Spreading the seeds of knowledge
After years as the market leader, this manufacturing company's reputation began to erode as a result of very public problems with product quality. The leaders turned to trusted outside experts to pinpoint and address key areas of weakness. One of the experts focused on closing the gaps between design and manufacturing. His recommendations were embraced by the senior team, who delegated the task of distributing the expert's know-how to the company's training and development department.Because the changes were central to improved quality and required broad adoption, simple information sharing via PowerPoint wouldn't work. The training and development team engaged Proteus to help, and we approached the project as part education, part change management.
On the educational level, we designed the training to help each participant travel a path of real learning. We created hands-on activities to raise awareness about different approaches and introspective debriefing questions to spark the motivation to change and grow. After setting the stage for learning, we offered participants the expert's knowledge in logical segments, small enough to be practiced in class before trying them on the job.
From a change management perspective, we protected the training from being lost in the tidal wave of initiatives being launched around the company by limiting participation to intact teams launching a new project--just at the point when the expert's recommendations would be most meaningful and most useful to them.
Our approach led to fast adoption of the recommended practices. Best of all, there has been no negative publicity regarding product quality since; the client feels they are regaining their position of leadership.
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