During the three months since the Board of Directors approved ‘Operation Transform’, Jack’s senior leadership team [primarily Christine] used every communication vehicle possible to convey their change message to the entire company.
Current company performance could result in plant closings, layoffs and bankruptcy. The trend must be reversed by making dramatic changes to the quality of the product and reductions in costs and inventory.
They held town meetings, filmed & distributed videos, posted flyers and published articles in company newsletters. By all accounts, the news about the company’s performance reached the vast majority of employees. Leaders from all over the company reported to HQ that every team member was fully aware of the current state. In fact, Jack’s email in-box overflowed with notes of support and offers of assistance from every corner of the organization.
But the early post-transformation announcement performance signals were mixed – some plants with a favorable track record have been able to maintain that momentum while others have not. Poor performers remained as such. HR and Operations leaders could sense the strain and urgency among the staff, but could identify many cases where teams and individuals were taking action, making change. Christine, the company’s transformation effort leader, was aware of the gap – that not everybody’s “hair is on fire”.
On her return to headquarters from the worst performing operation in the ‘federation’, the Perry, Georgia plant, Christine made a few new entries to her trip report. Under the heading “Gap Analysis”, she listed the possible reasons that the company wide transformation effort was not getting any traction. Some entries were verbatim quotes from plant staff, while others were her informed opinion.
The plant quality assurance manager thinks “senior management has unrealistic expectations. We’ve been part of this federation of plants for years, but nobody seems to understand us. You talk at us, not with us. It’s different down here. Our front line employees are not committed to working faster and doing more, like they are up North or out West.”
One member of the overnight maintenance crew believes otherwise – that “the people who work here and live in the community want this plant to thrive and grow. Our competitors are more agile, our buyers are sophisticated business people and our owners have a short term mentality. It’s the world around us that has changed, but we have not. Somebody has got to help.”
She continues to hear their voices as if they sat next to her on the plane. “We don’t know what we did wrong. We’ve been working this way for decades. Now we are confused and concerned. We know management says our performance is bad. But it’s not clear that we have a future. Some people are out looking for new jobs. Others are hoping for a plant shutdown and a severance package.”
Nothing conclusive here. She’s still puzzled.
The plane lands. Before she knows it, Christine is sitting outside CEO Jack’s conference room. Aware that some positive signs of change are beginning to emerge, the senior leadership team has called on Christine to shed some additional light on the progress that’s been made thus far. She knows she must also share the other side of the story…as it speaks volumes about ‘Operation Transform’. Sales at many plants are down and overtime and absenteeism is on the rise in both regions. Grievances have doubled in the unionized plants.
The lines on Christine’s face tell the story as ‘Operation Transform’ is taking its toll on the transformation team leader and former senior auditor. Jack’s assistant approaches Christine while she waits. “We’re all aware of the dire straits. The message everyone hears is that there’s no hope, that we’re doomed.”
As she prepares her remarks, a margin comment in her hand-written notes catches her eye – out of 188 front-line staff one-on-one meetings:
- 188 team members are aware of the need for transformation
- 57 are aware that there’s a funded vision and plan to transform the company
- 9 are able to describe one change they will personally make to help with the transformation
A minute later she’s following Jack into the executive conference room for the senior leadership team briefing. Before anyone sits down, Christine blurts “we’ve made a grave error…it’s clear that we have spent far too much time describing the need for change ….instead of describing what the future will look like and rolling up our sleeves to help the teams change what they do. They are paralyzed.....”
