【正文】 had been running 1015 percent over budget. But Simonelli’s team slashed applied labor hours to an unthinkable 20 percent below budget. Annual savings amounted to about $440,000 on a $2 million budget, or nearly $10,000 per worker. How did they do it? The key, Simonelli says, was the processes the pany put in place to enhance dialogue and carry the message to the shop floor. For example: The Learning Map The pany made it easy for employees to understand its broad goals by creating a “l(fā)earning map,” which graphically outlined how each department and team linked directly to core objectives. All employees saw at a glance how their jobs fit in. Supervisors and assemblers in Simonelli’s group, for example, could readily see that by reducing applied labor hours in a project, GDDS could increase margins, shorten delivery schedules and raise the chances for winning new contracts. The Scorecard Managers and direct reports at GDDS meet one on one to create Scorecards, which set out five to seven personal annual goals. For example, the goals for shipping and receiving supervisor Tom Molleurs included plans to capture all incentive payments for early delivery and to cut direct costs 5%. Once a manager and subordinate reach agreement goals, they both sign the Scorecard as if it were a contract. From the worker’s perspective, this was a dramatic shift, says Newell “Tom” Skinner, at the time director of product delivery. “In the past we just set the goals and beat up employees to try to make them, but they probably didn’t even know why we had that goal in the first place.” Scorecards are “transmitter opportunities ” that clarify expectations and link daytoday activity to pany goals. And they work. Molleur’s group ended up cutting direct costs by 50 percent—not just 5 percent. What was the key thing that made it happen? Hay Group, Inc. All rights reserved 8 Molleurs points to his weekly progress meetings. When they were behind schedule, Molleurs used the meetings to make sure the workers understood, through the Learning Map and Scorecards and other processes, how meeting or beating delivery schedules could increase petitiveness and win more contracts. Top management did simple things to make sure strategy messages were getting through. For example the president held monthly “pizza meetings” with everyone whose birthday fell that month. At these “transmitter opportunities,” he would ask attendees people to list their top three goals, and their boss’ top three goals. Within months, everyone could answer the questions. When effective dialogue pushes strategic imperatives downward in an anization, extraordinary things happen. Skinner extended an open invitation to any employee who wanted to attend his weekly budget meeting with his supervisors. One day an assembler showed up and said a part design was forcing assemblers to work by hand with “dozens of tiny screws, lock washers and nuts.” Skinner had the assembler meet with process control engineers for a redesign. The result: a job that had taken 12 hours was cut to four. “The best ideas e from the people doing the job,” says Skinner. Once the “conversation” got started, it took on momentum. Soon, people were ing into Skinner’s office without waiting for the weekly to discuss misalignment of strategy and behavior. Workers themselves were creating transmitter opportunities! It’s about behavior change The processes GDDS installed forced performance dialogue and ultimately changed behaviors. The message got through. But, like a tennis stroke, it didn’t happen quickly or automatically. It took coaching and practice. Sometimes you have to get it wrong, then make corrections through feedback and dialogue, before you get it right. One North American insurance pany embarked on a new strategy to expand sales with existing customers. The president created nine core value statements and broadcast the ideas repeatedly anizationwide. Soon, every manager could recite them by heart. Employees even had cards with the corevalue statements right at their desks. The message, however, wasn’t sinking in. An outside consultant saw one of the value statements on an underwriter’s desk that read “Never knowingly undersell a customer.”