How to make business excellence quickly understandable even for 20,000 employees
One day I had an order from a large automobile manufacturer in China. I was asked to train the top 150 managers on the principles of business excellence (here: “5 Step Thread of Success”). We did this in workshops lasting several days, which worked wonderfully.
Now I was asked how the 20,000 Chinese employees could also be trained in these 5 Steps. This should be done in 30 minutes per work team. In contrast to the managers, we had to deal with very different levels of training and cultural backgrounds. 2/3 of all employees had no management experience at all.
It quickly became clear that long academic explanations and intensive workshops were not good options. I myself remembered how I had once practiced Japanese with the help of comics in Tokyo. This also seems to be a viable option here. I observed how typical Chinese street vendors offer, prepare and sell their goods on a daily basis. From these observations, I developed a story with the 5 Steps of the Thread of Success. Together with selected Chinese employees, we sharpened the comic to make it as appealing as possible and to make it culturally understandable.
We were able to describe the story of the mini-entrepreneur very vividly. The “hero” is a street vendor who critically and systematically scrutinizes his very limited success to date. His customers are passers-by, his only employee is a cleaner, the suppliers bring him the food and the important decision-makers are his parents, who support him financially. The entrepreneur simply asks his stakeholders directly about their expectations and needs.
Based on these expectations, the entrepreneur develops a good plan for his problem areas of quality, selection, cleanliness and environmental compatibility. The small entrepreneur implements his plan with determination and is delighted with the enthusiastic feedback from his stakeholders and the success that comes with it.
Everyone in the company should also be aware of the important relationships within the company. Employees should be met where they are: at their location, in their language, in their culture and at their level of training. Training as mere information is not enough. Training must be comprehensible, find its way into everyday working life and lead to positive experiences.
The Thread of Success from Success Seeker (c)
