62. Optimising The Organisation part 1
Our collection 'Solutions Focus Working: 80 real-life lessons for successful organisational change' is now out on Kindle!
We’ve published ten books over the years under the Solutions Books imprint. The one that Jenny and I think is the ‘classic that got away’ is Solutions Focus Working, a collection of fourteen real case studies in organisational change by members of the SOLWorld community. Although it appeared some time ago the cases and the lessons from them are still totally applicable. All the organisations agreed to be named in the book; they were clearly pleased with the results and wanted to stand by the work that the SF consultants had done with them (in some cases working in-house, other externally).
The list of cases and organisations is impressive even today:
Chapter 1: Introducing Solutions Focus
Chapter 2: The Power Of One: When coaching one man changes an organisation: Carey Glass and the Cooperative Group
Chapter 3: Engaging people for innovation: Bringing strategy to life in Canadian healthcare: Minna Graham and the Ontario Medical Association
Chapter 4: Turning the tables on quality: Solutions Focus meets continuous improvement at Sky TV: Trevor Durnford and British Sky Broadcasting
Chapter 5: Back To The Future: Increasing Sales with Positive Differences: Kathrin Bauer, Günter Lueger and Magazzin
Chapter 6: Making sense of information: Developing a patient-friendly framework for hospital planning: Peter Röhrig and the Cologne Local Health Conference
Chapter 7: Small steps and Trojan mice: One manager's story of using SF in everyday work: Mona Hojab and Peabody Trust
Chapter 8: Optimising the Organisation: Restructuring at Freescale Semiconductor: Jenny Clarke and Freescale Semiconductor
Chapter 9: Solutions Focus Tackles Complexity: Fiing a way forwards through the legal and regulatory jungle: Kirsten Dierolf and Bayer Cropscience
Chapter 10: Creating a future when facing redundancy: Solutions Focused outplacement at Lufthansa Cargo: Monika Houck and Lufthansa Cargo
Chapter 11: Getting a team working together: Establishing more effective ways of working for a senior team: Peter Szabo, Daniel Meier and EB Zurich
Chapter 12: Listening and letting go: Transforming a training department: Mark McKergow and Chelsea Building Society
Chapter 13: Change is in the eye of the beholder: Improving job satisfaction in Sweden: Björn Johansson, Eva Persson and Lund employment office
Chapter 14: Project management - surprisingly light and successful: How to stage an international conference without an action plan in sight: SOL 2005 Interlaken conference team
Chapter 15: What went well?: Addressing a business disaster with Solutions Focus: Hans Zeinhofer and Energie AG Vertrieb GmbH
Chapter 16: Solutions Focus Working: Eighty lessons for successful organisational change
The book has been getting harder and harder to get hold of in paperback, so we have made it available on Kindle through Amazon, which means you can get hold of it instantly anywhere in the world. Here are the links for the book on Amazon UK, Amazon USA and Amazon Australia. The price is also very reasonable indeed - £7.95 or USD9.95 for the whole book.
This week on Steps To A Humanity Of Organisation I am sharing (with Jenny’s permission) the first part of her chapter on restructuring at Freescale Semiconductor. It’s too long to fit into one Substack post so the second part will follow next time. I hope you enjoy reading it, appreciate the way we tackled the project (in a truly humane and effective way) and can see ways to include some of the learning points in your own work. Whether you’re an in-house change agent, an external coach or a manager seeking to move things along, there’s lots to appreciate here. And – there are another 13 cases like this in the book.
A word before we start: Freescale Semiconductor was created in 2004 when it was hived off from Motorola. It lasted under this name until 2015 when it was merged into NXP Semiconductors.
Optimising the Organisation: Restructuring at Freescale Semiconductor
Consultants: Jenny Clarke and Mark McKergow
Organisation: Freescale Semiconductor
Reorganising a complex manufacturing operation is a complicated business fraught with difficulties. In this case, Chris McCann and his colleagues at Freescale Semiconductor used Solutions Focus ideas to tap into the organisation’s know-how and creativity to keep the process simple and effective.
Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors (chips) for wireless, networking, automotive, consumer and industrial markets. The company provides original equipment manufacturers with chips to help them drive advanced cell phones, manage Internet traffic and to help make vehicles safer and more energy efficient. Although you may never have heard of Freescale, you almost certainly use their products every day – in cell phones, AV equipment, white goods and cars. After more than 50 years as a part of Motorola, the company became a stand alone company in July 2004.
The competitiveness in the global semiconductor market means there is an ongoing challenge to drive continuous improvement in factory performance. Mark and Jenny had previously worked with the East Kilbride factory in the implementation phase of a cost-saving project, following McKinsey recommendations for standardised working practices throughout the company, based on analysis and best practice. This time, they were invited to help the factory to re-design its organisational structure in order to drive further performance improvements and to make full use of the talents and skills of the experienced workforce.
The factory in East Kilbride, part of Scotland’s Silicon Glen, opened in 1969. It is one of seven Freescale Wafer Fabrication plants all over the world. It is an important employer in the area, with the majority of the highly skilled employees directly involved in manufacturing. One of the challenges is that the factory operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week with rotating shift and fixed dayshift communities. With the highly technical nature of semiconductor manufacturing, there is large engineering support function which also operates 24x7 and on dayshift. For this very reason, a matrix is necessary and this was an opportunity to look at different ways of organising the resource.
Reorganising the structure
The Organisation Optimisation Team (OOT), led by Engineering Manager Chris McCann, was set up to devise an organisational structure which would help deliver the business objectives placed on the factory. Just as important were the “soft” considerations about the ethos of the factory. The objectives were to
· Enhance the sense of common purpose and team spirit
· Engage the staff in the process of change
· Develop individual and collective ownership and responsibility
· Develop new skills
· Recognise success
· Ensure good alignment of functional areas
The existing organisation
Machine operators and some engineering and technical staff worked on 12 hour shifts, supported by managerial and engineering staff working 5 days a week. This led to a complicated matrix of reporting lines, with different lines for day-to-day technical matters, special projects and traditional line management. The complexity was compounded by the number of levels in the hierarchy: an operator working on shift at a machine looked up to a Group Leader, a Supervisor (working on rotating shifts and not often at work at the same time) and two levels of day-shift management above that. The operator would also come into contact with an engineering organisation which had a similar hierarchy and mixture of shift workers and day-shift personnel. It was further complicated by the rotating shift technical staff reporting to different management from dayshift technical staff. Was there an opportunity to simplify and provide clarity to roles and responsibilities within this complex structure? – this was the challenge set to the project team.
Data gathering workshop
Chris McCann recognised the importance of involving people from all parts of the factory in the project. This would improve both the quality of the outcome and the transparency of the change process. It would also create a coalition of change agents to help in deploying any subsequent change. This was an opportunity to directly engage a wide cross section of the workforce and model a new working climate.
Chris was keen to use SF ideas in engaging people in a positive and constructive way. He asked Mark McKergow and Jenny Clarke to design and facilitate workshops to discover more about the ways in which the various departments and groups in the factory saw the opportunities presented by a change in organisation. Two separate workshops were convened, each attended by a cross section of a dozen staff to give representatives of function, hierarchy and geography within the factory.
Benefits of change – for everyone involved
After the introductions and scene setting, the group listed the “stakeholders” in the project – parties who would be affected by the outcome. These were identified as the operators; engineering staff – on shift and day workers; the supervisors; section managers; line managers; the top team at the factory; the top level management in the USA and Freescale customers. Working in three smaller groups, they then considered the benefits each of the stakeholders could gain from a better organisation. This is an important element of Platform Building, helping everyone see the point of the re-organisation exercise and the advantages that might stem from it for them and for others. This led to energetic conversation and was a good medium for exchanging views and gaining understanding of different perspectives.
Benefits of what’s there already
Next, in randomised pairs, the group interviewed each other about what worked well – from their own perspectives – about the current organisation.
– Which aspects of the organisation works best at the moment?
• What’s good about it? What else?…(more detail)
– Which other aspects work well?
• What’s good about it? What else?…(more detail again)
This may seem a surprising step when change is in the air. However, it’s important to build on what’s there already, and this process offers ways to raise and retain what is already working. The output from this was captured on flip charts, and added to the sense of optimism and possibility – it was a good process for reminding people of what was already good about the organisation and to ensure that was not compromised by the change process. Not surprisingly, however, the conversations were punctuated by lots of “buts” – “Yes, that’s going well, but….”
This generated what Daniel Meier calls “Hot Topics” - things we must get right. The conversation was energetic and co-operative rather than the moaning session it might have been had the question been “What’s wrong with the current organisation?” This is the value of careful platform building (benefits exercise) and the search for counters (what works well now?) and the affirms implicit in that search. The group identified the following Hot Topics
Need for clarity in roles, expectations and reporting lines
Authority/responsibility well-matched and well-understood
Reduced points of contact – less time reporting and conveying and seeking information and more time doing the job
Handovers – right time, right people, right information
“Big Daddy” information system so that everyone has access to the information they need, when they need it
Shared understanding of priorities and clearer guidance about them
People management implications of 400 people on fixed shifts with the rest rotating round them
Shift autonomy/self sufficiency
Training issues
Lesson: List ‘things we must get right’ rather than problem issues
Phrasing the hot topics as ‘thing we must get right’ offers the chance for people to raise problems, issues and concerns – but in a way which points them to state them in a positive way. The things we must get right are a much more focused list than the ‘things we must not get wrong’.
Future Perfect
This proved a useful set-up for the Future Perfect. In this case, the participants were asked to “suppose that you could wave a magic wand and all the topics you have identified are instantly resolved in the way that you would like them to be. What would 24 hours in the life of the factory be like, from your own point of view?” Everyone spent about 5 minutes pondering this question alone, and then formed two teams each with one representative from each stakeholders group to produce a story board showing the factory from midnight to midnight.
The storyboards showed snapshot pictures of key events during the day, with each individual team member appearing in at least one picture. This helps to keep the story very specific (as it involves these specific people, not just any old employees, and draws the people into the story they are developing. As well as jokey requests for bags of money, they included important details about who should meet, when and what information should be exchanged.
After lunch, the same two teams spent some time considering their storyboards and drawing out the implications and questions arising from their idealised pictures. Despite the fact that the magical transformation allowed them to think in an unrestricted way, the teams came up with highly compatible ideas in the Future Perfect storyboards.
Lesson: Two Future Perfects can be better than one
In our experience, the fact that the two groups produced compatible Future Perfect descriptions is not unusual. It seems that in thinking about the details of what they would have in an unconstrained way, people can produce something on which they can agree. Additionally, the points of agreement are instantly clear and can be utilised straight away.
Developing different perspectives
Next, participants were paired so that everyone worked with someone from the same stakeholder group. Their task was to make posters addressing the following questions:
How could things work from your point of view?
Who would you communicate with on a typical day?
What do you need from the people you interface with?
What do you think they need from you?
The posters were arranged on the wall to form a “Gallery walk”. Participants were free to spend about 10 minutes looking at the exhibits and then each pair introduced their own poster and responded to questions and comments from the others. This took about an hour and generated very valuable detail about interfaces, information flows and levels of authority and responsibility. The focus on interfaces and communication helped to develop a sense of how the organisation would organise itself, rather than simply looking at each group’s activities in isolation. Again, notice that this is all about possibilities in the future – nothing to do with what is there already, what is wrong with the current situation, etc.
Lesson: Organisations are their conversations, not just their people
The focus on interactions and communications, rather than individuals, is a key part of the Solutions Focus approach. The question is not so much ‘what will I be doing’ as ‘’how will I know what to be doing’? This links to the narrative idea of organisations as collections of conversations rather than collections of people.
Affirms and small steps
Finally, participants were invited to tell the group what had impressed them about their colleagues and what they were looking forward to as the project reached its conclusions. Many common threads emerged here: the workshop itself was energising and enjoyable; everyone was open-minded, thoughtful and honest; it was good to be involved in early thinking; there were many points of view and different interests but many shared concerns: everyone wanted to see the factory do well.
Chris McCann comments:
“The project team was really encouraged by these first workshops – particularly with the level of engagement and energy that the process generated. The variety of processes used allowed very detailed information to be gathered and open and lively debate in areas that would not surface in other brainstorm style processes previously used in the factory. This provided great insight and made the next stage of the change process much easier than it could have been.”
“There was a great level of openness and willingness to share things. The process leads to this – you get it without even realising it. It allowed us to surface areas where there were potentially conflicting viewpoints, but it did it in a way that was non-threatening and constructive, and produced lots of detailed information on what people wanted which produced really good insights.”
“And another thing – the workshop was fun and people enjoyed participating. Sometimes we do brainstorming and problem solving processes and it can get quite off-putting for the operators and supervisors. We really got the best out of the people. They even worked through their lunches without complaining!”
The revised structure
Chris McCann and his OOT team took the results of the two workshops and produced a proposed revised structure, which drew on the information gathered at the first workshops. Mark and Jenny also drew together their views on the topics raised in the workshops, providing an outsider’s viewpoint.
The major changes from the previous organisation recognised the participants’ ideas, it aimed at improved accountability and alignment by making technical management responsible for both the dayshift and rotating technical support roles. Dayshift engineering would now have the lead role here, aided by the introduction of a new post of Lead Technician working on shift as the primary interface between the production and the shift technical communities.
At this stage the project team combined the terrifically detailed output generated from the workshops with their more customary Digital Six Sigma methodology to evaluate possible organisational designs against a model proposed by the Hay Group in a paper entitled ‘Designing Highly Accountable Organisations’. This led to a proposed structure and organisational model.
Next time on Steps To A Humanity Of Organisation – Chris, Jenny and Mark start to address the process of implementing the new structure.
Dates and mates
This case is one of fourteen set out in the book Solutions Focus Working: 80 real-life lessons for successful organisational change, now available worldwide on Kindle for the first time. We were delighted that Stephen MR Covey endorsed the book:
“Filled with the wisdom of profound simplicity… I highly recommend this insightful and practical book.” Stephen MR Covey. author of The Speed Of Trust
Here again are the links for the Kindle book on Amazon UK, Amazon USA and Amazon Australia. The price is also very reasonable indeed - £7.95 or USD9.95 for the whole book.
Munich seminar
I will be in Munich, Germany on 22-23 June 2024, doing a two-day workshop/seminar on SF 2.0, solution focused organsational change and host leadership with my dear friends Matthias Varga and Insa Sparrer at the Syst Institute. It is part of their four-year full training (really!) and also bookable separately if you just want to join for these two days. I’d love to see you there.
