Synopsis: Communication For Productivity
Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers /
Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 -
1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open /
honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between
Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year
(ave).
|
21 Feb 1985
To:
Dear
Colleague
These are days
of "instant-everything" - instant
coffee, instant music (computer -
created), instant baby (test-tube
version ?), instant
health (Sheri-Louise),
instant death (Bhopal) and even
Instant Industrial – Relations ! .
That is the
feeling I got the other day when I was
one of 13 speakers at an
Industrial Relations Seminar
(they always have "new
dimensions" - I wonder what happens to
the old dimensions ?). Were it
not for the thoughtful absence of some of the speakers, the remaining speakers would have got only
sufficient time to say,
"It is
good to have industrial-relations and it
is better to have good industrial-relations. Thank you !."
But then
there are sufficient
people (with more
than sufficient company-money) in a city like Bombay, who are all too eager to listen to a lot of jargon in the fond hope of becoming instant IR experts in the course of one day !
What a sharp
contrast to know that the personnel
managers of Toyota company
"began
a pilgrimage in 1952, to talk with employees in small discussion-groups, at their homes,
after work-hours, in an attempt
to re-establish mutual dialogue.
On an
average, they made three visits a night, coming home after nine o'clock, six days a week ...... The two managers had to continue their itenerary for ten years, before they were convinced that their mission
was finally completed".
Ten years,
9000 families, one hour with each family
'. - all to re-establish mutual dialogue !
In the
enclosed article on
"Industrial Relations in Japan" ,
you will
come across many examples of the Japanese tenacity when it comes to building trust between groups of employees - by whatever name
called.
A few months back,
MR. MISU, one-time director
of HITACHI, said,
"As
individuals, Japanese people are not
very brilliant. We have won only 4 Nobel-prizes in
all these years against 109 won by
the Americans. But
when it comes
to working collectively as a
team, we are almost unbeatable !"
I would request
you to pass-on this
article to as many supervisory persons in your
department as you can -
just anyone who says he has not read
it. Some of them, who might still be
around in Powai, in the year 2001 A.D., might want to start their own
"pilgrimage" now !
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