3 Slices of Vanilla
Slice 1 - Individual Training
A FTSE 350 Company, operating 17 manufacturing sites across Europe, decided on an overhead cost-reduction exercise at its UK Flagship site. This involved stripping away layers of management in the production area, increasing the skills of the first-line supervision, and substantially reducing the number of engineers by increasing the skills within the production teams
Once job descriptions had been prepared for the new roles, and person-specs identified, a series of development centres were run to identify candidates with the necessary aptitudes. This included psychometric testing and practical engineering assessments to achieve 'best fit'
Once potential team leaders were selected they began a 13-week program of training in the skills required. This was delivered primarily by the company's own staff from a variety of disciplines, once they too had been trained in 'how to train'. The program was accomplished by releasing those selected for one day a week and in the final stage, an assessment of individual competence was carried out
Despite strong initial resistance to the exercise, since everyone was effectively applying for a new job, motivation and morale soon began to improve during the training sessions, due to the 'Vanilla Effect'. Such was the momentum created that some managers whose jobs were no longer required, soon applied and successfully re-trained as team leaders
All cost saving targets were exceeded and surprisingly production efficiencies also improved by 22%. The Project was submitted for a National Training Award and reached the Regional Finals. Commenting on the remarkable change in behaviours that came about during the project, the application concluded, "...it was if some form of transmutation had taken place and we had witnessed base metal turn into gold"
Slice 2 - Team Training
A UK manufacturing company decided to outsource 50% of its' production output. As a consequence, half the workforce was to be made redundant. The company announced that the selection criteria would be based on skills and not LIFO as proposed by the unions. This resulted in a 'bloody exercise' where in extreme cases, employees with over 20 years service were told they did not meet the requirements whilst others with only one years service were retained
For good measure, the company announced a change in shift patterns at the same time! In total, 100 people were retained within the business and whilst they already had the technical skills, (the basis of selection), when the new teams were formed, performance died. Morale reached an all-time low and the number of accidents soared
As output died and customer service disintegrated, we were called in to repair the damage. A series of training courses were developed, specific to these issues and were presented primarily by the company's own staff once they had been trained in the best means of delivery
Slowly morale began to improve to that extent that the new teams were ready to begin team-working training. We devised a program called 'the Quest' based around the Knights of King Arthur. The teams were taken offsite for a day in order to learn how to work together. Since four shifts were involved it was not possible to carry this out at the same time and the first session was somewhat strained. This soon changed as the day developed
By the time the last shift went on 'the Quest', the employees were buzzing! Output rose above pre-change levels, accidents fell dramatically and excellent customer service returned. Once again the 'Vanilla Effect' had worked its magic!
Slice 3 - Coaching
The Director of Development was, in everyone's opinion, a brilliant inventor. The flow of innovative products he had devised was instrumental in the growing success of the company. He was a driven man, driving himself hard and his own personal values were such that he had learnt at an early age, coming in second was not an option
If he drove himself hard, he drove others even harder and to say he was a difficult man to work with, was an understatement. Some found ways of coping, the majority moved on, writing it down to experience
Eventually the high turnover of staff itself was becoming a problem to the business but not wishing to lose the creativity of this key player, they sent him on management training courses in the hope that his behaviour would change. When it became clear there were no measureable improvements, they called in our senior partner, an industrial psychologist
Using a number of psychometric instruments and a 360-degree appraisal he was able to work with the director to help him analyse his own behaviours. Over a period of a few months, with regular coaching by our senior partner, the situation began to improve. Without stifling his creativity or reducing his drive, the director was able to re-focus his energies by 'infecting' his staff with his own enthusiasm
High staff turnover is no longer an issue