Transformational workshops, designed to introduce and explore the dignity and respect concepts through open dialog. This is where an organization’s commitment to dignity and respect becomes real to workshop attendees and they decide on individual commitments to drive the changes they want to see. The most dramatic changes occur after employees explore the dignity and respect concepts through a workshop and make personal commitments to improvement.
Workshop – Success Stories: Here are two true workshop stories, with names and locations omitted to protect confidentiality.
A Change in Perspective: This business operation managed about 1000 employees from a centralized location. Approximately 20 managers and administrative personnel worked from the central office and a similar number of key managers worked primarily in the field, managing employees at customer locations. This office came to the company’s attention because of internal complaints and disharmony. It seemed a prime location for Dignity and Respect, so we conducted two workshops over two days, shortly after the office’s general manager left the company.
At the beginning of both workshops, the tension in the air was palpable. After taking time to get to know everyone in the room, we explored the company’s commitment to treating everyone fairly and with dignity and respect. As the dialog shifted to our power individually and as managers to make a difference in our work environments, hope became the prevalent feeling in the room. We closed the workshops after we each person in the room committed to changes that we would make to promote dignity and respect in our work environments.
After the second workshop, we were approached by a group of managers, asking that we have a separate meeting with them, “without the big wigs (referring to local senior managers) in the room.” We were unable to meet that day, as we were leaving to catch a flight, but agreed to hold the meeting by video conference. It was clear that, on the day of the workshop, these employees wanted to share information about senior managers.
To accommodate everyone’s schedules, it took a couple months to schedule to the video conference. We started the conference and invited the local managers to share their information. Instead of hearing anything about other managers from the office, the employees essentially said, “We have used Dignity and Respect to change our work environments and how we interact and treat each other. Dignity and Respect really works. How can we make sure the new general manager you hire isn’t going to mess things up?” We committed to meeting directly with the new general manager to introduce and explore Dignity and Respect.
In my entire career, I’ve never had such a positive business call. We followed up six months later by sending a communications specialist with a video camera to capture live comments about the impact of Dignity and Respect in their work place. The responses were so inspirational and moving that we used the video in future training sessions. Objectively, this office went from being the most active nationally for complaints and litigation before the workshop, to being one of the company’s best operating offices a year later.
Where there’s smoke, there’s something.
Management asked that we conduct dignity and respect workshops at an office location that was experiencing internal strife, with no known cause. The office was led by a seasoned and well-respected general manager and they successfully managed a large number of employees over a wide geographic area. My team managed the company hotline and despite our investigation of several “issues,” we were unable to pinpoint a root cause for seemingly unconnected problems suffered by employees from this office.
When organizing workshops, we try to make sure that everyone will feel comfortable speaking openly. That means separating managers from their direct reports, where possible. In this case, we scheduled the office staff in one workshop and their boss, the general manager, in a separate workshop with managers that worked outside the local office.
Twenty minutes into the office staff workshop, it became clear that they believed the general manager was “the problem.” Despite this early prognosis from the team, the dignity and respect workshops help us consider the things we control and how we influence our environment.
When the office staff was considering what changes they could make to promote an environment of dignity and respect, they made some interesting revelations. More than one person admitted that they would improve by stopping their negative office discussions and gossip. They admitted that their negative view of their manager was not based on his overt actions against them. When he spoke or acted, he always was respectful, but he only acted when he needed something from them. They interpreted his lack of casual or personal interaction as evidence that he did not like them. By the end of the workshop, the team members made personal commitments that promised to improve the office environment and they seemed more understanding of their manager.
Despite these positive steps, after the workshop ended, I immediately contacted the general manager, to discuss the workshop. The general manager was shocked and dismayed to hear that his team thought he did not like them. He said, “They are great people, always completing tasks, achieving objectives and earning bonuses.”
Still, he admitted that he is a “numbers guy” and always focused on measurements. Early in his career, he recalled getting a low personality test score for empathy. He asked for help from the company to fix his behavior and his relationship with his team. The company pledged resources and we discussed a plan for speaking with the team.
I stayed the night and scheduled a meeting with the office team for the next morning. We met back in the workshop room and I conveyed the substance of the conversation with that their general manager and explained that he wanted to address them as a group. The general manager came in, told the team how wonderful he believes they are and apologized for not communicating effectively. He explained that the company was going to help him learn to communicate better and that they all should know that he cares about them personally. At the time of the workshops, this office was in the top 10 nationally for the number of “hotline calls,” but six months after the workshops there were no active hotline matters from this office.