Two days later when we met he presented his situation. Over the last 2 years, with the assistance of my previous firm, they had downsized by 200 people. It had been a traumatic experience and had involved major negotiations with the 2 unions that represented the white and blue-collar workers. He recalled that of all the people that our firm had used that I seemed to him to be the most resistive to the downsizing plan, and had at one time advocated a different strategy, a situation that I well remembered. With morale at an all time low, productivity was very poor, and quality levels were down. He had been trying various morale boosting strategies but was not successful. "They just don’t believe in my leadership anymore, and I’m at a loss of what to do, I need help, and when you called, I jumped at the opportunity to get your input."

    From the discussions we had over the next four hours, I realized that he was also concerned with his job. He had worked his way up the company ladder over a 20 year period, and this was the first crises that he wasn’t able to deal with.

    The process that I laid out to him required a long term commitment. I suggested to undertake a Capability Snapshot immediately, along with a series of one-on-one meetings with some of the key plant people, and several focus groups with the operations and administration staff. I explained that the intent was directed at him regaining his peoples trust through demonstration of action and not words. The Capability Snapshot would be used to identify areas for action initiatives, create a baseline for monitoring the action initiatives, and providing stretch goals for motivational purposes. "The Snapshot will also allow us to get objective input from all the groups within the plant, including the unionized workforce, and see how their feedback is aligned with the feedback from customers and suppliers," I explained. The plan would then be to share the data with everyone and set up a series of cross-functional Challenge teams, one for each of the Strategic Challenge areas of the Capability Snapshot. The framework for each team would be the areas identified from the Snapshot. I outlined to him the approach to be taken, including the degree of their empowerment to take initiatives, along with the budget and approval guidelines. A repeat Capability Snapshot would be undertaken every 6 months with a follow-up series of review meetings to be held to evaluate the results.