resources are scarce, and employees are often under a microscope. Hesitant middle managers sometimes face few carrots for embracing change. But the organization can appeal to one trait that runs deep in the work culture and in nearly all employees: pride in doing a job well.
Shane offers this advice to change management -- minded managers across industries:
As for his experience to date, he has only one regret: "I wish we had started this sooner."