The situation, and its problems.

This technical support group offers technical support to a number of manufacturing sites throughout the region in a very large international organisation. They provide this support in relation to new product introductions and demand for increasing efficiencies within the factories. The group was suffering from a staff turnover of 40%. This had resulted in a group with patchy skills and experience. Moreover, the group lacked a strong shared focus and was not aligned in their thinking about the business priorities. The feedback had been given to the group that they lacked a customer focus and too often were seen to be providing the reasons why their internal customers could not do what they wanted rather than assisting them to achieve their goals. In other words, the group was beginning to be seen more as an obstacle than as a source of competitive advantage for the manufacturing facilities it serviced.

The approach the Group Manager and we agreed to.

1. A one and a half day workshop was facilitated to collectively determine the key goals of the group. For each goal, the primary initiatives were also identified. As part of this workshop, the group also agreed about the ‘how’ statements that described their overall approach to their work.
2. A number of one on one coaching sessions were provided to the Group Manager following the workshop.
3. The Group Manager presented the groups goals to both local and international customer groups. A number of the senior members of team also presented the goals to various local customer groups. Feedback was retrieved and, where appropriate, integrated into the team goals.
4. Four months later, a one day workshop was delivered where each member received their Team Management System Profile. This workshop was intended to strengthen individual and group awareness about the diversity of work styles that existed in the group. The group was facilitated to explore the implications of this diversity on their communication with each other.

The results.

The group now demonstrates a much stronger focus on their customers, and their relationships with them. Customer feedback has been unanimous in support of the changes in approach of the group. The internal standards of performance have been lifted considerably. The Group Manager provided the following data as a manifestation of the improved effectiveness of the group;

• Errors on first run production have reduced from 60 – 70% to 10 – 20%
• Project costings are now delivered to customers in 2 weeks rather than the original 4 weeks
• Work capacity of the technologists within the group have increased by 40 to 50%

What the client had to say.

“In regard to return on investment, this project with Paul has paid for itself many times over.”  – Group Manager