Automotive plants generally suffer from a lack of teamwork due to the division that production lines create. This can lead to high turnover, lack of work morale, and poor team performance. Leadership wanted to proactively counteract this and address cultural differences between employees, before communication breakdowns and misunderstandings occurred. They strived for a shared vision among staff and leadership.
— General Assembly General Manager, KIA Motors Mexico
To get to the core of the problem, key stakeholder interviews were conducted with department managers.
These individuals—some from headquarters in South Korea, some local Mexicans—were experiencing team issues firsthand. They offered valuable insight that would be the key to developing an effective solution.
The interviews uncovered three major areas that had to be addressed:
Long-lasting and sustainable solutions require buy-in from management. An executive team alignment session was held to get consensus on the core issues and to discuss strategies before working with the teams on the ground.
Our consultants debriefed Global Team Assessment results with department heads, providing valuable insight into the struggles their teams faced. Together with our consultants, the executive team developed ways to create visible leadership support for this new initiative.
Having leadership work together to uncover team issues and encourage team discussion was the first step in creating a foundation of trust. The Driving Team Performance workshops were customized to the needs of 21 different departments and occurred over a span of seven months. Two Aperian Global facilitators with English, Spanish and Korean skills led each workshop with the assistance of a Korean manager and a Mexican manager.
Facilitators opened up a conversation on specific cultural challenges that teams faced. Teams were able to discuss the different sides of the issues and brainstorm ways to mitigate these problems. Leadership led by example and demonstrated how both cultures can work together harmoniously.
Once teams were able to discuss problems openly and think about solutions, they were tasked with a team-building exercise: to develop a shared vision for their department. Team members had to communicate and collaborate to come up with their vision. While doing this exercise, they were able to discuss and realign their goals as well.
The Driving Team Performance workshops closed with action planning that put team solutions into practice. It allowed managers and team members to consider challenges that will come up in the future, and how to effectively tackle issues as a team with a committed strategy.
Out of 400 Driving Team Performance workshop participants:
The project placed as a top 12 winner in the contest “Change and Innovation Leaders Award” hosted by multinational conglomerate company Hyundai Motors Group.
The workshop helped open team members’ minds to change the way we work.
— Driving Team Performance Workshop Participant
This experience allowed us to achieve agreements like a solid team.
— Driving Team Performance Workshop Participant
Global Team Assessment is the best. To know the situation is the key to solving the problem.
— Driving Team Performance Workshop Participant
