Recently, I had an opportunity to be involved in building a Change Narrative for a leading semiconductor manufacturing company. The factory was on its way to becoming a Smart Factory.
Whilst running the project, at one stage, I sensed through a conversation with the leadership team that most of the factory workers had the view that this drive for automation and robotics was unique to their organisation. Normally, in such a scenario it is very easy for the leadership team to disagree with the people on the ground because the leadership team was right. Smart was not their priority in isolation.
However, the approach of denial rarely works.
Why?
Because, we are telling people on the ground, what you think is not correct. Result, even more scepticism. The best way to deal with such a situation would be to give some examples/stories of automation to the people on the ground.
Here are some possible examples that we could give in this case.
Craftmark is the distributor and retailer of over 20 brands of footwear and leather goods and accessories. With the use of RFID it cuts down man-hours for stock-taking by 90%. Workers are redeployed to serve customers better. As a result, they achieve not just better business for the owners, but also better jobs for the workers.
The Soup Spoon is a popular restaurant chain with more than 20 outlets. To expand overseas, the company decided to move from food retail to include food manufacturing as well. With an automated packaging process, the operation is not only competitive, but also 25% more manpower-lean.
Tiong Seng is a market leader in construction. To maximise the impact of using the technology known as Building Information Modeling (BIM), the company helps all its sub-contractors to adopt the same technology. As a result, they improve productivity not just within the company, but across the entire value chain, by 35%.
What is the point I am making?
Do not just disagree with your staff. Do not just say there are many examples of automation around. Give them some examples that will make them see what they are not seeing.
Storytelling can change mental models.
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