Change now... but how?

In a recent meeting in which I took part, the workshop manager of a taxi company that operates more than two hundred vehicles under three years old in the city of Buenos Aires, related an unsuccessful change experience. His team noticed that many cars entering the workshop for periodic mechanical reviews were perfectly clean, no signs of garbage and even aromatized. On the other hand some of the entering cars showed leftover food in the interior, empty plastic water bottles on the floor, cigarette smell and a general state of disorder.

Such circumstances worried our friend, because it required more time for his team to clean the interior of the unit, distracting them from their primary task of maintaining the vehicle in perfect mechanical shape to maximize the service time under safe conditions. On top of that he considered that the general state of disorder was associated with ill treatment of the unit, with a negative impact on its lifetime and the quality of service offered to the passenger.

With genuine interest to produce a positive change in the attitude of those drivers that delivered the unit in bad shape, he decided to print a piece of paper with the following sentence: “Vehicles entering the workshop must be clean and tidy”. He fixed the sheet of paper in the news board at the workshop’s entrance considering that his message would be a call for the responsibility of the drivers. His initiative did not last long as one of the six union representatives active in the company came soon after and tore off the piece of paper saying “the company is responsible for the vehicle’s conditions”.

This little story makes us think about some elements essential for the successful implementation of a change process. Change must not be implemented based on isolated initiatives, but have to be carefully planned considering, not only its adequate implementation but also the culture and structure of the organization. The objective of achieving people’s engagement must consider all groups involved. In Argentina and probably in many other countries, the union and in particular the union delegates active in the operating unit are an important stakeholder whose role must be considered in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts and/or, as in our story, plain opposition.

According to a recent survey in the US, only 54% of change processes achieve their objectives. The design of the change program has to start from the top and must involve all layers without exception. The key is to engage… everybody.