Building a Culture of Agility and Self-Leadership in a Just-in-Time Industry
wol customer stories
Building a Culture of Agility and Self-Leadership in a Just-in-Time Industry
How a corporate learning expert empowers employees to take initiative and collaborate across locations, divisions, and hierarchy levels
IT’S A CHALLENGE to balance the operational demands of systems, standards, and routines with the market demand for innovation. Organizational development leader Katja Völcker describes this challenge at Blum, a 9,000-person company that manufactures furniture fittings. “For a manufacturing company, it’s important to have stable pro- cesses, with zero mistakes going outside of the company. At the same time, we need a lot of experimentation, learning, and ad- justing to how the world is changing,” she says. “In the one world, we need to be absolutely sure about what we’re doing, and in the other we need to be very open, very resonant—and it must be okay to make mistakes and learn from them... so long as you are not ‘learning’ in live production.” Working within Blum’s International Consulting group, Katja is in a perfect position to introduce a more flexible mindset into the larger Blum Group. “Blum is a very traditional, family-run business with a long-term entrepreneurial focus. Safeguarding the company for the people who work for and with us is our explicit goal. That’s why Blum invests a lot in people and in coordinating employee de- velopment efforts.”
Supporting growth and agility within manufacturing requires a lot of trust and a lot of communication. “I think perhaps why companies
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5 Facts About Katja Völcker
struggle with experimentation is because we need a lot of time to think things through before we put anything at risk. We need to be aligned with lots of people in different functions in the value chain,” she says. All of that coordination can slow things down and prevent people from even seeking solutions. To speed things up, you need diverse networks of strong relationships—and lots of them. “There needs to be as little ‘us’ and ‘them’ as possible,” says Katja. And so she aspires to shape what lead- ership means at the company—and to empower everyone globally to connect, contribute, and cooperate. Three Key Skills for Individuals and Teams The trick, Katja adds, is to enable that “we” feeling without falling into groupthink. To guard against this dreaded creativity killer, she seeks out em- ployee development programs that can foster three fundamental qualities in teams. “It’s critical thinking, it’s following through with goals, and then the third part is being open to feedback.” But, she notes, none of these factors can survive if your workforce is not well aligned through trusting relationships. “That’s the social part: you need to know when it’s the right time to stand up, to show initiative against the main- stream. And you need to be able to ask: ‘Am I still right? Do I need to adapt my goal?’ You can only do this if you are very open to feedback, and closely connected to others.” Part of that balance is also thinking small. “We often talk about baby steps,” says Katja. “If you are constantly communicating, none of your steps will be too big for others to follow, or to provide feedback.” She believes that’s where the mindset
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1. I’m German and I emigrated to Austria. (That’s two facts, but I’ll say it’s one.) 2. I studied management and economics, and today I work in organizational development and corporate learning. 3. Before joining Blum, I helped found Zeppelin University in Germany. 4. I am married, with two cats and no kids. 5. I love hiking and going to the mountains, and so I am very happy to live where I do in Austria.
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of Working Out Loud kicks in: the structured exer- cises not only help Blum employees learn to give and receive feedback, they also show each partic- ipant the power of micro-experimentation—mak- ing small changes over time. Cultivating Initiative and Self-Leadership in Employees Building out those three foundations of inno- vation isn’t just an end in itself for Katja—it’s also a means to a larger goal: company-wide self-leadership. “When an employee of a given company feels disengaged, their evaluation of ‘how I’m being treated’ will very likely be negative. This is so com- mon that you have many people thinking they can find a ‘better boss’ somewhere else,” she says. “So that relationship—how we perceive being managed by someone, and how we treat peo- ple as managers—that needs to change.” To that end, Katja and her team have launched a series of cross-department WOL programs to inspire everyone at Blum to cooperate “at eye level” and help uncover what leadership means in the com- pany. Most importantly, she wants each manager and each employee to learn how to step forward and contribute their own unique perspective. “We need that strength and diversity,” she says. “Nowadays everything needs to be quicker and we need to make as many decisions as possi- ble in the project or close to the customer. There isn’t the time to play the hierarchy game when it comes to making decisions.” Developing Managers, Too Katja admits it can sometimes be challenging to upend an ingrained culture of centralized steering—and to change people’s idea of what
leadership and communication can look like. WOL Circles have been an invaluable tool in opening up that discussion—even if she occasionally faces some initial resistance. “There are some who say, ‘I am an experienced manager, and you want me to spend 12 weeks chitchatting and learning how to reach out to people? I know how to do that,’” she says. “And I tell them, ‘Yes, you probably do, but there will be something you learn if you pay attention. There is a lot more in this company if you are open to letting go of your own perspective and listening to what others have to say.’” And so Katja made WOL part of talent devel- opment, integrating it into the International Leadership Network she runs. When managers participate and experience new pathways for per- sonal and professional growth, they are in a much better position to support that same growth in their teams. This is critical for improving retention and engagement, a challenge for almost every company. “Losing someone—losing that experi- ence, knowledge, engagement, everything—is ex- pensive. So we actually try to hire people for a life- time. We look at it like it’s like a lifetime agreement when you join the company.” Using peer coaching circles, Blum is able to help employees build connections across locations, di- visions, and titles while developing skills and shap- ing the culture. “WOL is a super-rich program—it has everything you need for your career,” says Katja. “There is so much for different situations that you can do it again and again.”
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Katja Völcker’s Advice for Using WOL® in Your Company
Make it part of onboarding. “WOL is part of our onboarding paths. We suggest it for newbies: if you are new in the company, here is something for you to build your network. Or if you have a new job, a new task, or new role, here is a way to learn more about this new environment.” Connect locations and divisions. “We want more decentralized leadership and decision-making in our 32 worldwide subsidiaries. WOL Circles were our way of bringing the subsidiaries together in the International Leadership Network so they can bond and form relationships, and learn together how to lead without waiting to be told by headquarters what to do. It has been a way to bring in more self- leadership, more delegation from the center to the subsidiaries, and to help the subsidiaries network with each other.” Make it widely available. “We started with WOL to build our international leadership network, then I learned that a colleague here in Austria was using WOL in the engineering department for knowledge management. So we joined forces and now we have mixed Circles that are open to everybody across the whole company. You don’t need to be in a special position.” Use multiple methods. “We alternate and have different programs that people can choose from, including WOL for Teams and WOL Resilience. In one year you might do the classic Circles program, and then two years later you might do something else. And then along with our WOL programs we have ongoing community management with lots of networking and co-creation activities, as well as leadership education offerings for colleagues to get involved in.”
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