Pyramid ODI helps a European logistics company change operations from gradual decline to continuous improvement.
While a great commercial success, this Benelux organization noticed operations were headed the wrong way. Declining output, high levels of employee turnover and absenteeism. Now the operational challenges were threatening profitable growth. Things came to a head when one of the depots, supplying major customers, reached a point of crisis.
The General Manager for the Benelux asked Pyramid ODI "We hire great people - Why are we not getting the engagement and ownership we need?"
His one question began a journey from the bottom of the performance league to a global benchmark over the next two years. Our facilitators partnered with the operations leadership to bring the culture change they needed.
Step One: Understand the numbers and the need.
Alignment begins with understanding of where you are. We began with the starting point of honest appraisals from employees and managers of how they saw the system. In each depot employees and managers shared important data comparing their own opinions with results and customer experience.
Step Two: Build trust while building results
Work is the greatest team building experience. Success together builds a foundation of trust you can build upon. key projects from the initial data gathering were selected and every person in the depot became a member of a project improvement team. Here both employees and leaders not only removed barriers to performance - they learned how to work together for common goals. The results created the first breakthroughs and a platform to launch the next phase. The benefits in the first two steps paid for all of the work for the project - and for the next year.
Step Three: Design for High Performance
Improvement project teams are a great way to get things done "outside the normal organization. But why? Why can't improvement team behavior become daily work? That was the stimulus for step three: a redesign of work and work structures. The participation and engagement of every employee had already yielded great benefits - now the leadership believed that employees could help them design a way of work that would turn occasional improvement into continuous improvement. Using our own design process, they created a new design based upon self-managing work teams. We educated the workforce so they understood the challenges faced by the depot. We engaged them in discussion, debate and discovery and coached them as they invented new, improved ways of operating.
Results: From last to first.
The result: they changed everything - from the methods of work to the administrative policies and procedures. We achieved the company’s first team-based workplace and a 100% improvement in productivity. Staff turnover fell from 60-70% to less than 10% - dramatically reducing training costs. A depot which had been one of the worst performers in the company’s system achieved benchmark status for nearly all of the measures used for cross-group comparisons. And an independent national audit rated employee satisfaction as “highest we’ve ever seen”.
In a few years their work was featured in three global conferences and The Best Cases of Teams. An amazing testament to leadership and employee collaboration.
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The General Manager for the Benelux asked Pyramid ODI "We hire great people - Why are we not getting the engagement and ownership we need?"
His one question began a journey from the bottom of the performance league to a global benchmark over the next two years. Our facilitators partnered with the operations leadership to bring the culture change they needed.
Step One: Understand the numbers and the need.
Alignment begins with understanding of where you are. We began with the starting point of honest appraisals from employees and managers of how they saw the system. In each depot employees and managers shared important data comparing their own opinions with results and customer experience.
Step Two: Build trust while building results
Work is the greatest team building experience. Success together builds a foundation of trust you can build upon. key projects from the initial data gathering were selected and every person in the depot became a member of a project improvement team. Here both employees and leaders not only removed barriers to performance - they learned how to work together for common goals. The results created the first breakthroughs and a platform to launch the next phase. The benefits in the first two steps paid for all of the work for the project - and for the next year.
Step Three: Design for High Performance
Improvement project teams are a great way to get things done "outside the normal organization. But why? Why can't improvement team behavior become daily work? That was the stimulus for step three: a redesign of work and work structures. The participation and engagement of every employee had already yielded great benefits - now the leadership believed that employees could help them design a way of work that would turn occasional improvement into continuous improvement. Using our own design process, they created a new design based upon self-managing work teams. We educated the workforce so they understood the challenges faced by the depot. We engaged them in discussion, debate and discovery and coached them as they invented new, improved ways of operating.
Results: From last to first.
The result: they changed everything - from the methods of work to the administrative policies and procedures. We achieved the company’s first team-based workplace and a 100% improvement in productivity. Staff turnover fell from 60-70% to less than 10% - dramatically reducing training costs. A depot which had been one of the worst performers in the company’s system achieved benchmark status for nearly all of the measures used for cross-group comparisons. And an independent national audit rated employee satisfaction as “highest we’ve ever seen”.
In a few years their work was featured in three global conferences and The Best Cases of Teams. An amazing testament to leadership and employee collaboration.
[Contact us]