People calling for a changed culture often are experiencing the painful results of behaviors that are typical in reactive manufacturing organizations. A philosophical intervention is required.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a client say, “We’ve got to change the culture!” I would be a wealthy man.

The truth is that the culture has been created by the expectations communicated by an organization’s past and current leaders. So why is there such a mismatch between the behaviors managers observe in their plant each day and the behaviors they would like to see embedded in their work culture? What is creating this disparity between desired culture and actual culture?

The people calling for a changed culture are often experiencing the painful results of behaviors that are typical in reactive manufacturing organizations. And the results go beyond poor quality work, poor communication and production issues. The impact on the workforce goes even deeper, with workers feeling frustrated by work that’s not well organized or managed.

A manufacturing site undertaking a reliability implementation often requires what I would call a philosophical intervention. Behaviors exist that are damaging to the company, the plant and the individual. “Flavor-of-the-month” efforts to change how people work have failed. What’s required is to both identify problematic behaviors that are driving poor results, and dig deeper to confront the values and expectations that have shaped how people behave. When I am guiding a client on their reliability journey, one of my roles is to assess the existing philosophies shared by leaders at the site and help leaders create a new, shared value set that creates and sustains reliability in the organization.

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Rick Williams

Rick is the Managing Partner of Polk and Associates and Director of our Attest, and Manufacturing services divisions. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Western Michigan University and earned his Accreditation in Business Valuation from the AICPA and is a Chartered Global Management Accountant. Rick is a member of the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, AICPA Forensic and Valuation Services section, Michigan Manufacturers Association, MMA Tax Policy Committee, SAE, Affordable Housing Association of Certified Public Accountants, and Automation Alley.

RWilliams@polkcpa.com