2022-12-08
Imposing change without a process will always prove costly for your business
Earlier this week I was part of a team that facilitated Leadership training for shop-stewards of one of the oldest and most respected trade unions in South Africa. The training request came from their employer, who is one of the oldest auto-manufacturing companies in the world. The desired outcome from the 3-day session was that the trade union leadership would leave with an increased appreciation of the challenges facing the global auto industry in 2022, a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities and enhanced skills for communication and problem-solving. All of this would have to be understood within the context of the shop-stewards sharing the leadership responsibility for the global competitiveness and sustainability of the business, with the company’s management. This, in essence, was the brief to the training facilitators.
So, this is just by way of background before I share what shook me to no end on these three days. The company has introduced robotics on the shopfloor / production lines and trained people who will be collaborating with this specific robot. Secondly, the company’s training centre has a cohort of young people that are being trained in Robotics and all things 4IR. What I am still battling to process is that there has been NO Change Management process to guide the transition from what is / has been the way of working to what is approaching (Robotics). The rumour doing the rounds at particularly the lower levels of the employee structure is: “The Robots are coming to take our jobs. The company is training young people to take over our jobs.” Imagine the fear, suspicion, paranoia, stress and insecurity this environment must be abuzz with. Totally heart-breaking and so detrimental to operations, relations and the ability of the company to effectively deliver on its strategic objectives, all of which have a direct impact on its ability to be globally competitive and sustainable into the next century. Is this common in industries as the world moves (has moved) into the 4IR? How are Internal Communication practitioners managing this anomaly? I still cannot process how a global well established auto-manufacturer would miss this critical step of ensuring sustainable change.
#Strategy #ChangeManagement #InternalCommunication #Robotics #EmployeeEngagement #Sustainability