On The Front Lines, 10.08
Tom Jacobs, senior faculty, on expensive behaviors
Tom
Jacobs, senior consultant with Rapid Change for the past 11 years, also
works for 3M as a coach to leaders and staff. He is struck by how many
leaders get in so much of a hurry to “fix” things they leave their
staff behind. The result is almost always toxic behaviors that end up
slowing the company down and costing it lots of money.
“If
only leaders could remember that: people drive the business and
emotions drive people,” Tom says. “Slowing down to inquire about the
emotional impact of a decision helps people feel respected and valued. “
Tom
was working with a west coast manufacturer who had two shifts locked in
a costly game of “sabotage.” The apparent “accidental” slowdowns hurt
production, increased downtime on the line, and created an internal
“war” between shifts with deep animosity. Through a facilitated
conversation, the company discovered that one shift had felt left out
of the decision-making process, but the actual root of the problem went
back years to a prank of one guy stealing the Bic pen of another. What
started out with humor turned into expensive behaviors, with a
half-million dollar price tag.
Knowing that toxic emotions
drove the business at that site for more than two years, Tom asks,
simply, “What if….they could have used a simple tool like “4 on the
Floor” to have a chance to express those emotions and be ‘heard.’”