Conversations can change reality

When we have conversations with friends, clients and colleagues, do we use the opportunity to discover new possibilities or do we just solidify current behaviours and expectations?  During Tuesday’s ISPI meeting, Wayne Rawcliffe and Brian Fraser provided a framework around conversations in their Talk, Talk, Talk session.  First, they made three assumptions:

1. When we change what we talk about, we change reality
2. Improvement is a choice
3. Results are immediate

To support these assumptions, Wayne shared a story about GM’s Freemont, LA plant which was “considered the worst workforce in the automobile industry in the United States”, according to the United Auto Workers. Instead of closing the plant, GM partnered with Toyota, reopened the plant with many of the same troublesome employees and was able to  produce cars with as few defects per 100 vehicles as those produced in Japan.

Why did employees who drank alcohol on the job, were frequently absent (enough so that the production line couldn’t be started), and even committed petty acts of sabotage such as putting “Coke bottles inside the door panels, so they’d rattle and annoy the customer change their ways? According to workers who made the transition, the emphasis on quality and teamwork by Toyota management was what motivated a change in work ethic. (Source Wikipedia)

The employees were the same but the conversations they had with management changed.  No longer were those troublesome employees unproductive.  They were now producing on par with some of the best manufacturers in the world. Here we have proof positive that conversations managers had changed reality and produced immediate results. 

Am wondering what others found interesting or useful from this presentation.