Focusing on the challenges faced by manufacturing particularly under cultural and political environments, we started a two-part series of Manufacturing Challenges, Solutions & Best Practices, where Mike Klein, our Senior Strategic Advisor, speaks with Jennifer Smith.
Jennifer is “a German-American with Chinese characteristics” and has a special heart for Internal, People & Change Communications in international manufacturing settings. Jennifer considers herself a “communimaker,” as communication shapes community and vice versa.
Part one of Manufacturing Challenges, Solutions & Best Practices covered many gray areas of Internal Communications in manufacturing. Here is a quick recap of the issues we covered:
- An IC framework for factory or plant grounds
- Best practices for communications in a manufacturing environment Conversational and informal communication on the production floor
- Challenges of digital signage and how to make communications actionable and interactive
You can read the full article, here.
Now, in part two, Mike and Jennifer continue the engaging conversation about how cultural and political aspects shape internal communications in manufacturing.
MIKE: One thing I always look at when direct communication is restricted is how to optimize indirect communication, informal communication. In a factory - who do the production workers talk with? How can we make sure those people are better informed, and who can be encouraged to discuss relevant info with their colleagues?
JENNIFER: Make it personal! Show presence on the shop floor, show that you are interested in ongoing dialogue and curious about each workstation and what happens there. One thing that always worked well at “my” plants was - beside town hall meetings in shifts - showing this by making communications actionable in line with the overall company strategy and initiatives, so for example - start a friendly competitive ideas contest, involve in best practice sharing, use any training, EHS or CSR initiative to touch base with the shop floors. All that is communication, transporting a message, and connects.
MIKE: Indeed, making participation genuinely encouraging does seem to help, as well as making communication messaging and platforms accessible to people. But where I have seen the ninja opportunities is in figuring out where the influence can be found among production workers. Snowball research is extremely valuable in finding out whom people go to for news, inspiration, and support. Often, it is people who are not on the management radar screen or high on the hierarchy. Sometimes, an admin in HR is a role that tends to have disproportionate influence as that person can talk with a lot of employees and is situated in a position to have privileged information. Other times, it can be a fellow production worker who is more curious and vocal than average.
JENNIFER: Definitely, part of it all is to identify those individuals who are respected and trusted in one way or another, by one peer group or another. At the same time, you may be recognizing future leadership potential! You are right about HR; the business partners play a significant role here, although they may not initially recognize the depth of it. So sometimes, IC needs to give them a nudge, too. An essential part of IC is building long-term relationships with internal sparring partners beyond functions, roles, and titles.
MIKE: That brings us to China.
JENNIFER: 好的！
MIKE: How does this all play out in China - where the culture is genuinely different and where the political system is one that can require individual restraint when it comes to sharing ideas and opinions?
JENNIFER: I once led the internal communications at a German automobile components plant in China and it was an amazing learning curve on both the German and Chinese side to accompany and support! I am often asked about the cultural differences and of course, we could hold an entire lecture about that, but what it comes down to is that the need for communication and the “rules” for effective communication are universal. You may just have to find a different angle to it, experiment a bit depending on the diversity of the teams, and keep learning to see matters from all sides.
MIKE: I imagine that from a top-down perspective, the difference in terms of a company trying to get its point across to employees is not massively substantial. But when it comes to feedback and lateral communication, the differences are, well, a little bigger. What are the biggest differences in this regard?
JENNIFER: The strong hierarchical order for sure! You have the “big boss” up there, and the little factory worker “down there.” Establishing a feedback and dialogue culture may be pioneering work. I can relate one example here: The German company held an annual global employee satisfaction survey that was also to be implemented at this small plant in China.
MIKE: How “small” was the plant?
JENNIFER: At the beginning, there were around 3000 employees, growing steadily by the year.
MIKE: That would make it the second biggest company where I live, in Iceland.
JENNIFER: Ha! Oh wow…well, this was a small town of about 6 million people! The challenge was to explain to the Chinese colleagues: Why should they participate? Why do we want to hear their view on their workplace? Why would we care and what is the point? Why are we asking THEM for feedback on improvement and optimization potential and not the manager? Certainly, those are basic questions at the beginning of any employee survey, but in a country where public participation is shut down, employees are simply not used to such a dialogue.
MIKE: That is not surprising - but it raises two huge issues. First, from a quality and even safety perspective. If employees feel that they cannot point out things that are wrong or do not work, then there are massive operational risks and potentially even worse. Second, factoring in employee survey results from countries where people think the authorities will only accept positive feedback certainly taints the end results.
JENNIFER: And that is exactly the business case for focusing IC on the plant or factory no matter where in the world!
MIKE: Or, to state it another way - treating production employees as an IC afterthought or as a bunch of cheap/lazy breathing robots has huge business risks. IC needs to treat them as human beings with the agency every bit as much as they do C-suiters and fellow comms professionals.
JENNIFER: Yes! I have witnessed the irreversible consequences to the Chinese subsidiary of a German Mittelstand company of such neglect: they did not see the employees at the heart of their operations - the factory - as assets, hence did not heed the value in internal communications. Sustainably successful plants operate on communication, dialogue, and involvement of those voices on the ground…and consequently, on mutual learning.
MIKE: Well, I always allocate an hour to each of my “podtext” conversations, and we covered a lot of ground. Jennifer, it has been excellent having you. It has opened my eyes on a lot of fronts and also put some of my manufacturing comms experience into a new perspective.
JENNIFER: That was one fast and fun hour, Mike! Thank you for this exchange of thoughts and experience even if it made me hungry for chicken nuggets.
MIKE: It also made me hungry for Chinese food, not that that is hard. 😊
--
Mike and Jennifer’s podtext certainly puts a lot of things in perspective and generated new perspectives on the challenges faced by manufacturing in different cultural and political environments.
Here are some quick key points from the article for you to grab and go:
- Indirect/informal conversation is most effective through personal presence.
- Social influence is the best method to deliver the right information.
- The need for communication and the “rules” for effective communication are universal. They just need to be applied with a different angle and strategy depending upon the cultural and political environment.
- Employee surveys are not as effective where cultural pressure results in employees only giving positive feedback.
- Focus IC on the plant or factory no matter where in the world it is.
What’s Next:
