PDI – Automotive Industry

They need to work together . . . .

Background

The team were made up of 9 people who all lead different teams within the organisation.  They all reported to members of the company board and had been promoted from within the ranks of the department they now run.  These individuals did not see how the performance of their team impacted other parts of the business.

• Individuals
• Growing company
• Not used to leading teams
• Potential for confusion about how to improve performance
• Lack of clarity about purpose

First Steps

We met with the managing director and discussed what success looked like for him.  We spent time understanding the business, where they had come from and where they wanted to go.  As a family run company they valued internal promotion and “giving people an opportunity” and therefore wanted to develop the teams and their leaders.

• Spent time
• Understood context
• Built relationship

Next

The team were all asked to complete the questionnaire.  We then took these results and provided a report to the team leader.  This report didn’t focus on the individuals within the team but the way in which the team saw the environment in which they found themselves.  It was clear that they had a common purpose within each department but these often conflicted across departments.  This lead to a blame culture, little trust in each other and felling unsupported by those around them.  We then shared this with the team leaders and came up with an action plan (most of these were directly from the output of the questionnaire)

• Simple test
• Report with clear findings
• Action plan for next steps

Action Plan

We worked with the teams and the team leaders over 18 months.  Some actions were specific to a departmental team and some were implemented across the company. Coming up with an agreed common goal and supporting each other to achieve it was a key action in the early days and whilst challenging to achieve provided a firm foundation to build other actions on.  We held “train the trainer” style sessions monthly with the team leaders who them went back to their teams to pass on what they had learnt. At the start of the next session they would then feedback the ways they had put the training into practice, improving communication and trust along the way.

• Taking time to embed change
• Combining theory with practical challenges and shared experience
• Building trust and clear communication

Results

The tBoard saw the way the business came together and improved performance over time.  There were challenges with a major customer with dawning work but the new style team was able to use the forum they had created to help each other through the reorganisation this demanded.

• Improved bottom line
• Resilience within the team
• Able to restructure when required