Employee engagement at the heart of success
Every company, over the course of its history, goes through changes, even upheavals, that can be destabilizing. How do you survive a merger, a relocation, and even a change of boss?
An interview with Michel Lessard, who developed his own engagement strategies at Festo Didactic, a 230-employee company based in Quebec City.
Picture four separate companies, two of them in the United States, one in Ontario and the other in Quebec. To improve productivity, the decision is made to merge the four entities into one. The challenge, in 2000? Streamline all operations in Quebec City, in a plant already described as productive and high-performing.
"We went through logistics, hiring and equipment-transfer problems," explains Mr. Lessard, today the company's president and CEO. The manufacturing plant in Sainte-Foy had become too small and required a move to the Charlesbourg industrial park.
At the same time, in the early 2000s, more than 80 new employees were hired. Within the management team, fatigue and exhaustion set in. Two members went on sick leave.
"We went through a crisis of growth," Michel Lessard recalls. "I questioned myself, too."
Five strategies to drive engagement
Reading Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now, Mr. Lessard realized how important it is to fully tap into his own potential and that of others. Little by little, with his own boss's blessing, he passed his philosophy on to employees.
1) No more fear. From then on, the word "fear" was banished from the vocabulary. Gone were sentences like "I'm afraid we won't deliver that order on time." Instead, employees began to say "I'm confident about this."
2) Change course. Bit by bit, Michel Lessard drove change and quite literally lit the spark. With employees, he openly asked the questions: what if we changed this working method? How could we improve that process? Michel Lessard first won over 16.7% of the workforce before making any changes, the critical threshold needed to launch the required shift and boost profitability.
3) Happy employees. Happiness at work, they say, is closely tied to productivity. "We started making decisions based on employees' happiness. They're the ones who choose their shifts, for example." Beyond scheduling, everyone grasped one essential thing: happiness comes from a sense of satisfaction, of self-fulfillment. "What makes people happy?" Michel Lessard asks. "It's collective achievement. The more we accomplish, the happier we are." The result? On the shop floor, manufacturing lead times dropped from more than 12 weeks to less than two weeks!
4) In the right place. Beyond production methods, it was a company culture that took root. "We put in place an environment that lets people reach their full potential." One example? A sheet-metal worker with a knack for computers became an information-technology programmer at Festo Didactic. One experienced employee had been reluctant about all these changes. "Today, I'd never go back," he confided. "I feel like I'm accomplishing something."
5) Trust. The climate of happiness within the company spilled over to shareholders, suppliers and clients. "We're able to meet client demands because we produce faster." For their part, employees no longer work solely for a paycheck: they feel freer, more responsible and more engaged. The result? Staff turnover is nearly zero. Michel Lessard's strategies boosted the company's profitability and productivity, with revenue reaching $40M. "I want to apply management principles to go even further. We've taken a Teal turn inspired by Frédéric Laloux's research," he concludes.
Evolutionary management according to Frédéric Laloux
- Self-managed teams, supported when needed by coaches without managerial authority.
- Decentralized decision-making, based on the advice process.
- Hiring and dismissals handled by the self-managed teams themselves.
- Fixed job titles replaced by fluid, evolving roles.
- Information shared openly, including financial and salary data.
- An ongoing process of questioning values and rules.
Source: "Teal" organizations studied by Frédéric Laloux.
Frédéric Laloux is the author of Reinventing Organizations, published in 2014 and now a worldwide bestseller: a book about a type of organization built on greater autonomy for every member of a team.
Michel Lessard's reading suggestions
The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle; Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi; and Start with Why, by Simon Sinek.
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