Grow or die, a case on Total People Involvement

By Luis Herrera Pr / TRAC

In life, we don’t always get the results we expect. The important thing is that the outcome of whatever we are trying to achieve was not because we did not put our heart and soul in the process and most important, that we end with a positive attitude to the future.

Based on the above statement, I would like to share one of these moments, where the outcome was not what 110 employees at Lotus Development Corp. expected, but even so, we ended with a sense of a “work well done”.

In January 1990, I joined Lotus Development Corp as general manager. In those days, Lotus was the leading software manufacturer with known products such as Lotus 123, AmiPro, Freelance and others. I had the opportunity to meet an excellent working group. A group of employees, that if I must recruit personnel for a similar operation, I would recruit about 99.5% of them. Despite my previous statement, when I joined the firm, the corporation told me that to increase the productivity of the plant, I had “green light” to make any changes. After several weeks of meetings, focus groups, individual interviews and an employee satisfaction survey, I realized that I had in my hands a group of dedicated employees, knowledgeable of the process, but without the synergy of working as a team and with an unhealthy relationship with the headquarters.

To unite all the employees in a common purpose, I decided to start the Total Employee Involvement program. (TEI)

To launch the program, I invited ALL plant employees to a general meeting at 6:00 am, including managers. There was a great expectation, as the “new boss” called for a general meeting and no one knew what the meeting was about.

I started my message in a very sad tone and informed the employees, that after much analysis, the corporation decided to close the plant within the next three months.

The message felt like a bomb: incredulous faces, crying, disbelief, etc. The moment lasted less than a minute, but for them, it was an eternity.

Then, I excused myself and told them: “People, the plant is not going to close, but I want to share with you my work plan, so that in the future, I don’t have to stand in front of you, to repeat the same message and that it turned into a reality. Furthermore, that it become a reality, because we didn’t do our job. The program is called Total Employee Involvement Program. The slogan will be “Lotus 20/80- Grow or Die”, meaning that with 20% effort, we have an 80% impact. In other words: Working smarter, not harder. So, “If it going to happens, depends on me”. Of course, I had 100% attention!

The rest is history. We did our job. All critical KPIs were met and most important we created a committed workforce, proving that the Total Employee Involvement concept works.

Nevertheless, the cancellation of Section 936 of the Federal Tax Code, left us with no reason to exist in Puerto Rico and we had to close the plant three years later. (Section 936 allowed subsidiaries of U. S. firms operating in Puerto Rico to pay no federal taxes on their Puerto Rican profits.) When the decision to close the plant was made, I reconvened all the employees at 6am, again. This time, we had the vice president of manufacturing and the corporate director of human resources in the meeting. I made the announcement to the employees. They looked at me, incredulously, some of them crying, some smiling, thinking it was another of my tricks, to get their attention. But I told them, “My dear associates, this time the closing is real.” And I proceeded with my message.

At the end, everyone stood up and applauded. The vice president asked me, “What did you tell them, that they are applauding like this, when we are closing the plant?”

I replied, “I worked with their pride and self-esteem. I told them, that they were like a baseball team that, in the previous season ended in last place, but when I joined the company, asked them to play to win the championship in the following seasons and they did it, but the fans didn’t go to the park and the owners decided to move the team to another town. “But, we are the Champions.” During the next three months, with many tears and a gradual workforce reduction, we fulfilled all the required orders without any rejection or complaints.

This type of program needs full support of upper management, creating an environment, where employees at all levels of the organization, feel valued, empowered, challenged and involved.

That’s what it’s all about, ordinary people, doing extraordinary things, if they feel empowered and motivated!