Sign of Progress

The call came on a relaxing Sunday afternoon.  I was just reaching for a second beer.  The football game had just started when the phone rang.  It was the guard at the front gate of my plant.  It ran 24/7, but it had been a quiet weekend before that. 

“Hey, Norm,” he said.  “No big deal, but there’s something funny going on here.  One of the employees is standing over in front of the sign.  Looks like he’s got his whole family with him and he’s taking a selfie.”

“Well, I'm not sure, Louie,” I said.  "It’s odd, but I can’t think of any rule they’re breaking.”

“I know.  I thought I’d let you know, though, because they’re the third family this weekend.”

“You’re right.  That’s weird.  Let me look into that when I come in tomorrow.”

The next morning as a I drove through the plant gate I looked over at the sign.  It was a typical sign that you see in front of many factories:  the company name and logo.  Ours had a new addition, a crawling electronic section where we usually had safety or production statistics. 

This time I saw something different; an employee’s name was crawling across the sign, followed by another one.  There were cars behind me at this point, so I continued on into the plant.

After getting the normal ‘Monday’ crises resolved, I had a brief chance to ask around about the sign.  It turned out that one of our employee quality teams had asked to have their names put on the electronic sign when they reached their quality improvement goal.

I had been surprised at how steadily our quality metrics had improved when we started our Positive Compliance^TM project.  A critical component of the process is to recognize the achievements of the teams.  One of them had asked to have their names on the crawling electronic sign out front. 

I had agreed immediately.  The cost was nothing, right?  But what did we get?  We got some amazing results.  That team had changed their garbing procedure to better ensure correct protective gear in the packaging area.  That, along with the work of the other teams in the plant, cut our overall quality error rate by 40%.

I got something else out of the project, the realization that recognition of achievement is a powerful force.  Our employees were driving all the way to the plant, on their off day, with their families, so they could post a picture of themselves, with their name, on social media.

Where could one go to buy that kind of dedication?

How about you?  Do you have a similar story?  What has worked best for you?  Comment below.