Conference 7.286::digital

1937.0. "Interesting approach for change" by POLAR::COCKWELL () Thu Jun 11 1992 12:36

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Forwarded message follows:
    
       *REPRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE*
     
    
    DIGITAL'S VISION QUEST
    Firm seeks new ideas in 'forest'
    
    by Joanna Schmidt, Gazette Telegraph
    
    
    A roomful of Digital Equipment Corp. managers becomes hushed as one 
    rank-and-file worker scolds.  He's acting in a skit during a meeting 
    about organizational change, but the message isn't lost on the 
    managers.  
    
    "Electronic mail just doesn't cut it," he says, leveling criticism 
    at the way managers communicate to subordinates through the 
    company's computer system.
    
    "We need to get out and talk to people," he says.  "This change is 
    not just a one-directional change from the top down."  
    
    Managers watching the skit nod in agreement.  One responds:  "We 
    need to make sure the shared vision gets back to these people and 
    becomes a part of their lives," he says.  "then it will become one 
    vision."
    
    The skit is part of a day-long meeting of about 100 employees, 
    mostly managers, from Digital's 900-employee Colorado Springs 
    Customer Support Center.  The meeting is part of a two-year process 
    begun earlier this year designed to create a new vision for the 
    center, implement "total quality management" practices and, 
    ultimately, improve customer service.
    
    The talk between managers and workers about shared visions and 
    communication puts a smile on Wayne Records' face.  Records, who was 
    promoted last year to manage Digital's U.S. Customer Support Centers 
    and has been tabbed by corporate executives, is the force behind the 
    program.
    
    "My job is to go around and stir up hate and discontent -- change 
    the status quo," he says at the meeting's start.
    
    This week, Records will lead the third in a series of monthly 
    "change forums" at the 13-year old Colorado Springs site, where 
    employees solve customers' hardware and software problems via 
    telephone, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
    
    Records first tried the program, called "The Healing Forest," at 
    Digital's Atlanta Customer Support Center three years ago.  Turnover 
    among managers had created a vacuum and morale problems in the 
    700-employee work force, and the center lacked ways to reward and 
    recognize employees, Records said.  As a result, customer service 
    was suffering, he said.
    
    "It was from the beginning positioned as a long-term change program 
    for both the operating results and the culture," Records said of the 
    Healing Forest.  "This is a different approach (to change).  I 
    didn't dictate those changes to the center.  What I tried to do was 
    get the organization to discuss those things themselves."
    
    Records' Healing Forest relies on a mix of psychology, American 
    Indian philosophy and textbook management theories to create an 
    environment in which employees first "get back to the basics" by 
    talking about values and behavior, he said.
    
    Later meetings shift to talk about how to replace traditional 
    hierarchical management structures with more autonomous work teams.
    
    Ultimately, Records wants to create a customer support system in 
    which employees go beyond answering customers' questions to 
    anticipating their problems and suggesting broader solutions.  He 
    said he also hopes to eliminate competition among the centers, 
    developing a system in which the sites work separately but as one 
    operation.
    
    Records' vision for the centers is to be "a leading-edge knowledge 
    center, universally recognized for setting the standard of service 
    excellence, supporting the success of our customers and stakeholders 
    through empowered employees and advances in technology," according 
    to Healing Forest literature he hands out during the meeting.
    
    Many of the program's tenets are borrowed from lessons that Don 
    Coyhis, Records' friend and a former Colorado Springs Digital 
    employee, learned from an Indian elder.  Coyhis said he traveled to 
    Las Cruces, N.M., for four days in 1985 after a friend told him to 
    visit the Mohican man.  Coyhis prayed and meditated with the elder, 
    who told him about four principles of cultural change.
    
    Records and Coyhis began using the principles in their work with a 
    Colorado Springs-based non-profit corporation they created in 1988.  
    The organization, White Bison Inc., works to help treat and prevent 
    alcoholism in American Indian communities.
    
    But Records, a recovering alcoholic who describes himself as a 
    laboratory for change, became fascinated with the idea of using the 
    same principles for change within Digital.
    
    He adopted the name "Healing Forest," which is drawn from one of the 
    principles, for his corporate program.
    
    INDIVIDUALS CAN'T CHANGE A CORPORATION
    
    The principles suggests that for any organization or community to 
    change, their must be an environment conducive to change.  Records 
    illustrates this with a dying forest:  If a dying tree is removed 
    from the forest, nursed to health but then returned to the forest, 
    the  tree will die.  Individual trees cannot heal an entire forest.  
    Individual employees can not change a corporation, he said.
    
    Other principles are:
    
    	 o No vision, no development -- every organization needs a           
    	   vision, and everyone must share the same vision.  
    	 o All change comes from the inside -- outside factors cannot    
           force change.
    	 o A "great learning" must occur -- all parts of the 	        
           organization must come to the same conclusion about change.  
    	   There must be a collective shift in beliefs to adopt a new    
           vision. 
    
    In Digital's Atlanta center, Records' program was met early on by a 
    wall of resistance, he said.
    
    "At first they thought I was completely crazy," Records said.  
    "There was a very succinct message: 'Are you for real?  Are you 
    going to follow through on this or is this all smoke and mirrors?'"
    
    Employees eventually bought the message when they began to trust 
    that the change would be real, Records said.  Training programs were 
    revamped so employees would be better able to handle customer 
    problems.  Hiring practices were changed to ensure applicants with 
    higher skills would become customer support center employees.
    
    In the past three years, customer satisfaction has risen 10 percent 
    at the Atlanta site, productivity has increased 20 percent, Records 
    said.  The ratio of managers to workers -- a key indicator of a team 
    management instead of hierarchical approach -- is about half what it 
    was in 1989, he said.
    
    PROGRAM SAVED DIGITAL MILLIONS IN ATLANTA
    
    Bob Ross, who took over management site one year before Records 
    began his program, said the center has saved Digital $30 million in 
    the past two years through improved employee productivity.  
    
    "The biggest difference is employees today certainly feel more 
    empowered," Ross said.  "And we're all working in the same direction 
    now.  Before, we asked, 'Who were we?  What were we doing, and where 
    were we going?'"
    
    Rebecca Segal, an industry analyst who visited the Atlanta site a 
    year ago, said workers seemed happy, motivated and excited about 
    their work.
    
    "It was a very impressive organization," said Segal, vice president 
    of the Framingham, Mass.-based industry research firm International 
    Data Corp.
    
    Now, Digital officials are watching Records' work in Colorado 
    Springs and at the company's third and smallest customer support 
    center in Shrewsbury, Mass., where he also has launched the Healing 
    Forest program.
    
    If he's successful, the program could help set Digital apart from 
    its competitors, company officials said.
    
    The Maynard, Mass.-based company has stumbled in the past couple 
    years in the face of competition and a computer industry slump.  
    Digital reported its first annual loss in 34 years last year, and 
    plans to continue trimming its work force this year through layoffs.  
    Digital cut 9,000 jobs last year, including 500 in Colorado Springs.  
    Digital employees about 3,100 people at its 305 Rockrimmon Blvd. 
    complex, which includes the Customer Support Center and hardware 
    manufacturing operations.
    
    SERVICE BECOMING INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT
    
    In the computer industry, where quality and price distinctions among 
    hardware products have blurred with improved technology, customer 
    support has become increasingly important, said Larry Pape, manager 
    of Digital's U.S. service operations.
    
    Services' share of Digital revenue continues to rise.  It totaled 40 
    percent of 1991 revenue of $13.9 billion, up from 34 percent in 
    1988, when revenue totaled $11.48 billion, Pape said.
    
    "If you ever reach a point when you're complacent, then you're 
    probably in trouble," Pape said.  "You should always look for 
    continuous improvement.
    
    "What Digital needs is to be seen as a systems integrator, a service 
    company, a partner with customers," he said.
    
    In Colorado Springs, employees involved with the Healing Forest 
    aren't thinking much about being systems integrators.
    
    In these early stages of the program, Records encourages them to 
    look at their values and behavior as building blocks toward creating 
    a new vision.
    
    At the meeting earlier this month, employees split into groups of 
    eight or 10 to play a modified game of Scruples, the board game that 
    poses hypothetical ethical dilemmas and asks players how they would 
    respond.
    
    The Healing Forest version of the game asked such questions as:  
    Would Digital employees report equipment that disappeared after an 
    employee left the company?  Would employees do 100 percent of their 
    job if they felt they were underpaid?  Would a manager accused of 
    discriminating against a woman in hiring choose to hire a woman next 
    time?
    
    Employees squirmed as they answered.  After they finished drawing up 
    an unflattering description of values that drive the Colorado 
    Springs center, Records asked:  "Are you mad as hell yet?"  The 
    implication:  "Are you ready for change?"
    
    Tony Strickhouser, a 13-year Digital employee who manages a team of 
    Colorado Springs Customer Support Center workers, said he's seen 
    programs for "organizational change" come and go.
    
    But the Healing Forest, in which he's participated from the 
    beginning, could keep Digital on the leading edge of customer 
    service, he said.
    
    "The feeling is this time we're actually going to do something," 
    Strickhouser said.  "Even myself:  It's a gut feeling that the time 
    has come for change."
    
    
                    ********************************
    
    




    

	Yep.  We've never seen anything like this before.

	Never had a "New Vision", "Looking Forward to the 90s",
	"Reaching the Future" program, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

	The end result of this collossally expensive series
	of boondoggles is:

	1) Banners all over the building once every 6 months
		(Note: we get this folderol under a different
		 name about twice a year )

	2) Endless meetings -- Current expensive time waster is
	   "Change Forum".

	3) Managers feel purposeful for a coupla weeks.

	Then, it's back to the status quo.  And things on the
	front lines NEVER change.

	But, the many no-ops spend the rest of the next few months
	patting themselves on the back for the great job they did !

	We need Gordon Bell's "NO-OP Division" more than ever.

	Steve H

.1:

You mean Management By Slogan as a vehicle for resume building?

    I have been at the CSC in Colorado for three years, and like Steve
    indicated, there have been at least three similar programs that we have
    suffered through during that time with little change.  In all fairness,
    though, I think this one is different and I have a greater confidence
    that positive change will occur as a direct result.
    
    To begin, when I was asked what I felt about the first "Change Forum"
    meeting, I answered by saying S(ame) O(ld) S(***).  When asked why, I
    indicated that there was no full time resource that was dedicated to
    this "project" and that if they were really concerned with change, they
    would commit the necessary resources to get the job done.  About one
    month after that, a DM and HR resources were put on it full time, along
    with some full time TQM resources at each site.  There has been a
    considerable commitment in time and resource to this effort - more than
    before.
    
    I am currently part of the redesign team, and although there is a lot
    of stuff that has frustrated me about this whole process, it has
    brought together some great ideas and a great deal of talent toward
    moving us where we need to be in 1995 and beyond.
    
    I am not looking at this process with rose colored glasses, but it a
    far cry from being the SOS as I have first thought and it is a better
    than anything else I have seen out there in other parts of the services
    organization.
    
    "Boondoggle" - maybe ... but I think the jury is still out on this one.
    It does have the makings of something good for the future.  It all
    depends upon how good we get at implementing these ideas.

    Sounds very similar to the work that was done at the Enfield, CT
    manufacturing site.  Unfortunatley, they closed the site down but by
    all indications, it was a very successful organization.
    
    Dalip

    re .4
    
    >Sounds very similar to the work that was done at the Enfield, CT
    >manufacturing site.  Unfortunatley, they closed the site down but by
    >all indications, it was a very successful organization.
                                                                          
    It all depends on how you define successful.  In my book, survival is
    required.  :-(    (They're closing us down too, but that's just an
    accident.)
    
    In point of fact, Enfield was able to establish an informal atmosphere
    that was very comfortable, but not very effective.  The proof of that
    came when they transferred products to us with documentation that was
    inadequate by all DEC standards.
    
    The challenge is to be both a good place to work and a profitable
    business.  Digital hasn't learned how yet.
    
    /rab

    re:-2  We also almost did some business with Enfield. We has some
    cicuit boards for which we were to supply all of the components in
    sort of a kit. Enfield bid on stuffing and wave soldering. Their
    bid was $5,000 per board. We found an outside company that did it
    for $300 a board. Ouch talk about sticker shock!
    
                  Bob