Leading and Managing Change

                In 1983, I was on the ground floor of a management transition from the Traditional Style of Management to the Team Concept of Management in a small foam & flexible fabrics factory in Auburn Hills, Michigan outside of Detroit. At that time, the automotive industry was making a major conversion to this en vogue management  style,  and started to require its vendors to follow suit to maintain lucrative contracts. This movement  was considered cutting-edge thinking at the time because  it was open to interpretation about how to proceed. New ideas and new ways of doing business were challenging old ideas and old ways of doing things at every bend of the road. This created tension, eroded the trust factor between current management and employees. It also taxed and crumbled an already ineffective communication structure. My consultant work was initially identified as 1) establishing a new Training Department and 2) training employees to establish and maintain the new management system. Training was broken into 3 different major areas: 1) White collar employees, 2) Blue collar employees and 3) Sales staff. There were 2 shifts, and 350+ employees.

                My original assessment pointed to a serious problem in communication between teams, shifts, union and management, and new/established workers. The establishment of common ground understandings were enhanced by an in-house created booklet that explained what the factory did, the process of the manufacturing line, and the function of each of the teams. Seeing themselves as being a collective part of an understandable process started to build the One team made of many teams cultural thinking change. Employee’s contributed to the Wall of Fame employee board recognizing accomplishments by individuals and teams, and a company newsletter went into production so that news channels would signify a new and improved was for sharing information. A two-hour training class was delivered to each team in the factor to help establish the benefits of better communication. It was well-received and started a momentum towards the change process.

                The next step was clearly to give the teams the structure to govern team choices and 6 major areas were identified as a start point for training: 1) Mission Statements, 2) Ground Rules, 3)Goal-Setting, 4) Goal realization (within established time frames), 5) Recognition and Rewards, 5) Team Assessment, and 6) Problems solving & Conflict resolution. The training was inter-active, and was based on criterion-based performance objectives. Demonstration of understanding was measured based on the learning that took place and could be verbally explained, explained in writing, and using hands-on activities.

                Our success after one year was presented at the Michigan Labor/Management Council in Lansing, Michigan because we had the highest profits ever after using this system. Employee Quality of Life and Increased Production were the two major accomplishments of change under this new system. None of it could have been accomplished without first establishing a communications structure that could support the change. Better communication leads to better trust, allowing for emerging leaders to be identified and utilized.

About the Author: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nancy-bell/30/231/855