A letter to the shop personnel - Essay Example

A letter to the shop personnel I was once part of a project that involved change, to improve the efficiency at a client’s shop. The team responsible comprised of consultant researchers. and selected workers from the client’s side. The project duration was one month. I had carefully broken down the project into three phases of measurement, analysis, and improvement. For measurement data collection tools were to be employed, after training the workers in the team on their proper use. Data collected was to be analyzed to provide the current level of shop efficiency.

Simulation results were to provide the solution for increased shop efficiency. Assistance was to be provided then in the solution implementation, and improvement monitoring. The time line for the measurement phase was two weeks, with each of the following phases taking a week. In the initial phase, it was found data flow was slower than expected, with workers in the team claiming lack of time to utilize the tools. The involvement of the shop management was sought, as the means to persuade the workers to use the tools.

Management pressure resulted in the desired flow of data, but the data did not provide any sensible findings. The tools worked fine, and the workers were trained in their use. So the data had to be flawed. Time was also running out. This strong resistance from workers in the team was unexpected, and the challenge faced. I realized that the solution to the challenge lay in obtaining cooperation from the workers in the team, rather than compliance. For this an understanding of the reasons for lack of cooperation was required.

This led to talks with shop employees on their perspective of our engagement, which concluded in our finding that despite their respect for us, they feared loss of jobs. To resolve the problem I realized that the shop employees needed to be convinced of our mission, which was increasing their efficiency. Increased efficiency would lead to more jobs rather than retrenchment. Working with the researchers in the team, three actions were initiated. The first action involved the writing of a letter to the shop personnel informing them that they were in fact assisting the research work in their participation, and their assistance was highly appreciated.

This was to gain a personal touch with the shop employees. The second action involved presenting testimonies of earlier engagements, that demonstrated increased efficiency through our efforts, leading to more jobs rather than retrenchment. The final action involved convincing the management to announce that if the increased efficiency at the shop resulted in enhanced profit, the workers would benefit not by just retaining their jobs, but also be paid more. This resulted in boosting the interest and cooperation from all workers involved in the project, leading to timely completion.

The shop efficiency was increased by 30%. Subsequently we learned that with the shop handling 50% more workload than previously, the shop management did raise wages by an average of 5% to all workers. (1). Word Count 496 wordsWorks Cited 1. Cray, David & Mallory, Geoffrey R. Making Sense of Managing Culture. London, UK: International Thomson Business Press, 1998.