Claudia against the machine

This is a true story. The names of the people have been changed.

Claudia is happy

She has a secure job in a solid company. She works part-time so she also has time for her family. She has been working for this company for many years, and has a lot of experience. Claudia is responsible for checking, and archiving the contracts she receives from agents, and branches. She has the responsibility of being on time at the end of the month, with all the contracts archived in order to calculate commissions, and pay agents. Claudia is happy, and Claudia's boss is happy.

The machine

In the company, a project starts to make archiving contracts more efficient. The goal is to save the work of one person. This person is Claudia's colleague. The project involves programming a machine that will automatically read contracts, archive them, and calculate commissions.

The machine is made by an external company, which programs it, fine-tunes it, and delivers it. Claudia's workmate tests the machine, and signs the delivery report, declaring that it works perfectly.

The nightmare

The machine is installed in Claudia's office, and she starts using it. Claudia discovers that the machine is not at all wonderful: in fact, it refuses to accept half of the contracts, and spits them out. If she wants to be on time, and archive everything by the end of the month, then she has to enter half of the paperwork that comes in by hand, and she has to stay longer at work.

She starts accumulating overtime hours, because the machine only works half the time, and her boss is not happy. The management has given her boss the goal of reducing overtime hours, which are increasing instead. The agents are not happy. Their compensation is tied to the archiving of contracts, and some contracts are archived late.

Claudia suffers because she perceives the resentment of her boss, and the agents, and she feels guilty because she has less time for her family.

It's not a job anymore, it's a nightmare! Claudia tries to explain that it's not her fault, that it's the machine that doesn't work. They should call the company that made it, and fix it or destroy it! But her boss replies that the machine was tested by her colleague, and that it worked perfectly, and that in any case a budget would be needed to involve the supplier. Claudia must stop complaining, and archive the contracts on time without working overtime.

The challenge

One day, Stefania, the human resources manager, contacts Claudia to tell her that she has been chosen for a special project. She is not compelled to participate, but Stefania would like Claudia to speak with the project coordinators for half an hour, and then decide what to do. Claudia already has a lot to do, thanks to the damned machine, but she doesn't feel like saying no, and accepts to commit to this half hour.

On the day of the video call, she meets the two coordinators, who tell her that the project goal is to eliminate something that bothers her at work. They will help her, along with other colleagues. Each person will be responsible for solving their problem. Is there anything she would like to get rid of?

"Of course there is," Claudia thinks, "the damned machine!" And so she decides to participate in the project.

The start

On the day the program starts, Claudia gets in a classroom where she finds ten of her colleagues, and the two people she had spoken to before starting. She greets them, and finds a seat a bit off to the side to avoid attracting attention. In the meantime, a human resources person has arrived who presents the project, and explains that it is important to management, and that it represents an opportunity for each of them. She has heard this speech a lot of times, but things have never changed much, so she doesn't have much faith.

Then the project begins, and they talk about why there are obstacles, and problems in companies, and the two trainers promise to help them all in changing something, and removing at least one problem. They say they have already done it before, and Claudia doesn't know if she should give them the benefit of the doubt. And then they distribute large sheets of paper with diagrams drawn on them, and ask everyone to write a list of the things that annoy them at work, and that they would like to change or eliminate.

Claudia should write a dozen things that annoy her, but she can only think of the infernal machine. Only by making an effort can she list four things.

The solution

Everyone has chosen which of the things they listed they want to change or eliminate: they can choose only one thing. For Claudia, this is not a problem, and she begins to follow the instructions they have given. They must write what the effects of the problem they have chosen are ,and what the causes are that led to the situation.

Claudia knows this very well! It's easy! The effects are that she has to stay at work longer, and that the contracts are registered late, and the cause is the machine that was put there to save time, and effort, but that does not work!

Finally, it is time to design the solution to the problem. And Claudia lists all the advantages, and disadvantages of the automatic machine, and writes down all the things that can be done to change the situation, and get out of the nightmare. She is very happy, and satisfied because she came up with some brilliant ideas, and seeing them all written down nicely makes her feel good. It is easy to understand why they are good ideas, and Claudia can't wait to put them into practice!
She is starting to think that she will really be able to get rid of the machine, go home on time, and get rid of her boss, and the agents.

Resistance to change

But now she doesn't understand what they want to do! They asked her to put on a map all the people who will be affected by the changes she wants to make: who will be favourable, who will be against, who is inside the company, and who is outside.
It is a difficult, and a bit disheartening exercise. There are many people who have no intention at all letting things change, and only a few who could be favourable.

They also ask her to choose who are the most important characters, in order to put her new ideas into practice. Claudia chooses: her boss, the company that created the machine, and the agents. She has to use a sheet with a character drawn for each of the people she has chosen. She has to write what they want, what their goals are, what they are afraid of ...

While she is doing this task, Claudia becomes more, and more pessimistic, and no longer believes that it will be easy to get rid of the machine. She does not have the authority to force people to accept doing the things that are needed, and she does not have the money to pay for the modifications to the machine. She is really afraid that her solution will remain on paper!

Claudia leaves the first day of the project in the classroom a bit disappointed. Even though she is happy because she has managed to clarify how she could beat the machine, she has doubts because she does not believe that it will be possible to make the company accept a proposal for change. They have given her the task of refining the work she did in the classroom for the following week because the two trainers will contact her to discuss the progress she has made.

Economic sustainability

Two weeks have passed since the last project classroom. Claudia refined the things she had done the previous time, and she has found some new ways that could fix the machine, but she does not know how she will be able to put her ideas into practice.

This session begins with a lesson on the break-even point. Claudia learns to calculate the cost of one hour of her work. She calls a colleague she knows to understand the cost of IT work. During the week, she realized that part of the machine's problems are due to some contracts poor image quality she receives from the agents, those with old scanners. So she searches for scanner prices online.

With the help of the two trainers, Claudia calculates how many hours of work could be saved if the machine worked properly, and she is able to find out how much the company would save in a year: €14,000. Her colleague has estimated that the machine modification intervention could cost €8,000, and the annual maintenance around €700. As for the new scanners, she can make sure they are paid for by the agents. This makes her feel a little better because she knows that it is easier to make things happen in the company, when the numbers are on your side.

Claudia is very satisfied because before she did not know how to do these calculations and she thought they were much more difficult. Now that she knows how to do it, she could think of applying this reasoning to other situations at work.

Persuading

Now the two trainers have finished explaining a very long part: how to persuade. Claudia is very excited because she had never heard the things they were telling before, and while they were telling her she was thinking about how she could use them with her son, her husband, her mother, and her boss. She had never thought about putting things that way when she wanted to convince others, and what she had just learned changed everything.

But now, it was up to her. She had to write the whole plan to persuade her boss into approving the application of her ideas, give him the elements to convince the boss of her boss, and get the agents to buy new scanners. Claudia works like a dog, and has to make many corrections. She also checks the diagrams of the main characters to keep in mind what they want, what they don't want, and what scares them, as the two trainers told her to do, but it is still a tough job. They correct her plan several times, but Claudia is happy because it is becoming increasingly clear that it will be possible to make the company fix the machine, and free her from the nightmare.

The Decision-Makers

Two weeks have passed, and Claudia has worked on a presentation that puts into practice her plan to convince the company to fix the machine problem. She had two video calls with the two trainers who helped her to put the plan, and the presentation in order. She also had some doubts, and wrote to the trainers who helped her to overcome the moments of blockage.

Claudia is nervous, and a little bit afraid because she doesn't know if she will be able to convince her boss, and it is important to her that the machine is fixed. In addition, Stefania, the human resources manager who invited her to participate in the program, will also be present at the meeting.

Despite all her doubts, however, the meeting went very well. Her boss immediately understood that Claudia's proposal would allow him to reduce overtime hours, which is one of the goals that the company has given him. So he agreed to implement her proposal to fix the machine, and in a few months they will be finished.

Claudia is relieved, and sees the end of the nightmare. She will be able to stop working overtime, and take care of her family as she wishes, and the agents, and her boss will stop being angry with her. In fact, it seemed to her that now her boss considers her in a different way, and she also feels different, more confident because she managed to convince the company to change!

Conclusions

Claudia was demoralized, and had distanced herself from her work, which no longer engaged her. In fact, her work situation was causing her suffering, and was becoming unbearable. Claudia had lost hope, and went to work every day feeling a weight. This situation could only worsen with increasing tensions with her boss, and the agents.

By participating in the Re-Powering project, Claudia discovered that she had the ability to change things, to take the initiative, and to convince the company to change. Claudia was able to solve her problem, thanks to her commitment, experience, and creativity. She followed a method, but no one told her how to overcome her problem, she did everything herself. Claudia produced an economic advantage for the company of €6,000 for the first year, and €58,000 over five years. Most importantly, she regained motivation for her work, and took a weight off her shoulders. This improved the relationships with her manager, and the climate in her office.

The company, an important Italian banking group, recovered a person with years of experience, recovered productivity, and decided to have Claudia participate in a program to learn how to transfer her knowledge to colleagues, especially younger ones. Claudia learned that change is difficult, but possible with commitment, intelligence, and respect for the needs of others, and she will be able to share her experience.

The two trainers who took care of Claudia, and who are proud of what she has accomplished are Alessandro Poerio, and I. If you want your people to have the same experience as Claudia, contact us. Don't waste time because demotivation, and resignation are contagious, and the sooner you address them, the less damage they will do.