One thing that stood out to me as we worked with shops in past studies on the impact of training, was the quality of the conversations, or should I say lack of quality, between management and staff. In many instances, there was a gap in those conversations. For one, they were not necessarily on-going. By this I mean a topic was not carried on over time and developed. The gap I refer to was the lack of discussion about improving the operational efficiency and profitability of the business and the application of learning.
Most conversations were focused on the current or next repair order. It was short-sighted and focused on the present or very near future as it related to a vehicle being repaired. From there the conversations tended to jump to personal topics related to family or hobbies. What rarely happened was an open discussion about the topic of making things better for the business, driven by the understanding that improved operations and profitability could or should mean better working conditions, more income and stability for all.
For many years, my team and I identified a management approach within our industry, we referred to as an Industrial-Age Management Mindset. This management philosophy is simply a remnant from our country’s success as an industrial world power beginning in WW1. It has impacted and influenced our management style ever since and though it may have served us well for many years as an industrial world power, today it doesn’t. This management approach sees employees simply as workers, who use their strength of back and hands to accomplish a task. They are not seen or engaged as thinkers who can improve the business and operation they work in. Unfortunately, many repair businesses work under this approach. Even worse, they do not realize it and seem unaware there is a more informed approach and mindset that could radically improve their operation. To make the shift to engaging employees at a cognitive level, it requires a willingness to be more open about the business’s operation and the challenges it faces that are often seen as management issues.
To make these ongoing conversations happen, they must be encouraged. To make them productive, learning and sharing knowledge must be expected. Within the context of a business culture, learning on purpose and with purpose drives business success. A business culture that does this will reap the benefits from the one single thing that sustains a competitive advantage — learning.
Make sure the conversations within your business are not just focused on the present situation. Encourage deeper, longer-term discussions about operational improvements. Establish the value of different perspectives. Let it be understood not every idea will be implemented or even acted on, but considered. Discuss the power of collective perspectives and how they ultimately ensure accurate operational actions.
Look for things that may interfere with learning and sharing knowledge. This could include apologizing for sending an employee to a training class or an ego-driven environment that silently says, admitting you learned something is an admittance you did not know something you should have known. Openly encourage learning and in fact make it understood it is expected. When sending someone to a training opportunity or faced with a mistake or challenge, set the learning expectation upfront and that a discussion on what was learned will take place afterward. Tie accountability to the need to constantly be learning, to ensure every action, as an individual in a role and as a business operation, is a knowledgeable one.
The success of your business is based on its ability to learn and have on-going, meaning conversations. That means the power of every employee learning constantly and on purpose and collectively sharing with one another with purpose. That is the one element that catapults a business ahead of its local competitors for the long term, every time. The American philosopher, Eric Hoffer was quoted as saying, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
