We gather useful lessons along our career paths. Some through trial and error, others as the result of serendipity. These lessons greatly enhance our "formal" education - by exposing us to a very different type of challenge. I experienced one of these lessons early in my career, while exploring sources of dissatisfaction with a "newly minted", team based product development process. Fresh out of school, I prematurely predicted that the experienced problems would be associated with the mechanics of the team process itself. (Of course, there was a twist.)
It was early in the teaming journey for this organization - just as US manufacturing was beginning to evolve. Bringing together various functions into product development teams, was an entirely new way of conducting their work - and the change was a bit of a shock. Integrating teaming into the existing workplace culture was turning out to be a bit of a bumpy process. As might be expected, the differing functional areas didn't always see eye-to-eye on product priorities. Executing compromises concerning product details often proved to be quite a dramatic process.
We realized that teaming would become a permanent fixture in the product development process, and the core leaders were quite supportive of the change. As a result, everyone was quite motivated to make edits and forge on (exactly why I was contacted). I assumed that the shift to a teaming orientation, was causing the upset.
We did our best to gather possible "pain points", being sure to cover the team basics (size of the team, role clarity, team leaders, etc). But, at the last moment I realized that my prediction about root causes may have been off. The reason? An experience that a member of core leadership had shared with us. Apparently as he left the facility the day before, he struck up a conversation with an employee while making his way to his car. At some point, it became quite evident that the employee had no idea who he was, or what role he played at the facility. This rang an alarm for him, as you can imagine. I had missed something of critical importance.
We promptly drafted some candidly worded questions to capture this potential concern, realizing that some of the problems they were experiencing might have nothing to do with the team mechanics. The problems may have been related to leadership visibility - something that wasn't often considered at that time. With the radical shift to teaming, there was a possibility that employees needed to be more convinced that core leadership was behind them.
As it turned out, there was a perceived lack of core leadership presence in the teaming process. Just as the lone employee in the parking lot - team members were actually unclear as to who was actually "running the show". All in all, the team members needed not only to know the core leaders - the teams needed some form of physical leadership presence within the teams. The optimal level of involvement needed to be determined - but the broader issue was now in plain view. If the core leader hadn't mentioned his experience, I would have missed this key component.
What I learned about from this:
- Obsess over competing explanations. When there is an issue within your organization, never assume the reasons behind it are obvious - and try not to treat the situation as an "open and shut" case. There are usually layers that interact to form the root explanation. Whether you are examining culture or employee engagement, try not to draw early conclusions - it may cloud your judgement.
- Listen, and then listen some more. Pay close attention to the dynamics of the group you are trying to understand. Take a very detailed history about changes in process or direction. Record all of your hunches and represent these topics in your interview process, survey or poll. Do your very best to gather the "back story". Crowd source topic areas to establish less than obvious topics that might explain attitudes. Pay attention to "tangents".
- Prepare for the unexpected. I've never been involved in an attitude assessment (customer or employee focused) that didn't reveal something surprising. Prepare for this possibility. Attitudes are often complex. Be poised to act on the findings.
This experience changed how I approached future projects. I know longer make assumptions about what is causing a workplace issue. If a client inquires about predictions concerning attitudes, I try not to offer a forecast. However, I do attempt to calm their nerves and offer the following, "We'll get to the bottom of this. But, we want to get it right. Let's just see what emerges."
Have you ever made a prediction about employee or customer attitudes that was inaccurate? What lessons have you learned along your career path?
Dr.Marla Gottschalk
