Ten people at a course on leading change in companies.
What are they dealing with? Let's start with Karel.
Karel runs a manufacturing company.
He wants people in the company to come up with new ideas. Or at least to open up to new things - robotics, automation, AI, process optimisation.
But the team sticks to the way it has always done things.
Karel and I talk through the individual stages of change. I don't hand out my solution, I want us to find the solution together. To open the boxes in our heads and new paths. Together.
“Do you know Baťa's philosophy? Let's talk about it now. Could it work differently for you?”
In short:
- Baťa supported innovation in the company. People had a share in the profit of their workshop. Whoever came up with an improvement earned more for themselves and for others.
- Such a person was often promoted too.
- He knew that people don't long only for money, but also for recognition. He celebrated such people in the company magazine and in front of everyone.
In a nutshell: Baťa had a system that supported innovation in a manufacturing business. But first and foremost, the people.
How does your system measure up?
That's where we started. It's not about taking it now and blindly copying it 1:1. It's about starting to look at how a manufacturing company works today differently.
- What system do we have / will we create that supports the behaviour we want in the company? What is the smallest step right now?
- Do we know that innovation also means a small process improvement? For people to be able to make big changes, say in the production process, they need to know that we value the small ones too.
- Are people motivated only by money? People long for recognition too. How can we give it to them?
Baťa was no fool:
“I did not build a company, I built people, and they built the company.” That's where a system of change in a company comes from.