Storytelling (Module 2)

Challenge & selection

I work in a company and there are several maintenance worker and they work there since 60’s,  70’s and 80’s. They have a mind different than me. I started in the company 6 years ago have  to use emotional intelligence for reaching what we have to reach. I’m the boss and I have to  see the right way to approach. They are extremely engaged and they know how to do different  activities.

One activity there is in the lasts 20 years very important is 5S, a lean manufacturing tool that  requires, among other issues, cleaning, organization and care.

Analyzing in a macro way, I could see around the maintenance team and all of them were  wearing dirty clothes.

Therefore, I had a challenge to show them the importance of wearing clean clothes. It was  necessary to persuade them that is more important for health, safety e 5S wear better clothes  (clean).

I often use storytelling to explain (and persuade if is necessary) to a group the way that  organization expect about our behavior. I believe this way bring competitive forms to see the  environmental, developing our continuous improvement.

I see storytelling a way to involve people. I believe that lead by examples is a good way to  reach the soul of the team.

Application

All the maintenance team was in a meeting and I had the opportunity to talk about clean  clothes. I told them that were important to work wearing clean clothes.

Immediately one of the mechanics told me that was impossible because our company work  with dirty products and they usually couldn’t be clean.

I told them about a Germany company installed in Brazil that launches a challenge for all the  mechanic team. They should wear only white t-shirt during the work day. At the end of the day  they showed to the team the “used t-shirt”.

In the beginning the white t-shirts were coming back with oil and grease. (It was fairly normal ,  since it was a dirties raw materials and machines).

As time goes by, the t-shirt started to come back cleaner than before. Nowadays they use  white overalls and they don’t have to worry about dirty.

When I finished to tell them the story them apparently keep quiet. Days after some mechanics  started to talk with me privately asking how they could learn and apply that lesson.

Insight

I learnt that is important to touch people to achieve what company wants. People are the  essence of a unit business. They have to be persuade to reach what company needs.

Approach

I believe next time I can make smaller groups to touch the team easily.

