I’m at my wits end with a change resistant operator- the self styled ‘Big Al’- who lives up to the moniker when it comes to the size of his opposition to continuous improvement (CI).
Big Al has worked here for 25 years and knows every process inside out. He’s domineering, conceited and deeply distrustful of all managers.
But, it’s largely forgiven because he knows how to dig you out when the orders are piled up and you need an extra five per cent out of a piece of production kit. In return, he’ll spend the next week displaying his magnificence to the shopfloor like a peacock with a prize plumage.
We’ve just launched a new CI programme titled ‘fit for 2020’and brought the entire team together for the launch. That shopfloor debrief was punctuated by tuts, sighs and mutterings that: ‘we’ve tried this before and it didn’t work’. But, I steeled myself not to give Al a rise. Instead, I pulled him in afterwards and tried to reason with him. I told him he was my most skilled operator and that his buy-in could be influential in our chances of success. I also confided that our business could be in serious jeopardy if we didn’t get 2020 right.
Low and behold, it registered. He said he worried about his job and that the preening masked the fact he felt threatened by younger colleagues with new skills and ideas. He also felt hurt that CI programme seemed to pour scorn on way he and his pals operated back on site back in the day.
I honestly believed the penny dropped. Al’s arms uncrossed during the next team brief and he submitted a suggestion idea. And it was a cracker, a change to our tooling selection that could save £300,000. I made a beeline for Al’s area at the end of the week and thanked him in front of the team for his idea.
Monday morning came around and Big Al was back with vengeance. He gave his team a dressing down over Friday’s lacklustre throughput and suspended all kaizen activity until they made amends. By lunchtime I had a note on my desk withdrawing the tooling suggestion because of a clearly fabricated problem with a supplier. Al also complained that 2020 activity represented an unreasonable work demand that he’d be raising at the next union meeting. Oh yes, Big Al was back. But why the flip and how do I win him around?
CI Solution: Jeremy Richardson, Managing Consultant, Turner & Townsend Suiko
To be very honest, ‘Big Al’-type characters are common in all organisations. It isn’t always straightforward, but taking time to understand and unravel how Big Al ticks is the key to unlocking the problem. To my mind, people like Al see themselves as a hero coming to save the day when there is a problem. They get real satisfaction and personal reward from doing this. Ultimately they are not team players. They see change, particularly change which is focused around making improvements in their area, as a threat to their personal standing. In need of control and recognition, it is not uncommon for characters like Big Al to take extreme action to defend their position, resulting in why ‘Big Al had a big flip’.
Big Al’s behaviour reveals two major issues that have to be addressed in order to make the ‘fit for 2020’ CI programme a success. Firstly, you need capable processes in place that you can control. Too many problems are being passed to management to deal with and as a result you are spending a significant amount of wasted time in fire-fighting mode. In this environment, characters like ‘Big Al’ thrive, as management have a safe and reliable source to go to for putting out fires. Big Al has an important role here as chief fire fighter and he likes it, a lot.
You are missing key aspects and steps of change management with your ‘fit for 2020’ CI programme. This is a common problem as organisations often see ‘change’ as a programme of process improvement activities and miss the important aspect of changing people’s behaviours.
If you are to be able to reduce the time spent fire-fighting, you will free up time to focus on your ‘fit for 2020’ CI programme. I would start by laying some foundations and controls in the production process, by ensuring all production staff are clear on their area of responsibility; that standards of work are clearly defined and all critical process and behaviours are measured with targets set, so expectations are clear.
Performance should be reviewed and challenged daily to identify and action items which are not meeting expectation quickly. It is critical this happens, before a situation arises where Big Al characters have to come in and save the day.
This will soon start to drive more accountability and responsibility with the production staff and reduce the number of issues being escalated to management. In tandem, you will significantly start to reduce the need and dependence on Big Al to ‘dig you out’.
However, in order to win Big Al around completely, you are going to need a robust change management process. I would firmly recommend the implementation of Kotter’s 8 Steps here.
You have to create a sense of urgency to help Big Al and others see the need for change and how important it is to take action. Being involved in the ‘fit for 2020’ campaign has to be seen as a more attractive prospect than simply doing nothing. With all change programmes it is vital that the clear majority see the need for change and understand that things will be better in the future as a direct result of the change.
Assembling a strong steering team that has the right attributes to be able to guide the company though the change would be my next recommendation. Typically, people think the management team can and is capable of this alone, but often in a lot of cases key roles and capabilities are missing. The make-up of the team is critical, with influencer and challenger roles attributed to the team, so that everyone will engage and identify with the group at all levels throughout the organisation. The team will need to take on characters like Big Al as part of its role.
The rigour of the process may empower and inspire Big Al to pick up momentum in a positive way; however, should it become clear that Big Al’s values are not aligned to the organisation’s future core purpose and values, you must strongly question if he is the right person to be part of it going forward.
‘Take control of the situation before it controls you’ has to be my parting shot here, in the immediate term with Big Al and also looking ahead to create and maintain a more sustainable, profitable business. Good luck.
