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Encorage people to make suggestions

In this Education Innovation posting, the assembly lines of GM and Toyota are compared. The following is written about the Toyota assembly line:
"The Toyota assembly line was drastically different. Employees were regarded as members of a team, and each team member was considered as an important contributor and given a high level of autonomy. What happened if an employee stopped the line? A pleasant “ding-dong” would sound and teams would carefully study what was going on, in an effort to continually improve the process. Line workers were constantly encouraged to make suggestions."

To what degree are employees at the company, you work for, encouraged to make suggestions, for example using a blog?
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Comments

Ben Simonton said…
It is not just the ability to make suggestions. It is about a strong sense of ownership of the work and Toyota allows each employee to develop that by treating them as very valuable. Toyota's people have the right to stop the line, quite a demonstration by management that employees are trusted and valuable team members.

There are many other ways Toyota does this, but the key is that they don't use the traditional top-down command and control approach to managing people, actually its opposite. Top-down disrespects, demotivates and demoralizes employees and Toyota has the opposite effect on employees.

To learn more about the right and wrong ways to manage people, please read these Leadership Articles starting with the article "Leadership, Good or Bad".

Best regards, Ben
September 19, 2008
Management Warrior said…
In Today's rapidly changing technology, adapting to new demands is an important mechanism for both personal and organizational survival. Individuals and groups that do it well seem to be more successful than those that resist and accept the inevitable slowly.

"Change Management Strategies: 6 Ways to Take Your Organization to Next Level"

Source:
Change Management Strategies
Business Articles
September 19, 2008
Unknown said…
Thanks very much both of you for your comments and links.
September 19, 2008
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