When our expert Vincent Dubois accepted his assignment in North Africa at the plant of a renowned car manufacturer, he knew that his task would not be an easy one. Leading a team of senior consultants, Vincent was tasked with developing the skills and competencies of local managers to reach the level of maturity defined by the company.
He knew that the country lacked experience in the production field, and that experienced senior managers were in short supply. This meant that juniors could quickly move into management positions. The key role of Vincent and his team was to pass on his knowledge, starting from the fundamentals.
"The country has shown that it can achieve massive production feats like building a factory overnight," said Vincent. "However, the Lean culture has yet to take root.
Vincent arrived at the plant with a plan based on "I do, we do, you do". In the first two weeks, the team offered on-the-job training on key Lean tasks such as Gemba walks, interpreting and monitoring KPIs, observing in the work situation, understanding operational planning, launching a continuous improvement project, organizing team meetings and managing skill transfers. Following this, he would deploy a coaching plan involving experienced senior managers for a year and a half.
However, two unforeseen difficulties arose and threatened the plan: 1) a rival department and 2) Ramadan.
The competing department was the "standards" department, which had initially been tasked with enhancing the skills of local managers. When management realized that this had been unsuccessful, they called in Vincent. This department tried to discredit the "outsiders" and slow down the roll-out. Vincent had to redouble his efforts to show the teams that he could be trusted.
The training period also coincided with the start of Ramadan. Almost all the plant's employees were observing Ramadan, which meant that people often ate very late at night, went to bed late and carried their tiredness over to the next day, especially on the first few days of fasting. Vincent understood that his students would be tired. So he decided to fast with them.
"I followed Ramadan out of respect. I couldn't demand that they do their job if I wasn't in their shoes," said Vincent.
How did the students react? "They trusted me and were very tolerant with me," says Vincent. They absorbed everything Vincent taught them, with impressive speed and enthusiasm. They shared their experiences with each other. The first two weeks became a real team effort.
The results were astonishing. After the training period, when the senior managers assessed the proximity managers, their maturity score rose by 1.7 points, to 2.6 on a scale of 5. A few months later, the new standard became the one Vincent and his team had deployed.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 interrupted the mission before the objective of 3 could be reached. The team had to return. Despite this premature departure, Vincent is proud of his experience and brought back a vital lesson to Axsens bte :
"To achieve great performance, you need empathy and the trust of your colleagues. If people don't trust you, you're setting them up for failure. If they trust you, you'll get the best out of them.
