LEAN requires an active shaping of the corporate culture.
Efficiency is a big word with even greater complexity in its wake. There are so many efficiency issues that you may be inclined to not even bother trying to tackle the mountain in front of you. Schneeberger AG Linear Technology has always had to take on board technical and economic risks to secure the future. Since 2016, the Swiss SME, which has been solidly managed for over 100 years, has also dared to tackle the difficult subject of “actively shaping corporate culture”.
Initially, this involved the LEAN programme, which was introduced in 2014. However, the drivers of the LEAN movement soon realized that LEAN also requires a collective rethink regarding work conduct and leadership. When it comes to a collective rethink, we are talking about actively shaping the corporate culture and possibly even a cultural change.
Cultural change is a big concept – in reality, it involves a great deal of attention, consistent implementation and perseverance. Many corporate culture projects come to nothing. Not so with the company in Bern. Efforts that focus directly and indirectly on the topic have been repeatedly initiated since 2017. There is now even a person responsible for the issue of culture, and a representative task force that helps to shape the foundations of the programme.
The very first step, however, is understanding and acknowledging the existing culture. It’s no coincidence that it is what it is. We gradually identified the collective behavioural structures and then defined the learning areas. This included the values and a mutual understanding of management, leadership and employee development. The key pillars were a clear vision, supporting tools and the awareness that actively shaping the corporate culture is not a project but rather an ongoing task that has to be borne and driven by executive management.
The tools and models play an important role, because they make it tangible and play a vital role in the transfer. We worked with David Fiorucci’s LP3 modular model from the outset. We used LP3 LEADER at the management level and LP3 TEAM at the employee level. On this basis, we established a common language. In line with the model, we began with a mutual vision which outlined the new cultural state we were striving for. By cultural state, we mean the direction of our company, the rituals, the customs, the embodied values – while taking into account the corporate strategy at all times.
The thinking in terms of a new state and the further nine leadership disciplines from LP3 LEADER are based on current findings from motivation research. This scientific background was very important to us. We are convinced that motivated employees are also productive employees. And we are convinced that working with a vision brings an important impetus to the company. Our experience has been that unmotivated employees have a significant impact on the work environment and the quality of all products and services.
LP3 focuses on the individuality of employees, promotes transparent communication, is characterized by solution-oriented thinking and action and gives employees more freedom but also more responsibility, depending on what the employee feels called to do. LP3 LEADER provides managers with plenty of scope for individuality. In particular, we attach great importance to authenticity and credibility, provided our values of team spirit and being on the same level are respected. LP3 TEAM includes employees in responsibilities, because we can only rise to new levels of development when we do so together.
This may sound like “la-la land”, but in reality it is an up-and-down associated with great expectations and commensurately large disappointments, successes and failures. At times, it feels as though you are in a rowing boat, struggling against a strong countercurrent. Forming attitudes through new points of view, broadening perspectives and conducting ourselves based on reason and understanding are some of the most challenging processes in leading a company. But the journey is worth it. It is often new employees who, after just a few days, confirm that things are done differently at our company.
With its tools, LP3 helps us to navigate the various forces in the countercurrent and always take new approaches. We have harmonized our HR processes and forms to support and reinforce the LP3 model. For example, in employee appraisals, we no longer talk about performance reviews, but employee development discussions with a corresponding record of what is discussed. Here, too, thinking has migrated into visions. The record for employees is based on LP3 TEAM. And for the management team, it is based on LP3 LEADER. After an intensive discussion, strengths are summarized and the development potential discussed and consolidated in writing. Employees and colleagues agree that it feels very different to talk about development potential rather than about shortcomings which have already happened and cannot be changed.
We use the employee development discussion for career planning, especially for those who wish to pursue further training. But staff recruitment and assessment, employee inductions and probationary interviews are also aligned with the same parameters. All in all, we have aligned all manager and employee development processes with the LP3 structures and thus developed a mutual understanding together with the integrated work processes and tools.
For us, LP3 is the perfect basis. On the one hand, LP3 supports our attitude towards employees and the idea of leadership, and on the other, the models leave enough scope for the individuality of each manager and the character of the company.
