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).
|
10 Nov 1986
To:
Dear Friends
I suppose
this is because
-
they know
they have got a bad habit
-
they feel
guilty about it
-
they wish to
hide this fact from others
but perhaps
the most important reason could be
- they do not wish to be influenced by others (in getting
rid of the habit ?)
From time-to-time, I keep getting anonymous letters.
Some are not worth
printing but some
do contain useful suggestions - and that is when I
wonder,
Those
employees - who have such useful
suggestions to make -why don't they mention their names ? Why do
they choose to remain anonymous ?
In fact some
of these letters end as follows, "I am choosing to remain anonymous for
obvious reasons".
Unless the
reason is that you,
yourself know that your complaint is really
not true or that
your suggestion is really not
practical,
and
therefore you do not wish to
be influenced (?) by the
reality/the truth I (which you achieve by not
giving your name )
Let us
look at the following
anonymous letter which
I received a few weeks ago.
"HCP
This is to bring to your notice that whenever we go to
the PAC
Dept. for
any clearance i.e. Travel, Telephone Bill, Motor Car Mileage Claim
etc., we do not get the
clearance immediately or even on
the same day. We are
asked to come the next day
or after two days.
This is may be due to
clearance clerk being heavily loaded.
But because
of this we are losing lot of man-hours.
We
hereby request you to please look into
this matter and save valuable
man-hours. This may
contribute to the Economic Drive.
Thanks
Yours
sincerely,
An employee
"
I sent it to
Mr. Deosthalee whose reply I reproduce below :
"We normally
clear the papers on the same
or next
day depending on the volume. Staff members need not come to PAC for collecting the papers.
Papers can be sent to them
in mail and they can get payment
from the nearest cashier, if there are
specific cases of delays
we can sort them out personally. "
But if the
sender reads this reply and is not
satisfied with it, what will he do ? Send another anonymous letter ?
And then
what do I do? Send out another circular
?
How long can
we keep playing this game ? In fact, we should not
be playing this
game at all.
Those who wish
to influence others must give their
names and be willing to enter into a face-to-face
dialogue. Others too, must get an
opportunity to influence
them I Otherwise the game
is unfair - and that is why I normally do not reply anonymous letters.
If we are
honest in our intentions, we need not fear.
If our "beliefs" are based on concrete facts, we
need not fear. If we are willing to trust our co-employees, we need not fear.
H.C. PAREKH
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