Tool : Visualization

Challenge & Selection

I was working in a paint manufacturing unit. Our manufacturing unit had an issue that collectively we  were not able to achieve our plant goals. All the departments were capable of achieving their goal, but  they were not able to see challenges and goals of other departments. Due to this everyone was working  in silo’s and collective organization’s goals were not achieved. Everyone was focused on their own goals  & objectives.

Here challenge was to communicate expectations of each department to whole team so that everyone  could work together as a team to achieve plant goals.

As I was member of goal setting team, I thought we could use visualization tool. Communicating  challenges in a non-verbal way was the thought process. We chose visualization as tool for collective  goal setting exercise because visuals make long lasting impact than verbal conversations. Also, individual  departments can creatively come up with what they want to achieve in next year. Epitome of the  concept was to make an impact and sensitize whole team about each other’s expectations so that  everyone supports each other in daily plant activities.

Application

At the start of goal setting exercise plant head communicated plant performance of last year to whole  team and handed over to me.

After ice breaking session, I asked each department what they want to achieve next year. Some random  answers started coming from each department. I asked them to hold their thoughts and gave then set of  old newspapers and magazines. Now I asked them to imagine morning after one year and they have  received a newspaper regarding achievements of their department.

Now each department must create a newspaper front page regarding performance of their department  for after one year. They could use cuttings old newspapers and magazines and create collage. Now  creativity started flowing and what everyone wanted to achieve in plant started to kick in. Interesting  newspaper front pages collages were created using old newspapers cuttings.

Some examples are “Achieved ZERO incidents with 1200 Safety Managers at Manufacturing Unit” was  the heading of Safety Department’s newspaper. So, in this headline Safety Department was  communicating that all 1200 employees are safety managers and together we can achieve zero injuries.

While Production Department’s headline was “Record Break Production with No Losses”; Engineering  Department had headline, “Awarded Energy Efficient Plant in the World” and detailed news indicated  various efforts made throughout the year.

Everyone present their own newspaper front page to whole team and now whole team was clear about  goals of each department.

Now it was time to understand challenges faced by each department. We used same technique of  creating collage through newspaper cuttings to display challenges faced by each department on daily  basis. One of the news created by production department was “Stuck in breakdowns” and detailed news  indicating how breakdowns affects production volumes. On similar note each department created  collages of their struggles. This was making clear expectation of each department from other  department.

This time instead of presenting to whole group I asked to keep these collages in different corners of the  room, and everyone must read other department’s collages indicating their struggles. After reading, I  gave everyone time for introspection and think what help they can offer other department to achieve  their goals.

After this, on one large sheet every department should mention what support they can provide to other  department and sign it off. As all the departments mentioned their commitments to support each other,  I created multiple copies of this sheet and kept it at various locations such as canteen, notice boards etc.

Insight & Approach

Well, this was an eye opener for everyone. Visualization tool impactfully communicated everyone about  goals of each department to everyone and collectively what as plant we can achieve together.  Additionally, displaying commitment sheet at various location such as canteen, impact created by  newspaper headings reinforced throughout the year. Everyone started to understand struggles of each  other and extended support to each other. Shared insights help to solve a problem. Through  visualization technique its easy to understand vision of a group.

As I have identified, shared insights help not only bind whole group together as a team but also to helps  to achieve mammoth goals, henceforth I would use this tool to bring a diverse group on same page.

