DreamMakers by Michele Hunt

Author:Michele Hunt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78353-569-9
Publisher: Greenleaf Publishing

I was taken aback at first. I was the VP for People, responsible for “HR” and I had not authorized “my” recruiters to change our ads, but after reflection I realized I didn’t need to be involved in that decision. A powerful concept was at play; the recruiters were serving the shared vision and values of the company; they were not there to serve me. I had learned another very important lesson; leadership is a function, not a status. My role was to create the environment that enabled employees to align the organization’s policies, practices, behaviors, and results with the company’s vision, values, and goals, and to remove the obstacles so they could achieve excellence.

This movement was alive with people and teams taking the ownership to make things happen all over the company including the manufacturing plants. We had won the American Airlines seating contract for its new headquarters in Dallas. A team from our seating plant delivered the chairs on a Friday, but when they unloaded them they discovered the packaging had created indentations in the backs of the chairs. American Airlines was holding its open house that upcoming Monday. The team decided to take the ownership to manually rub out the indentations in the chairs over the weekend. I am certain they violated several employment laws and they did not ask for overtime. Management did not know they had done this until several weeks later when Max received a letter from the CEO of American Airlines. You see the team had attracted the attention of people at American Airlines who were working over the weekend preparing for the open house. The Herman Miller team had also left a letter that was signed by every member of the chair assembly team. It said, “Have a wonderful open house. Thank you for being a Herman Miller Customer.” That note made its way to the CEO of American Airlines, who in turn sent it to Max. We shared this story across the company. This team also inspired us to create the Outstanding Team Awards, and of course, the Dallas Chair Plant team was the first recipient.

We were about nine months into the Renewal when Max hosted a companywide meeting with 1,000 employees from around the world. The purpose was to assess our progress, to share our lessons learned, and to recharge our collective energy. Near the end of the meeting Max gave a speech praising all the hard work and accomplishments. When he finished his speech he asked if there were any questions and a young man at the back of the room raised his hand, identified himself as working in one of our manufacturing plants, and said “Max, the participative culture that you describe is not what I experience in my workplace.” We were stunned that he had the gumption to raise such an objection at this open meeting. Max then explained that we were in the process of becoming a participative environment and that it takes time to change a culture.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.