Change management is all about leading groups, teams, or companies through strategic thinking and planning for known and unknown changes. A successful change manager must be prepared for the unexpected and make calculated decisions.
At some point, I had a team where bad habits and lack of cooperation led me to replace the entire maintenance staff, keeping only one of five technicians and hiring new ones. This resulted in better performance and talent retention, with one of the new hires having been with the company for over 20 years.
On another occasion, I faced a “silo” problem with the maintenance team, which was divided into four shifts with poor communication between them. To resolve this, I reorganized the way preventive maintenance was planned, introduced a logbook system, and divided the groups into maintenance technicians and supervisors. This resulted in better communication and strengthened the team.
The most significant change was the disintegration of existing groups. We created a group of maintenance technicians, divided by specialties, such as electrical and mechanical. Additionally, we have established a separate supervisor shift. When a supervisor arrives at the start of the shift, he/she receives a briefing from the previous supervisor and works with the technicians at that shift. With this move, supervisors no longer have their own team, as each supervisor will work with all technicians at a given time. When the technicians leave, the supervisor welcomes the next technician shift and continues supervising the work. This approach improved communication, collaboration, and overall efficiency.
Change is never easy and revolutions like these are even more complex. It took a lot of flexibility and dialogue to get the team to embrace the transition and adapt as conflicting issues and unexpected situations arose. But we succeed.