One of the most credible names in automobile manufacturing was facing issue of frequent tool down and strike mind set of their people on the shop floor. The total number was more than 2000 people involved in production. We were initially briefed to conduct workshops aimed at improving ‘communication and etiquettes’ of operators and supervisors.
Solution : As coach, we found that there must be something which is holding these people from ‘behaving nicely’..so doing standard communication workshops would not help. After crossing boundaries of ‘global processes and approvals’, we did first hand check and met up with people on ‘ground zero’. After due diligence, the entire intervention was designed around improving ownership and their emotional connect with the organisation, crisis was averted and there was no strike in 3 years time since we repeated this interventions every year. It will be good to mention that the same intervention was attended by operators initially which was extended to all involved including plant director.
Measure of success : Office bearers of union were invited to participate in the program, their buy in was taken, which resulted in they becoming our brand ambassador and there was no looking back on the success of the program.