CUTTING EDGE TEAMWORK:
    A  High-Tech Company in Change

"For my clients  in high tech companies, this video has been a great, low-cost  way  to let them hear the team message directly from  their counterparts."  -Al   Holmes,Director, Sequus  Inc. Winnipeg, Manitoba  Canada

 

This 28-minute  video documents how Storage Technology Corporation (StorageTek),  suppliers of information storage systems for large, main-frame  computers achieved a manufacturing "recovery", primarily through  employees' redesign of their work systems.  In a company  interested in cycle-time reduction, this was a process of accelerated redesign.  Socio-technical redesign of HDA  (head disk assembly) product organization had a revolutionary  impact.   Operators (many of them semi-skilled and female)  replaced their segmented, repetitive work routines with  responsibility for completion of entire unit assemblies.  Most  importantly, the redesign developed mutual respect between the  numerous manufacturing engineers and the operators, and changed  engineering practice in this high-tech plant.  There is,  however, an ironic and prophetic postscript to this story.  No  sooner had the work been redesigned and product field failures  shrunk to almost zero, than the HDA product's "end-of-life" was  announced.  Once again, people and the organization would have  to change.  The future of work is here and the challenge of  work redesign is continuous.

NEW  WORK  SYSTEMS: A Work in  Progress

"The best  nitty-gritty picture of the process of Workplace Change that I  have ever seen." - William Lytle, of W. O. Lytle &  Associates, Lincoln, Massachusetts, U. S. A.

 

This  documentary made by the employees and management of a successful  chemical company is a learning experience about the power of people  engaged in recreating their workplace.  The "socio-technical"  changes (made to control systems and front-line operations) were not  the product of crisis.  Indeed, change was achieved against  great odds, highlighting the leadershp roles of both labour and  management.  Filmed as events unfold over several years, the  video does not present a prescriptive model of change, but it  develops awareness of the dynamics of change--the "reinforcing  growth" forces and the "natural, limiting processes" that challenge  any change.  This very "real" story of the trials,  tribulations, and triumphs of work redesign is a valuable resource  to all  management and labour representatives in the planning  and preparation of their own organizational  change.

 FOR PEOPLE AND THE BUSINESS:
         A Joint Venture in Change

"Engaging and  highly informative.... Essential viewing  for  management and union leaders alike." - Dr. Tom Knight, Faculty of Commerce, University of  British Columbia,  Canada.

 

The story  begins with a bitter strike in a harsh Canadian winter.  What  follows is a dramatic reconstruction of a labour-management  relationship.  This is the foundation by which the  subsidiary of a major North American company and a local of one of  the largest private sector unions in Canada go on to make workplace  change a very successful and truly "joint venture".  The change  process is one that they "learned together, planned together, and  implemented together".  Their experience merges the techniques,  processes, and skills of organization development and the realities  of labour-management relations.   Union and management  roles were transformed.  Collective bargaining and organization  development were linked through a Joint Standing Committee of union  and management leaders. The results were signficant improvements in  productivity, reduction of grievances, record safety performance,  and new employee training and job creation.  This is  a  unique story for workers who want to learn how a trade union can  lead the process of workplace change, and for employers who wish to  develop a real partnership between people and the  business.

  THE POWER OF PARTICIPATION:
     L-S Electro-Galvanizing Co. & U.S.W.A. Local  9126  

"Chockfull of  real-life action and commentary.....which helps viewers  understand various Stakeholder interests and the experience of  High Performance work organizations." - Randy Schaefer, Manager, Organizational  Development, Weldwood of Canada..

 

The strategic  interests of LTV Steel Ltd. and the United Steelworkers of America  were very clear in their development of L-S Electro-Galvanizing as a  "greenfield" operation where people are now the difference in  achieving consistent profitability and internationally-recognized  quality.  At L-SE, participation is the product of a "total"  work environment--uniquejob structures, support systems,  & management processes--there is no "silver bullet"!   Workers can integrate operations, maintenance, and quality functions  for highly effective decision-making.  As factory workers, they  have become "knowledge" workers, using "informated"  technology.  Empowerment at L-SE also includes first-line and  middle-level management.  The whole organization demonstrates  how workers can manage production while managers manage the  business.  This 28-minute documentary is a powerful inspiration  and benchmark for the question: what elements of our total work  system need development to become a High Performance work  organization

 REDESIGNING WORK FOR
 SELF-REGULATION: The Rohm & Haas  (Kentucky) Story

"What this field  has been waiting for - a video-tape that  works." - Tom Rankin, of Mansell, Rankin &  Associates, Ottawa, Ontario  Canada

 

It took 10  years of perseverence, but "The Rohm & Haas Story" is one of the  most successful North American examples of work organization redesign in a "brown-field", unionized worksite.  This  34-minute video shows how the company and its 2 unions transformed a  large, traditional chemical plant into 18 self-managed work units .  This was not forced change--it was the product of  incredible managerial vision and employee involvement.  Union  and management representatives describe their experience as the  architects of this redesign, including the foremen who eliminated  their old function to take on new leadership and support roles in  the organization.  The results have been sustained reductions  in absenteeism and grievances, while productivity and quality have  climbed to a level that has made the plant world-class and people's  employment more secure.  If a self-regulated work organization  could be achieved in this plant--without crisis--it begs the  question for other labour and management representatives:  how  about us?

 EVERYBODY LEADS:
   The  Story of Self-Regulation and Teamwork

"I have used  these video stories with a number of clients... Attention  is paid when the message comes directly from a company that  has successfully implemented a PARTICIPATIVE workplace." - Dimitri Pojidaeff, President, Productive Workplace  Inc.

 

This  best-selling, 25-minute video program gives the "inside" look to  "The Rohm & Haas Story"--a human, day-to-day perspective on how  a self-managed work group can function extremely successfully.   It shows rotating leadership roles, training, and other support  systems which enable front-line workers to make fast, quality  decisions on their own.   It illustrates a new structure  of responsibility and accountability, whereby people coordinate  their own work, at whatever "level" in an organization.  It is  not about the "end" of management--this story demonstrates how   "supervisors" can also become "managers" (in more than a change of  title) or "expert" resources.  As both workers and managers say  in this video, this is not an easy way to work, it is just more  rewarding and more productive.

 TOPEKA PRIDE: Twenty Years of  Teamwork

"An extremely  valuable resource for teaching about the new realities and  possibilities of the work world." - Prof. Anil Verma University of Toronto, Toronto,  Ontario  Canada.

 

The Topeka,  Kansas pet food plant was one of North America's birthplaces for the "team concept" of work.  Since 1971, this has been a  highly successful team-based workplace, that has survived numerous  changes in corporate owners, and a well-publicized suspicion of  head-office "indifference, even hostility" from the original parent  company, General Foods.  The Topeka work system, designed by a  General Foods task force with consultant support, eliminates layers  of management and supervisory personnel and assigns 3 areas of  responsibility--processing, packaging and shipping, and office  duties--to self-managing teams of workers.  It is a "whole  system" model that has benefited from stable and highly  dedicated plant management.  Twenty years after start-up of  this "North American experiment", our 30-minute documentary shows  that there is still the extra-ordinary, high level of commitment and  performance that is "Topeka pride".

 PAY FOR SKILLS:   The L-SE  Story

"Short of a plant  visit ... this one-of-a-kind video is a great way to get an  inside look at Skill-based Pay." - Don Barkman, The Business Center, Knoxville,  Tennessee, U. S. A.

 

Continuous  learning is part of everyone's job at L-S E's steel galvanizing  plant in Cleveland, Ohio, and "pay-for-skills" promotes people  wanting to learn--continuously!  L-SE's Pay and Progression  plan is a key support system to the plant's highly flexible,  multi-skill work environment.  Flexibility derives from the  fact that people are paid, not to do a specific job, but to acquire  skills that can be utilized in a variety of jobs or functions.   A significant characteristic of the L-SE story is that  pay-for-skills has been a "living" system, regularly updated and  adjusted to new circumstances and new expectations.  Unlike  some organizations that have tried and failed with  pay-for-skills,  L-SE has provided the time and manpower (10%  of wage costs) to enable continuous training to take place.   However, at L-SE, education is not limited to formal courses and  training checklists.  As this 25-minute documentary  shows,  learning is a way of life in this workplace, fuelled by  an openness of information, and a belief that the more that people  know about what's going on, the more effective they can be in their  decision-making towards meeting the goals of the organization

 QUALITY PAYS: Employee-Driven Continuous  Improvement

"This is the  first video to demonstrate clearly the link between  Total Quality and participative work  systems." - Joel  Fadem, Associate, Anderson School of  Management,  UCLA  U. S. A.

 

The  principles demonstrated in this 26-minute documentary can be  applied to any area of work performance.  Specifically,  this is the story of how workers in one manufacturing plant  take real responsibility and real "ownership" for quality  control and customer satisfaction.  The video details the  plant's 6-step integrated process control (IPC) program, the  key aspect of which is development of the process standards  and monitoring of key variables by the workforce.   Moreover, workers are centrally involved in the diagnosis of  IPC issues, and interact directly and regularly with customers  through Customer Concern Teams.  This commitment to  customer satisfaction also relies heavily upon a participative  work system, where inspection is a rotated responsibility and  quality concerns are carried by each employee to whatever job  function (s)he performs on a given day. Another keystone has  been a unique Gain-Sharing plan which ensures continuous  improvement benefits everyone.  The results have been  dramatic, sustained cost-savings, improved output yields, and  numerous quality awards including the USA Today National  Quality Cup.  Ultimately, this is the story of how  workers commit to and achieve  excellence!

THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE:
         A New Deal at Work

"If you  really want to know how thew job can be done, this  program should serve the purpose  well." - Reg  Basken, former Vice-President, C.E.P. Union.

 

New  economic and social conditions pose a "challenge" for many  workers and employers.This 30-minute documentary shows  the issues and the response of 4 major companies and unions in  natural resource industries.  However, the concept of employee involvement, the "new deal at work" which the  video illustrates has broader application in all  industries. 

The video stimulates discussion  about possible benefits, options and opportunities for greater  employee involvement.  Industry leaders, union  representatives, managers, foremen, and most of all, workers  talk candidly about their experience in 4 different and  successful examples of employee involvement  in:-
                                                       1) production  planning,
                                                       2) health and  safety,
                                                       3) production  problem-solving,
                                                       4) job and organizational design.

THE CARDINAL RIVER STORY:
          Union-Management Turnaround

"This is  really a damn good video-tape!" - Adam  Zimmerman, former President, Noranda, Inc..  .

 

For over thirty years, this surface mining operation in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains has produced high quality metallurgical coal for North American and Japanese markets.  How the local union and management transformed their "Hatfield & McCoy" relationship is an inspiring story.  People on both sides of the "fence" applied "Relationship-by-Objectives" principles, not as an adhoc program but as a dedicated long-term process. 
It is a powerful testimony to the ability of people to change themselves.  The story is told by key union and management leaders who were at the center of two six-month long strikes, who made this turnaround happen, and who have sustained it ever since.   
Their story is a credible and durable example of what is possible in the best of union-management relations..