Hello all
I'd like to point out what appears to be a BIIIG blunder in the following
post.
On Mon, 8 Jun 1998, Ed Brenegar wrote:
> I agree with you totally that it is a tremendous reach from the university
> classroom to the line operations of an industrial plant. But, in this
> case there is no choice, and that is part of the challenge....
> ...If you have men and women on a production line whose educational
> background consists of an associates degree in metal fabrication from a
> community college, and you have professional managers who have advanced
> degrees in business, engineering or finance, there is a great gulf
> which has to be bridged in order for effective communication to take
> place....
It's extremely important to eliminate predjudice from your thinking.
While stating that there are gulfs of communication between various
technical disciplines is absolutely true, the subtext here suggests that
"well you just have to work around those dumb shop apes, as they only have
limited education"...
My personal experience which ranges working with top management AND shop
floor-and all steps in between tells me that it's not the "shop apes" that
lack communications skills or have limited ability to cope with cultural
change, but rather middle and in some cases upper management.
A) The education level of our shop floor personel as vastly under rated.
Here at the Boeing Company we have huge numbers of individuals with
advanced college degrees working on the shop floor as mechanics and
fabricators. I have a friend who works on the 737 wingline producing the
leading edge wing section who routinely goes head to head with engineering
over what he deems are manufacturing "screw ups" on the part of the
engineers-that He won't tolerate... And he's right 9 times out of 10,
moreover he wins the arguement 9 times out of 10 because he has the
communications skills and the heart to fight it through.
B) You'd best NOT under-estimate understanding gained through life
experience. The college degree is only a gaurentee that the individual
has been forced to read a certain pile of books, can answer a certain set
of questions and tend to be used to "canned" answers.
There is no gaurentee that person can USE their knowledge fittingly, nor
is there any dependable test for wisdom in any university that I'm aware
of. If you want effective culture change, you'd best not under rate
ANYONE in the organization-from janitor to ceo.
I've found in my work that those with true insight tend to live and work
in the obscure places. They are the ones who quietly make the system
work, often in spite of it's self. They are the ones who rise to
leadership during big culture changes, and that's good because you need
those people. I go to every level of a company and get their story in
their words-and in my case build big cartoon displays, which work
wonderfully well for crossing the communication gaps across group,
organization and technical discipline. It's amazing what happens when you
get a cross dis-functional group to talk WITH each other after seeing
their world portrayed in some funny, colorful and most important
"politically neutral" format-that show people as just people-not hiding
behind the suit, tie and college diploma.
NEVER let yourself fall into the trap of believing that since someone only
has an AA degree in metal fab that he's some kind of "shop ape" who can't
possibley "get it". This person "gets it" well enough! Worry about the
guys (and gals) in the suits...
later...
Michael Erickson
Organizational Cartoonist -- Boeing DCAC/MRM Program
michael.n.erickson@boeing.com
http://members.tripod.com/~Michael_Erickson/
-----------------------------------------------------
-"we toons may act rediculous, but we're not stupid!"-
--------------------Roger Rabbit----------------------
--"Michael N. Erickson" <michael.n.erickson@boeing.com>
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