Overcoming Barriers - The Story of the Movie at a Fuel Distribution Plant

Challenge

The certification program for fuel distribution plant management systems owned by oil company was in  process. I was responsible for coordinating the project. The certifications were conducted by an  international auditing company and were intended to meet requirements defined by the oil company's  industrial customers. Until that moment, a large number of fuel distribution plants had been achieving  certificates of compliance. However, there was a particular plant where management system  implementation process was not reaching the target. The deployment process had been tried more than  twice unsuccessful. Plant employees were demonstrating resistance to the implementation of the  management system. In order to get the process done, the plant manager had made some decisions  that confronted the employees, which made the situation worse. Given this fact, it was necessary to  understand the reasons for the failure of the attempts and to implement the management system in an  innovative manner, in order to meet the goal set by the direction of the oil company.

Selection

The situation required careful exploratory action on what was happening at the plant. It was more than  obvious that measures of force, objectionable, would not solve the problem, especially since the  organizational ambience had been tried and made worse. Thus, as coordinator of the Oil Company  program, I chose to personally conduct research on the source of the problem and to conduct  innovative actions to achieve the certification goal. In this way, I chose to use the Storytelling tool to  establish an empathetic relationship with the plant's staff, so that they could expose their dissatisfaction  in stories, define the problem most perceived by people, contextualize the problem and act,  transforming the dissatisfaction of the team in satisfaction with the achievement of the results. The  choice of the tool was due to a past experience of using the same tool, when I also had to deal with  behavioral problems of a group of engineering sector employees of the same company, whose project  and project implementation sectors were constantly diverging , causing significant delays in the delivery  of the works. At that time, I used the concepts of the books by Don Norman (“The Design of Everyday  Things ”) and Tim Brown (“ Change by Design”) to turn pain points into delights, abandon the status quo  of processes and practices conducted in the engineering department and lead teams towards the future  scenario. The Storytelling proved quite effective to create an open and continuous narrative that  involved people and encouraged them to proceed in solving the main problem originated prejudice  among sectors and lack of mutual trust between people. Also in the activity to be narrated, the same  authors and books served as a bibliographic reference.

Application

Work began with the distribution plant team carefully. I did not address failure in attempts to deploy  the management system. Initially, I used some edited films to break the ice, addressing issues such as  perseverance to overcome barriers ("The Pursuit of Happyness ", with Will Smith); confronting prejudice  and the struggle for the ideal (“Hacksaw Ridge”, with Andrew Garfield”); inspiration when in times of  hopelessness and crisis ("Walt Before Mickey", with Jodie Sweetin ) and breach of trust between leader  and followers, which is overcome by team maturity (" Inception ", with Leonardo DiCaprio ). After  watching each movie, I distributed people to groups for discussion and presentation of the central ideas  of the films presented. For the last film, in addition to the groups, I requested a solo presentation from  the plant manager, who addressed the issues of the film and paralleled his performance in front of the  team, making it clear that he had made recent mistakes in project execution decisions, and asking for a  vote of confidence to improve their performance. Throughout this first phase, based on Brown and  Norman, I sought to empathize with the team members as well as between them and me. Rapport  techniques were also used to assist in this process.

The next step was to invite the team to star in their own movie. I used Storytelling to build the story  from a group challenge in line with Brown. The director of the film would be me and the plant manager  would be the “stagehand”. I set the storyline of the film, which would tell the story of the plant team  and their efforts to achieve management system certification (the story from a challenge). We would  not define the title yet. The tentative name would be "Our Movie." I informed that the script of the film  would be presented in a storyboard with 6 frames (the clusters or groups of information, according to  Norman), transcribed in sheets of flip chart.

I started the preparatory activities for the film, addressing about the moment of the plant that the film  would be shown, that is, the description of the status quo, according to Brown. In what situation were  the actors in the film before the certification journey, their doubts, questions and opinions about the  goal? I led as a director of the film a divergent discussion (Norman). Organizational, functional and labor  issues could be presented and discussed one by one. At this stage, besides myself, I worked so that all  members of the group paid close attention to each other and each one could speak, inhibiting  monopolization by one person (Brown). Through my encouragement, using the “5 Whys Methodology”  technique to identify the root cause of the problem, and continuing to use Rapport techniques to build  the empathy map, everyone was able to talk about their activities. What they thought about the plot of  the film, its perceptions and inferences (Norman) in relation to the moment. Thus, it was possible that,  naturally, everyone shared the particular and collective frustrations (Norman). Still, there were  questions and confusion from the group about exactly what a management system certification process  was. I recorded at powerpoint all aspects of the group's statements simultaneously. Doubts were  elucidated, I led questions and answers elaborated by the group members themselves, until a problem  most strongly perceived by the group (pain point, according to Norman) was highlighted by all and  elected as the starting point of the film. The behavioral resistance of the group in relation to the  implementation of the certification system was identified, based on wrong information provided by the  region's workers' union (source of unemployment) and mistaken inferences propagated by influencers  in the group (increase in workload, without increase salary).

Having reached this stage, I designed films that presented, from the implementation process to  obtaining the management system certificate, the experience of two of the company's fuel distribution  plants. The films featured employee testimonials, scenes of work done, everyone's reaction to the  announcement of the success of international certification, and, finally, what the routine of the plant  was like after certification. I then separated the team into four groups, asking them to produce six  paintings (Norman) that told the story, in this case the film, of that plant's management system  certification, considering:

  1st table: description of the current situation in the plant (status quo);

  2nd table: presentation of the finding that would break with the status quo;

  3rd chart: description of the emotional reaction of the group with the finding;

  4th table: presentation of innovative ideas for conducting the plant certification process;

  5th table: presentation of how the group would act during the implementation of innovative ideas,  conducting the plant certification process;

  6th table: description of the new situation of the group after the international certificate was won.

During the framing of the films by the groups, I stayed close and interacting with everyone,  strengthening the empathy framework and urging everyone to abandon the status quo and dare to  generate ideas for conducting the certification process. At the end of time for the work, all groups had  produced his films, exposed in the storyboard of six frames. Each group posted their pictures on each  wall of the room where the work was conducted. From there, I started the "direction" of all four films  produced. I requested that each group member chooses a character to play, from a relationship that I  presented, consisting of one management systems consultant, two employees, one supervisor and one  manager. I rehearsed with each group what their “acting” would be like when presenting their films. For

each group, the “stagehand”, that is, the plant manager, would act helping the continuity in the  performances, so that the film did not suffer “continuity problems”. Thus, after all the rehearsals and  corrections, the groups were able to “stage” their films. While a movie was being screened by a group,  the others watched as they ate popcorn brought in by the plant's service assistant.

After the presentations of all the films were completed, I began discussions to evaluate each of the six  frames presented in the films, with the purpose of consensing the frames and producing a single movie  that told the story of the plant. Regarding Chart 1, there was unanimity in the presentation of the  groups, which showed that the team was fully aware of their situation and their current behavioral  posture. The same happened with Table 2. In Chart 3, different situations arose. For some groups, there  was no surprise that it would break with the status quo. For others, surprise set the tone. Regarding  Table 4, all groups presented different ideas. I related all the ideas and led the divergent discussion  (Norman) about them, so that they all deviated from the points presented and evaluated the ideas  without prejudice and without disagreement. So, I led the team with all the emulation of the journey for  each presented idea, so that all live the problem, simulate how ideas would be applied to visualize the  effects of the application of the ideas and expectations generated (Brown) . This reduced the initial list  of ideas. I conducted the exercise of evaluating the perception of value that each idea would add  (Brown) in the process of implementing the management system, both to achieve the goal, but mainly  to the people of the plant. Which ideas would act in the binomial person x problem solving, turning pain  points into delights (Norman) and changing the status quo to a desired future scenario. Once again, the  list of ideas has been reduced to about four or five ideas. The next step was to evaluate the viability of  ideas (Norman and Brown) . What could be done? What would be technically possible? Everything that  could be implemented in the short term and also met the corporate requirements of the oil company.  The result was the consensus of the length of two ideas, which were adjusted to each other, so they  were bound together in only one single idea. After this work, it was very interesting to realize the “Wow  Effect !” (Norman and Brown) in the participants, who noted how the consensus solution added value to  the process of deploying the management system at the plant. Regarding Table 5, groups presented  similar action plans and schedules, which were consolidated into a single action plan, with phases that  added or merged into a larger one. In Chart 6, the groups presented their respective photos or  presented reports of how they understood that their activities and tasks would be transformed, with  changes in routines, but without generating extra workload. The group decided to use the two  approaches in Box 6 final, inserting a summary report, along with a photo of the entire plant team,  making positive gestures and satisfaction with the achievement of international certification, which they  unanimously gleaned from that moment. The consensus team named the film "Overcoming Barriers."

Insight

The use of Storytelling in the case presented allowed me some conclusions. When I started working with  the team, I used some films with core ideas, such as perseverance and trusting relationships. I noticed in  the team some nonverbal language typical of those who think they are manipulated, or simply unbelief.  On the other hand, I found that this reaction completely disappeared from the moment the work of  establishing empathy was carried out during the discussion of the reality of the plant and its problems. It  worked very well not to let the failures of previous attempts to obtain international certification be  mentioned. Thus, the word “guilt” did not appear at any time in the works, which made participants  more comfortable to interact and expose their opinions throughout the activity. Another point that  worked very well was awaiting the team reaches an established level of empathy for conduct the  activity and, only after, to present the films that teams from other plants recorded, showing their  experiences with the implementation of management systems. I noticed that this experience, in  addition to messing with people's pride, ended up destroying prejudices that still exist in part of the  team. Finally, impress me enough to conclude that the design challenges are not only a great way to

benefit from the power of generating innovation, as well as create stories around an idea, turning  people from passive observers into participants involved, doing- become part of the story.

Approach

Some lessons learned were found in the application of Storytelling and motivate adjustments in the  application of this tool in future activities. The first is the importance of starting work by providing more  information on who suffers from the product or service (Norman). In this case, I would use the  Visualization Tool of Design Thinking and present real stories written, post its or powerpoints, from the  industrial customers in the oil company on problems experienced in relation to the care of that  particular plant. Based on this information, I would work with the team to write in flipchart charts their  views on the issues raised. This has not been done and could in some ways have improved collective  awareness with the need for an innovative solution in implementing the management system. Other  improvement point refers to the absence of an individual time for each of the members could have their  insights and awakenings (Brown). All activity was conducted in a group manner. I believe the possibility  to also gather perceptions of individuals, and not only small groups could confer higher quality and  depth in the generation of solutions. Finally, even though the activity has achieved the proposed  objective, some good innovative ideas have been abandoned, not for technical viability, but for  contradicting corporate positions. Tim Brown's phrase that the best ideas die more often, because they  fail to navigate the dangerous waters of the organization in which they are born, is a reality rather than  market rejection.


Overcoming Barriers - The Story of the Movie at a Fuel Distribution Plant Challenge The certification program for fuel distribution plant management systems owned by oil company was in process . I was responsible for coordinating the project . The certifications were conducted by an international auditing company and were intended to meet requirements defined by the oil company 's industrial customers . Until that moment , a large number of fuel distribution plants had been achieving certificates of compliance . However , there was a particular plant where management system implementation process was not reaching the target . The deployment process had been tried more than twice unsuccessful . Plant employees were demonstrating resistance to the implementation of the management system . In order to get the process done , the plant manager had made some decisions that confronted the employees , which made the situation worse . Given this fact , it was necessary to understand the reasons for the failure of the attempts and to implement the management system in an innovative manner , in order to meet the goal set by the direction of the oil company . Selection The situation required careful exploratory action on what was happening at the plant . It was more than obvious that measures of force , objectionable , would not solve the problem , especially since the organizational ambience had been tried and made worse . Thus , as coordinator of the Oil Company program , I chose to personally conduct research on the source of the problem and to conduct innovative actions to achieve the certification goal . In this way , I chose to use the Storytelling tool to establish an empathetic relationship with the plant 's staff , so that they could expose their dissatisfaction in stories , define the problem most perceived by people , contextualize the problem and act , transforming the dissatisfaction of the team in satisfaction with the achievement of the results . The choice of the tool was due to a past experience of using the same tool , when I also had to deal with behavioral problems of a group of engineering sector employees of the same company , whose project and project implementation sectors were constantly diverging , causing significant delays in the delivery of the works . At that time , I used the concepts of the books by Don Norman ( “ The Design of Everyday Things ” ) and Tim Brown ( “ Change by Design ” ) to turn pain points into delights , abandon the status quo of processes and practices conducted in the engineering department and lead teams towards the future scenario . The Storytelling proved quite effective to create an open and continuous narrative that involved people and encouraged them to proceed in solving the main problem originated prejudice among sectors and lack of mutual trust between people . Also in the activity to be narrated , the same authors and books served as a bibliographic reference . Application Work began with the distribution plant team carefully . I did not address failure in attempts to deploy the management system . Initially , I used some edited films to break the ice , addressing issues such as perseverance to overcome barriers ( " The Pursuit of Happyness " , with Will Smith ) ; confronting prejudice and the struggle for the ideal ( “ Hacksaw Ridge ” , with Andrew Garfield ” ) ; inspiration when in times of hopelessness and crisis ( " Walt Before Mickey " , with Jodie Sweetin ) and breach of trust between leader and followers , which is overcome by team maturity ( " Inception " , with Leonardo DiCaprio ) . After watching each movie , I distributed people to groups for discussion and presentation of the central ideas of the films presented . For the last film , in addition to the groups , I requested a solo presentation from the plant manager , who addressed the issues of the film and paralleled his performance in front of the team , making it clear that he had made recent mistakes in project execution decisions , and asking for a vote of confidence to improve their performance . Throughout this first phase , based on Brown and Norman , I sought to empathize with the team members as well as between them and me . Rapport techniques were also used to assist in this process . The next step was to invite the team to star in their own movie . I used Storytelling to build the story from a group challenge in line with Brown . The director of the film would be me and the plant manager would be the “ stagehand ” . I set the storyline of the film , which would tell the story of the plant team and their efforts to achieve management system certification ( the story from a challenge ) . We would not define the title yet . The tentative name would be " Our Movie . " I informed that the script of the film would be presented in a storyboard with 6 frames ( the clusters or groups of information , according to Norman ) , transcribed in sheets of flip chart . I started the preparatory activities for the film , addressing about the moment of the plant that the film would be shown , that is , the description of the status quo , according to Brown . In what situation were the actors in the film before the certification journey , their doubts , questions and opinions about the goal ? I led as a director of the film a divergent discussion ( Norman ) . Organizational , functional and labor issues could be presented and discussed one by one . At this stage , besides myself , I worked so that all members of the group paid close attention to each other and each one could speak , inhibiting monopolization by one person ( Brown ) . Through my encouragement , using the “ 5 Why s Methodology ” technique to identify the root cause of the problem , and continuing to use Rapport techniques to build the empathy map , everyone was able to talk about their activities . What they thought about the plot of the film , its perceptions and inferences ( Norman ) in relation to the moment . Thus , it was possible that , naturally , everyone shared the particular and collective frustrations ( Norman ) . Still , there were questions and confusion from the group about exactly what a management system certification process was . I recorded at powerpoint all aspects of the group 's statements simultaneously . Doubts were elucidated , I led questions and answers elaborated by the group members themselves , until a problem most strongly perceived by the group ( pain point , according to Norman ) was highlighted by all and elected as the starting point of the film . The behavioral resistance of the group in relation to the implementation of the certification system was identified , based on wrong information provided by the region 's workers ' union ( source of unemployment ) and mistaken inferences propagated by influencers in the group ( increase in workload , without increase salary ) . Having reached this stage , I designed films that presented , from the implementation process to obtaining the management system certificate , the experience of two of the company 's fuel distribution plants . The films featured employee testimonials , scenes of work done , everyone 's reaction to the announcement of the success of international certification , and , finally , what the routine of the plant was like after certification . I then separated the team into four groups , asking them to produce six paintings ( Norman ) that told the story , in this case the film , of that plant 's management system certification , considering :  1st table : description of the current situation in the plant ( status quo ) ;  2nd table : presentation of the finding that would break with the status quo ;  3rd chart : description of the emotional reaction of the group with the finding ;  4th table : presentation of innovative ideas for conducting the plant certification process ;  5th table : presentation of how the group would act during the implementation of innovative ideas , conducting the plant certification process ;  6th table : description of the new situation of the group after the international certificate was won . During the framing of the films by the groups , I stayed close and interacting with everyone , strengthening the empathy framework and urging everyone to abandon the status quo and dare to generate ideas for conducting the certification process . At the end of time for the work , all groups had produced his films , exposed in the storyboard of six frames . Each group posted their pictures on each wall of the room where the work was conducted . From there , I started the " direction " of all four films produced . I requested that each group member chooses a character to play , from a relationship that I presented , consisting of one management systems consultant , two employees , one supervisor and one manager . I rehearsed with each group what their “ acting ” would be like when presenting their films . For each group , the “ stagehand ” , that is , the plant manager , would act helping the continuity in the performances , so that the film did not suffer “ continuity problems ” . Thus , after all the rehearsals and corrections , the groups were able to “ stage ” their films . While a movie was being screened by a group , the others watched as they ate popcorn brought in by the plant 's service assistant . After the presentations of all the films were completed , I began discussions to evaluate each of the six frames presented in the films , with the purpose of consensing the frames and producing a single movie that told the story of the plant . Regarding Chart 1 , there was unanimity in the presentation of the groups , which showed that the team was fully aware of their situation and their current behavioral posture . The same happened with Table 2 . In Chart 3 , different situations arose . For some groups , there was no surprise that it would break with the status quo . For others , surprise set the tone . Regarding Table 4 , all groups presented different ideas . I related all the ideas and led the divergent discussion ( Norman ) about them , so that they all deviated from the points presented and evaluated the ideas without prejudice and without disagreement . So , I led the team with all the emulation of the journey for each presented idea , so that all live the problem , simulate how ideas would be applied to visualize the effects of the application of the ideas and expectations generated ( Brown ) . This reduced the initial list of ideas . I conducted the exercise of evaluating the perception of value that each idea would add ( Brown ) in the process of implementing the management system , both to achieve the goal , but mainly to the people of the plant . Which ideas would act in the binomial person x problem solving , turning pain points into delights ( Norman ) and changing the status quo to a desired future scenario . Once again , the list of ideas has been reduced to about four or five ideas . The next step was to evaluate the viability of ideas ( Norman and Brown ) . What could be done ? What would be technically possible ? Everything that could be implemented in the short term and also met the corporate requirements of the oil company . The result was the consensus of the length of two ideas , which were adjusted to each other , so they were bound together in only one single idea . After this work , it was very interesting to realize the “ Wow Effect ! ” ( Norman and Brown ) in the participants , who noted how the consensus solution added value to the process of deploying the management system at the plant . Regarding Table 5 , groups presented similar action plans and schedules , which were consolidated into a single action plan , with phases that added or merged into a larger one . In Chart 6 , the groups presented their respective photos or presented reports of how they understood that their activities and tasks would be transformed , with changes in routines , but without generating extra workload . The group decided to use the two approaches in Box 6 final , inserting a summary report , along with a photo of the entire plant team , making positive gestures and satisfaction with the achievement of international certification , which they unanimously gleaned from that moment . The consensus team named the film " Overcoming Barriers . " Insight The use of Storytelling in the case presented allowed me some conclusions . When I started working with the team , I used some films with core ideas , such as perseverance and trusting relationships . I noticed in the team some nonverbal language typical of those who think they are manipulated , or simply unbelief . On the other hand , I found that this reaction completely disappeared from the moment the work of establishing empathy was carried out during the discussion of the reality of the plant and its problems . It worked very well not to let the failures of previous attempts to obtain international certification be mentioned . Thus , the word “ guilt ” did not appear at any time in the works , which made participants more comfortable to interact and expose their opinions throughout the activity . Another point that worked very well was awaiting the team reaches an established level of empathy for conduct the activity and , only after , to present the films that teams from other plants recorded , showing their experiences with the implementation of management systems . I noticed that this experience , in addition to messing with people 's pride , ended up destroying prejudices that still exist in part of the team . Finally , impress me enough to conclude that the design challenges are not only a great way to benefit from the power of generating innovation , as well as create stories around an idea , turning people from passive observers into participants involved , doing- become part of the story . Approach Some lessons learned were found in the application of Storytelling and motivate adjustments in the application of this tool in future activities . The first is the importance of starting work by providing more information on who suffers from the product or service ( Norman ) . In this case , I would use the Visualization Tool of Design Thinking and present real stories written , post its or powerpoints , from the industrial customers in the oil company on problems experienced in relation to the care of that particular plant . Based on this information , I would work with the team to write in flipchart charts their views on the issues raised . This has not been done and could in some ways have improved collective awareness with the need for an innovative solution in implementing the management system . Other improvement point refers to the absence of an individual time for each of the members could have their insights and awakenings ( Brown ) . All activity was conducted in a group manner . I believe the possibility to also gather perceptions of individuals , and not only small groups could confer higher quality and depth in the generation of solutions . Finally , even though the activity has achieved the proposed objective , some good innovative ideas have been abandoned , not for technical viability , but for contradicting corporate positions . Tim Brown 's phrase that the best ideas die more often , because they fail to navigate the dangerous waters of the organization in which they are born , is a reality rather than market rejection .