The flight to the US was the worst in my career: 3 days connection flight without sleeping…
Seating in the hotel shuttle at the right of the driver to go to the plant. She asked me: “where are you from”. “France” I answered. She said: “you have a very sexy French accent”. The stress and the fatigue from the last 3 days and the fear of meeting the 60 engineers disappeared immediately. I was fullfeed with joy and happiness (consolation with cause).
We reviewed with the engineers the current status of the new drive line: nothing valuable was developed in the last year and not sure that something will come out of this project if we continue that way...general atmosphere of desolation.
The common sense was “how can engineers develop a new drive line (transmission) without meeting face to face the operators of the machines”. We agreed to schedule a workshop with EU machines drivers and competitive machines for engineers to meet directly operators.
Even if it was never done before and we were in cost saving time, the budget was immediately approved. The sales team support us to identified quickly 7 European excellent drivers willing to spend a week for free to test machines in the US.
A couple of months later, the American engineers get the possibility to ask questions directly to the European customers with the coordination of the Product Manager. Users were describing their feeling about the “reaction” of the machines. It was beneficial for all. 2 more workshops were organized in the coming months to test a virtual and real prototype.
18 months later a machine with a new drive line was launched. Engineers and product manager found a sense in what they were doing: their efforts were paid by the feed-back and satisfaction of the machine users. Customers got a machine more easy to use. Owners happy to see the cost and time of development reduced by 50% versus a standard project.
Method used
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Intuition for common sense: it was good for all (engineers, users, product managers, user of machines, owners of the company).
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Confirmation by the facts. Even if it was challenging, out of the traditional processes and responsibility of the employee, it was done “easily and with enthusiasm”. Everyone wanted to be part of it. Budget was approved, very good European drivers were identified by the sales colleague and enthusiastic to come for free. Colleagues in the US helped for booking flights, hotels, restaurants… Everyone did more that expected.
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“Courageously change ourselves” = Change the way to work: moving from desolation (nothing significant developed since many years for the customers, none willingness for engineers to go to work) to consolation (sharing common passion with customers to develop what that they really needed in less than 2 years) required a radical change of the way of working. The product manager was previously collected the customer need and sharing afterwards reports with engineers. It was not possible for him to transmit the feeling of the machine: a part of the information was lost. In the new way of working the Product manager became an organizer of the platform where engineers were meeting and interacting with clients directly.