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OST in situations such as costcutting or downsizing

Convenor: Thomas Herrmann

Participants: Joelle, Malay, Mick W and some butterflies

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Discussion:

We discussed situations where OST could be of use to involve employees instead of just cutting w. top-down decisions. Often there may be solutions that do not imply that “heads have to roll”. Costcutting doesn’t automatically have to lead to downsizing. If management has decided that a certain number of persons have to go, it may be unethical to use OST. The outcome would be set already and the employees would be the ones to choose who has to go!

If the theme gives space for different kinds of costsaving solutions, management may be surprised of what happens. The choice of theme is important, as always. Givens too. Some stories were shared:

• In one company participative approach was used, 2 persons volunteered to do something else, 2 others wanted to work half-time which meant the problem was solved.

• OST was used in a private hospital. The theme was about reorganization in order to increase profit and cut off unprofitable parts of the service (!). It was obvious what had to be done to the participants and everything went much more smoothly than it would have, had they not used a participative method. Some employees were retrained, some moved to other companies and so on.

• In one company all frontline personal agreed to cut their time with 10%, which solved the problem.

• One company identified the transportation costs to be of great importance. A reorganization and crosstraining resulted in a cut of transportation costs by 2/3.

One clear prerequisite for using participative methods is that management really does trust its employees. If they have never used participative methods earlier this may not be the time to introduce them. Organizations that have used OST before may be well prepared. OST could be used to identify waste points but if it aims at enhancing processes it may lead to that employees get layed off. Is it possible to use then? It depends on the company, management, cultural and social context etc. It also depends on how well informed the employees are about the actual situation – short as well as long term.

There are some clear benefits of using participative approaches in these situations such as:

• The best solutions may be found. Ideas that management would never (dare) think of could come forth. The solutions would come bottom-up which is crucial in all change.

• If people have to change department/leave/retrain will “be better off”. They may even be ambassadors for the company instead of very negative “fired former employees”.

• The employees left in the company will feel a lot better. They have a better understanding of the situation.

• The reputation of the company/organization will not be as harmed. It will be easier to recruit competence when times change.

We also talked about the value of using story telling in situations as those mentioned above.