3. REAL: The Transformation Begins at Pickled Peppers.
Transformation Begins
I told the owner that to shift from chaos to control, we needed a long-term commitment to education and training. This would likely take 4 to 5 years, not as a precise prediction, but to emphasize the need for a sustained effort. Working with people is unlike working with machines; it's messy and unpredictable. We’d need to strategize each step, anticipating their reactions.
To my surprise and relief, he responded, “Well, I’ve tried everything else and nothing worked, so I’ll give this a try.”
Shocking Change
That very day, we announced that he was stepping down as president, putting his son in charge of the factory while he remained chairman of the board. The reaction was shock, which was precisely what we needed to shift the momentum. The announcement shook things loose, making old power dynamics obsolete instantly. We had to act fast to fill the void with something better, so we got to work immediately. The goal was to stop the complaints and personal vendettas and get everyone focused on improving operations. As I later coined, "Focus on the Function and the dysfunction will take care of itself."
Early Sessions: A Shared Learning Experience
First interactions are key to earning respect. My goal was to build rapport, reduce stress, and foster a team spirit. The best way seemed to be through a shared learning experience that could spark lively discussion. Something fun! On the second day, post-leadership announcement, we gathered the managers, some seasoned supervisors, the owner, and his son to play deceptively simple games:
Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a profound management thinker active from the 1930s until 1994, had a deep influence on me. He made the Red Bead Experience famous in his four-day seminars in the 1990s. The game clarifies how natural variation is part of any process and trying to “fix” it is like chasing your tail.
The Magic Stick game has 5 or 6 people on each side of a thin stick, like a broomstick without the broom. They can only touch it with their extended index fingers. The challenge is to balance the stick without dropping it while slowly lowering it to the ground. Simple? Not at all! The more people try to move the stick down, the faster it goes up. You have to experience it. As they feel the stick moving, they instinctively make greater contact, raising it. In the second phase, one person leads, and everyone else follows. This forces them to work as a unit for one clear purpose. This was invaluable because it unconsciously showed them they could work together if they knew how. It also demonstrated that managers were no better at it than workers. Humility as a management tool is greatly underrated. You could never accomplish this directly or by saying it. But with this seemingly innocuous game, they shifted from "I know" to "I am curious," the state needed for real change.
The Balloons and Parachute game teaches a similar lesson and is more colorful. These games achieved their hidden purpose of breaking down preconceptions about my role there and starting to bring people together. It gave them a glimpse at inner versus outer motivation.
Maintaining Dialogue and Engagement
When you do these kinds of presentations, people often look at you with blank faces. It’s difficult to know what they are getting. Despite this, I never believed in dumbing things down. This approach harks back to early scientific management, where the upper class passed knowledge down to their minions. But as we progressed, workers began to catch on much faster. By doing, they saw these principles in action. The key is maintaining dialogue, at least when I am there. Asking, responding, letting people disagree, as long as we agree to test things before deciding. These principles, observed by people long before and smarter than me, are profound and effective. In the end, I would win most of them over. It is a process, a dialogue between equals, that works.
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A New Way, Made in America!
We explored new management methods aimed at achieving long-term results instead of merely “putting out fires” for quick profits. We started with an introduction to Dr. W.E. Deming and his management philosophy.
Deming’s philosophy helped the US win WWII by empowering housewives, who had never worked in factories before, and other inexperienced individuals to operate and manage production. With guidance from a few experts, especially Dr. Deming, they transformed American industry. After WWII, his philosophy helped Japan rebuild and become the second-largest economy in the world by prioritizing quality.
Deming’s philosophy underpins some of the most successful companies globally, including Colgate, Ford under Alan Mulally and Don Peterson, Harley-Davidson, and Wegman’s Markets. His principles are also practiced, often unknowingly, by companies like Apple, Google, and Genentech. He is perhaps the most influential yet least known management thinker of our time.
The Toyota Way
We also introduced the Toyota Way. Heavily influenced by Dr. Deming, Toyota developed a production system that values its workers and aims to eliminate unnecessary, burdensome tasks. This approach reduces hidden internal losses and significantly boosts profitability. The Toyota Way became the framework within which they developed their own system. It instilled confidence as these methods came from a renowned company. It also provided me with effective tools to apply and evaluate what worked.
Dealing with Uncertainty
Dealing with uncertainty involved both them and me. I didn’t know how to get them to try new things, and it wasn’t my place to dictate their actions. Not being there daily, I couldn’t know their needs as well as they did. They are the experts of their own environment. What I had were principles I believed in from experience, and confidence in my ability to adapt as needed. For instance, I discovered the Toyota Way while researching the Toyota Job Training System. This method was derived from the Training Within Industry program, used to prepare factory beginners to produce war machinery during WWII. Deming and others were involved in this initiative. The work of Homer Sarasohn and Charles Protzman in post-WWII Japan focused on teaching managers how to supervise. Both were taking risks, but the Training Within Industry provided a solid framework for managers to understand their needs. It was a serendipitous and great blessing. In reality, if you avoid rote learning, you see clearly that navigating a fast river requires experimentation until you find what works. You could say I got lucky.
Building Confidence with a Big Win
As a consultant, you need a big win, fast. Something that clearly improves the company, especially the profits, to grab everyone’s attention. If you can identify and execute that, they will follow you down this less-traveled path to breakthrough productivity and profits, all while enjoying their work. You need to talk to them, figure out what would give a “wow” to the owners, managers, and workers. Something that relieves a headache for the workers, eases a burden for the managers, and clearly puts money in the owner’s pocket. I found that opportunity, which I explain in the next chapter. We achieved it and more in just a few days by applying what we first learned in the classes. When a company is immersed in chaos, it is easier to make improvements because it is not doing well. Big wins are harder and less dramatic when the client is already well-run. But I had become a turnaround specialist, so every client I was getting at the time, and half the companies I worked with, were in bad shape when I arrived. These improvements made me appear more capable than I probably deserved.
In the next installment, I will cover the preparations and the implementation of the big win.
I have often wondered why things went so well with this company, whereas, in other companies, they struggle to keep from reverting to the way things were. Being a consultant or mentor, despite the shiny face we show when trying to find new clients, requires guts. The wins you have are often only partial wins. The truth is, you can lead people to understanding, but whether they continue to use it, or how they interpret it, is out of your control.
In the case of Pickled Peppers Inc., I think it was the people involved in the company, the fact the owner was at his wits’ end, and his in-depth involvement in the process. He actually enjoyed it. Other projects that remain problematic seem to have owners or top management who do not get actively involved in making the change.