Delivering cultural change in Operations
Defining the Problem
What do you do when everyone knows there is a problem, but it’s a little emphemeral. A large manufacturing site knew they had some issues around culture, which had not been shaped but allowed to evolve. It could be summarised as an attitude of ‘that will do’ but you can’t just fix that without digging into it further. Working cross functionally, cutting though opinions and turning them into data, I defined 22 behaviours that needed to change and secured agreement from all stakeholders on the leadership team. A couple of examples include sticking to walkways when moving around site & always using a bankmans when reversing lorries. Its no coincidence that the behaviour were defined in a positive manner - ‘we stick to walkways when walking around site’ sends a much more positive message than ‘don’t cross the carpark’.
Create a compelling reason for change
If the first step is how you are going to define what you want to chnage, the second is being clear on the why, so you can communicate what staking place clearly. In this case it was easy to put together a clear and honest narrative around health and safety and quality standards, which was also build into the programme name.
Still. 22 behaviours is a lot of change!
And it was never going to be possible for one person to do this alone. Plus, there was a project management capability issue which meant that the number of potential candidates was small - and already pretty busy. At this point the capability issue became an opportunity. If we split the 22 behavioural changes down into 22 small projects, each one would be an opportunity for someone to take their first steps into project, and change management. The compelling narrative, opportunity to learn something new and make a difference was shared with first line leaders during a well planned launch presentation and most enthusiastically signed up.
Making change
I didn’t just leave them to it. I trained them all in basic project and chnage management techniques. I asked the project leaders to focus how we could make it easier for people to do the right thing that the wrong thing. We showed them an example of what was expected. We assigned each project lead a senior level mentor and helped them to find a project team. I held weekly drop ins where the new project leaders could pop into ask questions - there was also a monthly update for acciuntability
Sustaining & recognising
1st line leaders were very bought in because they had made the change. They were not going to let it fail. It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. Most of the projects were implemented successfully and worked wonderfully - to this day I can’t walk down a flight of steps without holding the handrail, but there were others where the project leader was ‘too busy’ to make significant progress. Certainly a learning for the future. For those who did succeed though - a chance to share their projects with leadership and some much desired reward & recognition, plus a huge sense of personal satisfaction that they had learnt a new skill and made a positive chnage to the business.
