The first big reality check of my professional career came very quickly. As soon as I finished my bachelor's degree when I started working for a management systems and process improvement consulting firm. It was a new company that had earned the opportunity to carry out a huge project for a company in the logistics sector of considerable relevance worldwide. The first stage of the project involved the improvement of the processes of three of its main “products”, which entailed interviewing the operating personnel, reviewing the forms they filled out, documenting their activities in flow charts and trying to find improvements that could be implemented. by the company. Although part of our responsibilities involved standardizing processes,verify work distributions and try to print innovations to the current way of working, there was not much that separates this project from the typical tasks developed by a department of processes, continuous improvement or whatever they call it by its latitudes.
The project started quickly and although I lived the first days with a nervous wreck, I think I learned the work methodology quite quickly; It probably had a lot to do with the confidence that I received from the compliments of my boss, an expert in quality management and the perfect example of what a consummate professional is. I was learning more with each question I asked the staff and soon it was time for our presentation of improvements to the first “product” analyzed.
Probably with a little more time we could have found additional improvements, but we presented several interesting initiatives and my opinion is that we had managed to meet the objectives agreed with our client at the beginning of the project.
The blow I mentioned at the beginning of the post came repeatedly during that meeting. Each suggestion was followed by a "but…" and a "can't" by some members of our client's management group. With my youth and innocence, I tried to support my boss in the face of each attack from those people, but it was a very difficult meeting and towards the end of it, all I thought about was how I could have disappointed my boss in such a way later of the trust he had given me.
The meeting passed, it was agreed to make additional reviews to the deliverables and the project continued with the next “product”. Much was my surprise when I began to see that several of the comments of that abhorrent meeting had caused changes to the "status quo" that existed until then in the processes of our client.
Those people probably did not have the professional attitude that one expects from personnel with such a high rank, but it must be remembered that either through our improvement proposals or through their own initiatives, people started working and changes were made that were previously accompanied by several excuses not to be done. It was then that I learned about the principle of the piñata.
In Latin America we all know the piñata game. Cardboard and paper are put together in the shape of some popular cartoon that is stuffed with candy for children to beat until it breaks and fill their hands with confetti, sweets and more.
Well, improvement projects have to follow the piñata principle. People who perform a task over and over again lose creativity in the face of such a task. The reality is that over time these people lose the ability to create something new. However the ability to be critical is much more difficult to lose.It is extremely common to find staff who can easily identify everything that creates difficulties in their jobs, but very few can come up with an improvement that solves those difficulties. This is not a crime because it is equally true that the solution to most of the problems of our companies is found in the people who do the tasks. The “input” of these collaborators is invaluable and obtaining the information from them is critical to the success of any project.
The advisers or those in charge of devising improvements have to start by putting together a “piñata”. This is where millennials are valuable. We may not have a totally clear solution or our initiative has not contemplated legal, financial or other aspects, but we can create a new idea that is far from the “AS-IS” status of the processes. For the piñata to reach its maximum capacity it is necessary to polish it with the "blows" of the personnel who have experience executing the tasks and whose perspective really serves to perfect the "piñata".
The criticisms (positive and negative) to our piñata will provide more information to make adjustments to the proposed improvements. The sweets that will come out of the piñata are improvements that will have been born with the support of professionals who are directly related to the execution of the tasks that we plan to improve and that should therefore be easier to implement later. Another benefit of this principle is that it promotes the generation of more information that can be used by management to make better decisions.
The principle of the piñata is applicable to all aspects of our professional and personal life. As a young professional I must admit that meeting with managers and seeing that I had the opportunity to speak and be heard made a huge impact on me; So my advice to my contemporaries is to do my best to understand the work processes in their areas. Having total knowledge of how an activity is executed creates an incomparable confidence that should serve as a support to lose the fear of presenting your "piñatas" before management teams and should help to better handle criticism of our work.
I would like to know about your experiences in meetings. What are the main difficulties that you have experienced in meetings and how have you overcome them? Your comments are greatly appreciated.
