The Polish car parts company has been in the biggest change in years. For decades, she delivered her products to a local and regional market. Its customers are now automotive companies located around the world. For this reason 2012 Most of the shares in the factory were purchased by western investors.
Poland is still an attractive country in terms of quality of the products performed and staff costs. Last period 3 years passed to adapt production lines to the standards throughout the holding. From now on, all reports, strategic decisions and production planning were to be combined with the central Munich.
The Polish board has not changed much in recent years. She just showed up one a person representing the interests of new owners. Its task was to achieve rapid unification with holding standards. Employee, social affairs were left in the hands of the former president.
His style of management was to exercise personal control over individual departments by controlling access to information, setting teams to compete and caring for the inner interests of selected departments. This has caused many misunderstandings and conflicts among management staff.
In situations of greatest tension, the president did not hold any position leaving the team of managers a decision to solve problems. This attitude affected the low level of cooperation, the lack of confidence in the management group and the avoidance of responsibility.
It was common to look for receipts and confirmations so that no one from a formal point of view could abandon the wrong work. It's easy to figure out what kind of misinformation and communication mess prevailed among the employees.
During the workshops, the team described its current company. He noted that it was not only difficult, unproductive and conflictful, but also creative, sometimes supportive. A large discovery for the majority was the enormous strength and expertise they have as a team.
The situation changed when the current president was replaced by a new person. It was characterized by a very strong attitude towards cooperation, confidence building and understanding. The role of HR Manager also appeared in a short time. His main task was to create a strong, unanimous team that would be able to cooperate.
HR Manager has prepared a two-year development program for top managers and lower level managers. She invited business coaches dealing with changes in the organization to cooperate.
one the elements of the change were development activities which were directed to the highest staff. The coaches invited the team to moderated meetings (diagnosing needs) in terms of the mutual needs of the team members. The goal was to identify the problems that top management faced every day.
It has been diagnosed: lack of trust and willingness to agree, avoiding communication of difficult matters, sweeping conflicts under the so-called "tow", resistance and opposition to different viewpoints.
When the trainers asked what the team wanted in return, the following answers came up: we want to trust each other, cooperate, look for the best solutions for the company, forget the injuries from the past.
The coaches presented their conclusions and recommendations to the new President and HR Manager. They offered a number of workshops, spread over time (year), based on team coaching.
The thesis they put forward was the following: the way the previous President led the band to form a group of attitudes of the child, which gives responsibility for the circumstances in which he lives and avoids the consequences of the actions taken.
Therefore, the team rejected the desire to take greater responsibility as it had previously been an attitude unknown to the organization. Additionally, the team was in the dependency phase, i.e. all solutions that were possible were beyond their reach - in the hands of the omnipotent (in their opinion) former President.
The goal of team coaching workshops was to say good-bye to existing practices and build new working habits based on solid foundations. The coaches proposed that the workshops be a team coaching character.
Using this form of conducting classes, participants have the opportunity to experience, seek answers, find solutions that will be effective for the whole team. Team coaching is a process that happens during and after classes. Therefore, it is important to conduct and accompany teams that are changing.
Why is coaching effective? After first coaching is always based on goals and effects. So it is possible to measure very precisely whether what the team expects is feasible and then learns that it is implementing a good scenario. As a consequence, this model can be transferred to work.
After second coaching does not impose solutions. It is the team that seeks such actions, attitudes, and decisions that are good from a team point of view. The coach's job is to run the group using techniques and properly selected tools.
After third coaching is based on personal motivation and team members' resources. The group works effectively as long as it engages itself. The coach is to highlight this dependence, show it and give the group a decision on how they want to achieve what they have set themselves.
Top management accepted the invitation with the hope of a new opening. first workshop continued three days.
An important element of the change was breaking the old habit of action (the thawing phase according to Kurt Lewin), finding effective attitudes and behaviours (the change phase) and informed decisions on how to proceed in the future (the freeze phase).
The role of coach was clearly defined: You create and take responsibility for your discoveries and decisions, we accompany you in the change supporting your experience and providing appropriate tools (techniques and skills) to act in a new way.
During the workshops, the team described its current company. He noted that it was not only difficult, unproductive and conflictful, but also creative, sometimes supportive. A large discovery for the majority was the enormous strength and expertise they have as a team.
Classes were also an opportunity to talk to each other in another, “adult” way (one from Eric Berne's attitude) using arguments and facts instead of manipulation. Some managers have talked to each other this way for a time. first In his career.
Finally, the team in the final phase of the workshop prepared an action plan for itself as a new team. Many ideas have been written and planned for implementation over the following months.
The workshop ended with a declaration of opening for a new quality of cooperation. The process of change has just begun. Team coaching will effectively support these changes.