Upon returning from a one week holiday I was curious to find out how the shop floor workers were doing with that one-pager instruction we were so proud of.
You know: that sheet that took us hours of meeting with important people, fine-tuning and testing from wall to wall?
Turns out that the shop floor workers are using a different sheet.
A better one.
Turns out that the shop floor workers have been hiding it under their desk because they did not want to harm our sense of pride when we rushed over to their place, proudly announcing our version.
Turns out that there is a fork in the road when I am asked to respond to this new sheet:
- Being right: stick to my position and assume by default that the workers are resistant (and hey, I am the expert of organizational change, so I can kill anything with the label ‘resistance’). Next, searching for elements that are wrong on their sheet and proving that mine is better;
- Being in relationship: congratulating the shop floor workers on their approach and their sense of initiative while we were off for a week. Next, congratulating ourselves on achieving the bigger objective of this change project: making people self reliant.
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
