Case Study Three

We were tasked with assisting one of our clients with their ‘Safety Campaign’ during 2015-2018.

1. This organisation faced multiple challenges within the diversity framework as it was a global owned company based in South Africa. Not only did we have to consider navigating the waters of the South African side but also that of the global influence.
2. The workforce felt paralyzed with fear as the company implemented their new transformation strategy that was aligned with government compliance.
3. Certain key position role-players were removed and replaced with other deemed ‘inexperienced’ candidates. This led to safeguarding information and know-how which greatly affected team productivity. This was crucially detrimental to the highly sales driven environment of the company.
4. Distrust in both local and international management. Corridor talk was rife and led to increased suspicion and finger pointing.
5. Deliberate sabotaging of peers. Many employees felt the only way they can protect their positions were to sabotage the work of their team members. This led to failure of key deliverables and impacted greatly on production.
6. General distrust in company communication which led to a disengaged workforce. This was evident in the little or no response given when management asked for feedback.

The Adjustment Bureau was contracted to deliver a once off high impact industrial theatre piece which would highlight all the key themes as per the client challenges.
It is not possible to measure sustainable change when there is only one engagement/intervention. One can merely measure the success on the day of that single event. Our outcomes for a single intervention differ greatly from an all-encompassing rollout. This does not mean, that change does not happen, it does however impact on the longevity of it.
Our once off industrial theatre session focussed on creating an understanding of each other’s worlds. This included also depicting what the strategic business construct of the organisation was and what greater part of that was expected from a compliance perspective. Emphasis was put on creating a sense of individual inclusion within such a diverse setting.

Our solution provided our client with and led them to achieve the following over our 18-month programme;
1. 85% Response rate on our feedback section. This was unusual for this organisation and it speaks of the safe psychological space which were created during our facilitation. Employees felt comfortable to air their views and offer their input and suggestions.
2. Audience feedback indicated that they understand the reason for the transformation strategy better and offered suggested ways of improving the current implementation thereof.
3. Employees committed to creating an environment of knowledge share vs knowledge defending to increase productivity.
4. Both the local and international leaders committed to be more transparent and supportive of the workforce experience of the organisational culture is.
5. Teams undertook to create a more inclusive environment so it can become a more profit-share effort vs each man for himself. Productivity was increased and previously inaction curved to active invested participation.