Case Studies

Learning from reality

Learning from success of others

1. Change Management in production in the chemical industry

A production plant of a chemical corporation was operating beyond budget. Since the plant had no direct customers and distribution was managed by another department, they were not free in pricing. Cost structure was the only key for remaining within budget.

A new plant manager was recruited externally to fix the problems. After half a year he was in despair and reached out to me. The task was clear to him economically, but he felt he was fighting alone, not being able to convey the message to his team. “I don’t get what they are telling me, and they don’t understand what I’m saying”, he complained.

First Steps

A first step was a culture check of the plant manager’s new employer (a process driven, family-owned business) compared to his previous employer (a project driven corporation, listed on the NYSE). It was an eye opener for the plant manager to see that his cultural background was completely different of his current employees. Different values and different understanding were the root course for miscommunication. Thus, the starting point was a team coaching with the new plant manager and his employees to eliminate basic misunderstandings. After this, a shared approach was designed.

Moving forward with the process

To steer the needed change, the strategy chart of the Balanced Scorecard was chosen. When setting this up it became evident that a lack of process stability in production was cost driver. This was made a project focus. Concrete steps were discussed in meetings with production teams, project managers were assigned. Other issues were tackled similarly. In the end, the plant had made its way back to budget limitations, jobs were safe again. Even more, jointly working on a shared challenge had created team cohesion. Unnoticed, a new culture had emerged.

Never underestimate the hardness of the supposedly soft factors

Make it clear what is at stake (in this case, many jobs)

Show a viable path and involve those affected in solving the problems.

Excellent tools in this context are Actee Change® and 4Rooms of Change