ENSCI-Les Ateliers Mastère specialise Innovation by Design (2011) MÊmoire
What happens when employees take ownership of their workplace?
By Paula Aitkenhead New Edition March 2013
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What happens when employees take ownership of their workplace? workplace?
0. Introduction
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1. What led me to believe that culture is the starting point
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2. A Great Place to Work - Cool Sites
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3. The impact of collective wellbeing on innovation
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4. Research & Reading discoveries
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5. What happens when employees take ownership of their workplace? My Conclusion.
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Annexes:
41 1. The Cool Tools 2. The history of Schneider Electric 3. 10 years of Company Programs 4. Connect – The program of today
42 51 52 54
Acknowledgements
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Introduction
To begin my mémoire, I am going to take you through a journey and show you how I came to believe that a Company’s culture is the starting point of innovation. I will give you a bit of my background in the Schneider Electric company and how I landed in my current role as “Cool Sites program Global Manager”. I will then explain what the Cool Sites program is about, where it came from, where it is heading, our philosophy behind it. We will discover to what extent the creation of an internal company program can impact the people who work there. And how masses of innovation can be the result of just two words: Cool and Sites. You will discover the impact of collective wellbeing on innovation. How out of the classic box working ethics, tools, and environment can make a change to people’s work lives, thus enhancing creativity, innovation, workplace ownership, and opening opportunities to fail faster and succeed sooner. How through living the brand we provide meaning and provide the truth of our values, giving a sense of importance to our innovators. We will take a dive into some of the sites around the world, where we will see that, given the opportunity, the people who work for an industrial giant such as Schneider Electric, when unleashed and able to bring their own ideas, can generate some impressive horsepower. We will see how they make the most of their energy, and how they are able to take existing situations and transform them into better ones. You will see examples of what a difference this program is making to the individuals, the teams, and therefore the industrial giant as a whole. I will share with you some of the books that I have read, and which have influenced or confirmed my convictions. We are going to discover together how people’s inner work life can be affected by the slightest modifications in their working environment (1) and we are going to see how a centralised company (spider) can also have a decentralised side to it (starfish) (2) We are going to concentrate on what really makes the difference in a company: PEOPLE.
(1) The Progress Principle – Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer (2) The Starfish and the Spider – Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
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To wrap up, we will review some of the major actions contributing to creativity and innovative enhancement in the workplace, and I will share with you my “next step” ideas for the Cool Sites program. In the Annex, you will find the tools that have been designed and developed around the Cool Sites program, a rapid overview of the history and culture of this Industrial Giant, Schneider Electric, along with information on the “Company Programs” initiated over the past 10 years, which have led us to the current Company Program “Connect” and its 4 themes, 12 initiatives, and 36 programs – Cool Sites, A Great Place to Work being one of those 36 programs.
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Chapter 1:
What led me to believe that culture is the starting point: The Cool Sites program started in January 2012, with just two words: Cool and Sites. I was not involved in the program in the early building stages, as I was in another role in Schneider Electric, working in the Industrial Design & Ergonomics department as back-office project manager.
You may be wondering why, during an “Innovation by Design” Masters at a Design School such as ENSCI, I would move from the heart of innovation and design in an industrial giant to a company program “project”.
The answer is simple. From all that I heard during the classes, the different positions taken, and the mind-opening in-class discussions, as well as from the books I read, I experienced a huge transformation in my mind, or maybe not so much a transformation as a confirmation of my convictions.
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A bit about me I started with Schneider Electric in 2003 as a Personal Assistant to the Senior Vice President in the Strategy and Acquisitions department. As such, I witnessed the acquisitions of many huge companies, the bending and working on the company’s long-term strategy and, to my dismay, I also witnessed the silent suffering of the employees in these recently acquired companies.
I witnessed our strategy going from “let them keep their name and culture” to “they are part of Schneider Electric, so they will bear our name” (One brand strategy). I witnessed the efforts made by Schneider Electric when they set up a postacquisition integration process. But there was still silent suffering. I’m convinced that many innovative sparks and key people were lost during these times.
I was later offered the position of Personal Assistant to an Executive Committee Member. Christian Wiest. Christian was at the time in charge of the Europe Operating Division (45 000 Headcount), then the International Operating Division IOD (20 000 Headcount mostly in emerging markets) where I was promoted to the role of Internal and Managerial Communications Manager. However, less than a year later my inner work life satisfaction took a dive.
The division I was part of merged to become a new one: EMEAS (Europe, Middle East, Africa, South America). My job was taken by another manager who was in a better geographic position. I suddenly found myself in a situation similar to employees in acquisition takeovers, and I experienced the side effects of reorganisation plans of large companies. I experienced how they can transform the wellbeing of people, and ultimately, the broader motivation of the staff. My motivation levels plunged, the desire to go the extra distance dwindled away, and driving to the office in the morning became an effort.
I was not abandoned. I continued to work for Christian Wiest, we made a great team, and I wanted to and agreed to accompany him to his retirement (December 2011). Christian then built up the Customers & Alliances division, taking care of the top Schneider Electric clients and distributors. It is at this time that I was offered the role of Back Office Project Manager for the Industrial Design & Ergonomics division (under Strategy & Innovation) with the arrival of Frédéric Beuvry, in January 2010.
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When Frédéric Beuvry joined Schneider Electric, there was a small team of industrial designers and an ergonomist based in Grenoble, and (we later found out) about 7 or 8 designers scattered around the world, reporting to different hierarchical entities, many of whom were “acquired” with the aforementioned companies. That was all.
During my two and a half years in the design department, I witnessed and was involved in some massive movements and changes. It was exciting, challenging, interesting, and something to be very proud of. Together, we (the design team) wrote the Schneider Electric Design Notebook, a 300-page book, which was conceived from a blank piece of paper. A book written with the objective of creating a coherent and unique Schneider Electric brand design image, a book that enables Schneider Electric employees to clearly understand our brand strategy, talk about the brand’s specificity, and translate the brand’s unique personality into day-to-day actions. I found this to be a very enriching experience, and a true eye-opener.
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I learnt a lot about product design, and how good design can truly serve the consumer. I learnt about brand design and the impact that design can bring to a company’s image. I was able to grasp that good design = good business concept.
We created and implemented 4 design labs around the world: Europe design lab (in Grenoble), North America design lab (in Boston), South East Asia design lab (in Shanghai) and India design lab (in Bangalore), plus a UI/software design department. Every six weeks, we held a Design Lab review videoconference, and reviewed every design project, one by one, to ensure world-wide Schneider Electric brand design consistency. The total shift in our product and software design was/is mind-blowing! When I left the team to move to my new job, we were working on approximately 200 products, and 15 – 20 software designs.
Despite all of this innovation, the major mental shift that was happening and the design buzz within Schneider Electric, something was missing for me. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but thanks to the Innovation by Design classes, the penny dropped. Being in the Design department was all about the tip of the iceberg – product innovation, the top minimal percentage of the company. I knew that something needed to be done at the bottom end. For innovation to work, we need to touch a maximum number of people. The lower layers of Maslow’s pyramid needed some nurturing, especially if we wanted the tip of the iceberg (pyramid) to continue being fed.
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My Convictions Well-being in the workplace enables innovation. After all this experience I just described to you, I built the conviction that wellbeing in the workplace enables innovation. And that to improve wellbeing, we must change culture. So innovation is primarily based on a cultural shift. The heart of innovation starts with the people. For innovation to work, we need to touch the people. In order for people to be innovative, they need to be well and they need to believe. Well-being is everything. Well and being go hand in hand. Believing is being convinced. Believing includes appropriation. So why not start with the appropriation of one’s workplace to create one’s well-being? One’s workplace is the starting point of the company’s culture. The culture of a company is the starting point of innovation.
Joining the Cool Sites program One night in the month of April 2012, whilst on my way home from work, I received a phone call from Olivier Lizon-Tati, Global Program leader as well as Vice President Customer Relationship, France. Olivier and I knew each other from back when I first started in Schneider Electric, (and also through rugby discussions. I, being a New Zealander, am an All Blacks fan and Olivier is an avid rugby follower). Olivier explained the Cool Sites program, which was still in the process of being designed, and asked whether I would be interested in joining the team.
After all the experience I described to you previously, and with my strong attachment to the company and its people, and knowing how critical the question of culture was through witnessing so many mergers, and knowing that there was still a lot to do in order to make people feel good and motivated as part of a consistent group, I opted for joining the team.
I climbed aboard the Cool Sites program in October 2012, bringing with me my energy, enthusiasm, fresh look upon the program, get-things-done-no-matter-what mentality, organisational, communication, relational, animation driven, managerial, and back-office skills, pragmatic Kiwi culture, and love and desire for the well-being of our employees, and the ultimate goal of enabling flowing innovation within this industrial giant via two words. “Cool” and “Sites”. -8-
So, when I started this fabulous adventure, Olivier trained me up on what had been done so far, what was in the process of being done, and handed me the reins. Excellent for me, especially knowing that the program was still in its teething period, and many, many things were yet to be thought of, designed, developed, and deployed.
Concretely, what do I do in the Cool Sites program as Cool Sites Global Manager? On a global basis (world-wide), I manage and animate the Cool Sites community via a social enterprise desktop program, webinars and conference calls. I determine and drive the KPIs and objectives and help to deploy them world-wide. I design, develop, and implement/deploy new ideas, new tools, and new strategies. I also manage the back-office side of the program from A to Z using complex dashboards, a repository on-line tool, and some common sense. I am also key contact for reporting (Executive level, zone level, country level, hierarchical entity level), and I determine and manage the Cool Sites budget. I like to think of it as running my own business in some ways, with the immensely pleasurable opportunity of being coached by top executives as the program and I develop together.
The melting pot culture This program “Cool Sites” is about refocusing Schneider Electric’s culture. Schneider Electric, which came from a foundries background in 1836, and then moved on to being armament specialists, electrical motor manufacturers and power station and electric locomotive equipment providers in the first half of the 20th century, is a company that has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 177 years.
Schneider Electric has changed its strategy and positioning numerous times, each time acquiring companies aligned with the new strategies and market positioning. Companies such as Telemecanique, Square D, and Merlin Gerin are typical of the time when the Group focused on the electrical industry back in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Then Lexel was acquired with the development of Installation, Systems and Control. Next, there was a huge period of organic growth during which the Company added UPS, movement control, building automation and security to their list of competencies by acquiring other giants such as: APC (USA), Clipsal (Australia), TAC (Sweden), Pelco (USA), Xantrex (Canada). 5 giants, 5 diverse cultures, 4 countries. And it doesn’t stop there. Schneider Electric, a visionary and strategic force, then went on to develop the Smart Grid with the acquisition of Areva T&D in 2010, and -9-
more recently, in 2011 when the Group reached the landmark of €20 billion sales, it continued its external growth by acquiring Summit Energy (USA), Luminous (India), Leader Harvest Power Technologies (China), and Telvent (Spain). What a melting pot of innovative competencies, nationalities and cultures!
Now that you’ve got a bit of background about me, and an outline of my role within Cool Sites, let’s move on to the crux of my subject: the Cool Sites program….
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Chapter 2:
A Great Place to Work – Cool Sites The Cool Sites program results from the creation of the Schneider Electric company program, “Connect”(6) launched in January 2012. One of the major axes of the program is called “Connect People”. Within that axis, we have “Engaging Workplace” and this is where we find “A Great Place to Work – Cool Sites”. This is massive! This is inspiring. This is going to change the culture within Schneider Electric. The culture of a company is the beginning of innovation! Just think, a worldwide program in an industrial giant with approximately 120 000 employees, evolving around people and their workplace. In my mind, there is no doubt that this program is going to drive masses of well-being and energy, enabling an abundance of innovation throughout Schneider Electric, beyond our wildest dreams!
Cool Sites has been designed to take care of the “soft side” of our company – the people and their well-being. It’s about “making it more human”, a program to push innovative and distinctive actions for employees at each site level, a program to recognise and encourage progress made at a country and site level. This program is not a new certification for the “hardware” of our locations, or a new sophisticated - 11 -
“corporate” reporting tool, or a program to replace the existing programs (driving Employee Net Promoter Score, Working Conditions, Safety, Environment, on Sites Solutions, Real Estate… improvements?). And it is definitely not a way to assess managerial performance (the scope is a site – an existing tool known by the name of One Voice is used for assessment of people satisfaction as an employer of choice). By all of the above, you can also see that the Cool Sites program is not competing with Managerial, or HR situations/problems/issues – it is a totally different topic.
The Cool Sites ambition is that by the end of 2014, we want 80% of our employees in each country to be impacted by this program. To put this into a few figures for you, this means approximately 300 sites in 60 countries and around 100 000 employees.
As our Executive Sponsor, Laurent Vernerey would put it, “The intent of the “Cool Sites program” is that each work place is a place which is attractive, inspiring, energizing for our employees. We want our employees to like coming to work, to feel that their place is special, with a distinctive – light – atmosphere.”
Our philosophy When the Schneider Electric “Connect” company program was launched in January 2012, all initiatives and programs were fairly well defined, most being follow-on from the previous “One” program – all except for a program which consisted of two words: “Cool” & “Sites”. Nothing had been defined, nothing had been determined; everything had to be designed from scratch.
After much deliberation, brainstorming, and head-banging, a few things became somewhat clear:
This is a people program – it’s about the “soft” side (making it more human, pushing innovative and distinctive actions, encouraging and recognising), not the “hard” side (certifications, reporting tool, managerial performance tool…). This program must touch a maximum of Schneider Electric employees on a worldwide basis.
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This program is to be a bottom-up program. Appropriation on behalf of our employees is essential. So now that we know that the intent of the “Cool Sites program” is that each Schneider Electric work place be a place which is attractive, inspiring, and energizing for our employees, what are the expected outcomes? •
We expect to enhance better collaboration, which means breaking the silos, thus enabling the specialised business units to work together as one team.
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We expect to enable our employees to experience Schneider Electric products & solutions, thus enabling full appropriation of “what we are working for, and working towards”.
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We expect our Schneider Electric work places to be distinctive! This means creating a “village” aspect and site dynamics – once again, a bottom-up appropriation of the work place.
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We expect to unleash innovation in a fun and unique manner.
How do we organise it as a bottom up program? For a site or work place to be qualified as “Cool”, it must first of all receive approval from the residents who work there: bottom up program!
What is the procedure / what are the qualifications for a site to be deemed “Cool”?
To start off, there are three prerequisites for which the site must receive approval by the residents: •
Safety (do our employees feel that their site is safe?)
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Working Environment (are our employees satisfied with their
working
environment?) •
Global Satisfaction (would our employees say that they are in a GREAT PLACE TO WORK?)
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And then we have the three levers: •
Animation & Events - come together to celebrate & interact beyond just business. Examples of these animations and events are: Business related: Product launch, BU week, Electric Vehicle day, Leadership Forum Market Place, LifeSpace products sales to residents, Local Site Solutions Tour, creating an internal event in parallel to an external one. People, Communities, Planet related: Luli, Green Week, Family Days, giving a day of labour to society (helping students in difficulty,…), Employee clubs (Hiking, biking, fishing…).
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Services (develop time saving, local services in order to make life more convenient for our residents). Examples: Concierge: Laundry, Shoe repair, Sewing, Car wash, Car Technical control, Oil change. Food & Beverages: Restaurant, Lounges, Cocktails & parties, Mobile Coffee, Fast-food, Take Away, Cafeteria, e-shopping with local delivery, Fresh bread delivery. Well-being: Gym, Music room, Hair salon, Beauty salon, Electric Vehicle rental and Car-pooling.
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Experience our Schneider Electric products & solutions: Our Solutions are … the ones that we sell! They are the ones implemented. People must be made aware. We have to make our people experience them, like we do it for customers: Low Voltage Distribution panel, supplying my floor. Medium voltage, supplying the site. Building Management Systems, monitoring the lights and HVAC of my office. Variable Speed Drives, fine-tuning the HVAC motors. Energy Measurement Systems, measuring the Energy of my Building. Electric Vehicle solutions, servicing the Electric Vehicle that I drive. Solar Panels, feeding the Electric Vehicles.
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How is the site officially nominated as “Cool”? There are three main steps that a Site must follow in order to receive the Cool Sites nomination: •
The program is launched locally, and starts with a survey of site employees. So here’s the bottom-up approach.
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An assessment is conducted by the local Cool Site leader. This enhances the Site leader’s role.
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The Country President gives final approval, at the request of the Site leader should he/she consider that from the results of the residents’ survey and the selfassessment, the site qualifies as “Cool”.
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Chapter 3:
The impact of collective well wellell-being being on Innovation In releasing this human program and clearly making it a bottom-up program, i.e. the voice of the residents is heard, I have witnessed a number of phenomenal and extremely positive innovations coming from sites (the employees) all around the world!
This project is bringing tremendous changes to the workplaces. We have measured the satisfaction of employees, and to some extent the improved performance. However, these indicators are built on today’s results and talk about short term impact. I am personally much more interested in the long term impact of such actions in terms of creating the conditions for people to innovate more and faster. Here is a list of elements which have changed and been implemented in various sites and that I feel are the seeds for what the future design brief of our program could be:
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> Relax and play: innovation is about thinking different, considering multiple solutions for a problem. It demands passion, fun, engagement, and considering work as a random and exciting game more than a pure process-driven activity. Sort of “take it easy” philosophy. “People rarely succeed unless they have fun doing it” (Southwest Airlines mission statement); A couple of examples that have been implemented so far within the Cool Sites program – both coming from China: creating a “Happy corner” where the site residents can have a coffee, read, meet informally, hold fun activities and events. Creating a “laughing bar”. Laughter is a must in one’s quotidian life. Laughter works unique muscles, and also opens your lungs, heart, and mind. Laughter opens the unlimited side of your brain – the right side;
> Enhance vitality: vitality is about the mind AND the body. Innovation arises when we feel good in both, confident, ready for the challenge. By taking care of employees’ vitality, we are also reducing health risks (general fatigue, general illness, cardio issues). By introducing physical activities we are stimulating the mind and aiding the innovative mindset. A healthy body and good spirit can address challenges more easily, and with a stress free ability. Examples: replacing traditional vendor machines consisting of chocolate bars and sodas with healthy refrigerated ones, setting up a weight watchers program, organising a Schneider Striders walking group in the USA, providing employees with vitamins on a bi-weekly basis in Indonesia, initiating a “fresh fruit for all” concept once a week in Hungary;
> Take away time consuming constraints – making a difference to ones quotidian lifestyle: By not having to bother with the mundane “musts” we are able to supply more time and energy to our employees, which they can spend on relaxing, playing, enhancing their vitality, networking, cross-collaborating, reading, learning. Examples: providing a car valet and oil change service in New Zealand and in Nashville USA, a concierge in head office France that will take care of your dry cleaning, shoe repair, ironing, fresh fruit and vegetable purchases, flower purchases, administrative needs (such as change of car ownership papers);
> Merging personal and professional life: like artists, or entrepreneurs, the innovators of companies – the entrepreneurs – need to feel that they embody their values in every circumstance of their work life. Allowing the bridging of these two separated worlds is critical. - 17 -
Examples: organising a family day in a factory site in Mexico – the first in 10 years on this site, a family day in head office in France, and a “bring your kids to work” day in Hungary;
> Bringing life to the sites beyond just day-to-day business: By providing enjoyment, celebrations, animations, activities outside of the usual day-to-day business this opens doors to new ideas, creates a different sense of belonging and is a way of showing appreciation to employees. A vector for generating motivation and the will to go that extra step further. Examples: organising a competition during the Eid in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a Valentines cookies day in Egypt, New Year celebration in Algeria, and a Gangnam Style Flashmob in France;
> Creating a sense of ownership in ones workplace: A very strong vector for generating employee engagement which goes hand in hand with generating innovation. To innovate we need to feel well in our workplace, have a true sense of belonging and enhanced appropriation. Examples: residents personally redecorating the social areas of a site in Hungary, as with China and their Happy Corner, New Zealand redecorating their lunchrooms and placing plants in areas of their site that were looking a bit bland, and a site in France cleaned up the external grounds and planted trees of their own accord, with their own materials. St Louis, USA witnessed drastic improvements in their ENPS results (Employee Net Promoter Score) thanks to the Cool Sites program, in the space of one quarter. India with the launching of 8 Cool Sites did an in depth study on the meaning of employee engagement showing that not only were we looking at promoter/detractor enhancements, but employee engagement can also reduce manufacturing quality errors, enhance customer satisfaction, and result in higher profit margin growth!
> Creating opportunities for people to work together and realise their group potential in no-consequence conditions: Enabling risk taking and fast failing. Fail faster = Succeed sooner, a useful axiom amongst engineers, industrial designers, creative roles, and others. This is also a key element for breaking the silos and cultural boundaries. Failure is inevitable. The faster we move and learn through failure, the faster we find a way that works, the faster we innovate with success. Examples: North America Operations (USA, Canada, Mexico) had a workgroup of managers write a Site Leader Handbook “The Cool Sites Playbook” in order to facilitate the process and understanding for the Site Leader responsible for the Cool - 18 -
Sites program on his/her site. Houston, USA via animations and events broke the silos of their multi-branded site. The China Operations deployment team designed their own project plan. They created a project team consisting of Site Leaders, HR business partners, Global Marketing members, and so-forth;
>Live the brand, provide meaning: Prove the truth of our values so the innovators believe in the deep meaning of what he/she works for. We can all be proud! Examples: On sites around the world Schneider Electric is to monitor and reduce its energy consumption and carbon footprint thanks to their ingenious solutions. Employees are able to see and experience these showcased solutions. They can also see, experience, learn about the Schneider Electric domestic products and solutions (plugs, switches, energy efficiency solutions) and purchase them at a discounted rate. In some countries (China for example) they have showrooms on wheels (lorries) that visit the sites (manufacturing and tertiary) to enable all employees to live the brand and provide meaning of what they work for. The aforementioned examples are just a few of what I have heard, seen, witnessed. But what I have realised is that no matter where in the world these different actions are taking place within the Cool Sites program, no matter the geography, the culture, the language; the same main headings can be seen throughout. We are looking at common denominators that have emerged from this program on their own accord.
I tend to make a comparison between these examples and the co-working concept. A co-working space/lieu (La Cantine in Paris, France for example) has central values that include Openness, Community spirit, Collaboration, Durability, Accessibility. During a discussion with Antonin Torikian from faberNovel (co-founder of La Cantine), he pointed out to me that the “softâ€? values of La Cantine and the values of the Cool Sites program are very similar: Local, Events, Services‌ In fact, the coworking philosophy is to create a community with a participative mind and spirit. Put these ingredients together, and on the menu you find a hub of innovation!
I would now like to share with you in more detail some of the actions, ideas, innovations that have evolved within the sites. I will illustrate to you per site or zone, and I will let you see for yourself the impressiveness of this program and the difference that it is making to our employees on a whole, and therefore, to the wellbeing and creativity unleashing of this industrial giant - Schneider Electric.
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Nashville, USA
I spent an entire afternoon discussing, exchanging, sharing ideas with several sites based in North America. The energy and innovation levels were simply BOOMING! Here are a few examples of what I learnt from the Nashville site:
Through the Animation and Events lever, employee participation was generated, which also meant silo breaking and enhanced collaboration, which created more open-mindedness, which meant flowing innovative ideas, which means better business and happy people! (3) They introduced the idea of having a Cool Sites team of 6 people (organisation design). One person is responsible per prerequisite or lever. Following the residents’ survey that they launched in May 2012, they discovered that they were definitely NOT COOL! They implemented an action plan, and gave us some examples of their initiatives: (These are only a few of their examples).
Initiatives that brought employees to: >Live the brand, provide meaning: Lunch ‘n learns, Energy Efficiency product demonstrations, Surge protection explanations, >Bringing life to the sites beyond just day-to-day business: managing your career seminars, Olympian & swim Gold Medallist Sheila Taormina’s inspirational talk, >Enhance vitality & take away time consuming constraints: Nashville Running Company introduction, Breast Cancer Awareness, Schneider Striders Walking Group, Weight Watchers program, Music City Triathlon, Dragon Boat competition, The Amazing Survivor Race, The traditional vending machines were replaced with “healthier” refrigerated coolers. Scheduled food vendors to come on-site, for example Smoothie King, Jersey Mike’s, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Food Truck – Grilled Cheeserie..
The above actions generated masses of employee participation, and a survey score increase.
This site was deemed “Cool” in December 2012. They have their 2013 plans underway to continue and implement events, services, and to educate the residents on the Schneider Electric solutions.
By implementing the above mentioned actions the site is now providing a new and open minded environment for their employees, allowing more space for innovative driven actions.
_____________________________________________________________________________ (3)
Flourish - Martin Seligman
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Saint Louis, USA
> Creating a sense of ownership in ones workplace: Promoters rather than detractors. A very strong vector for generating employee engagement which goes hand in hand with generating innovation.
Jose-Luis Leon, the Cool Site Leader, explained to me that their ENPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) underwent drastic improvements thanks to the Cool Sites program, in the space of one quarter. This means that our employees, on that particular site, are now considered as “promoters’” rather than “detractors”, which also means that there is less risk of losing our talents, which means that the Cool Sites program is not only making a difference to individuals in their inner daily work lives, but can also be considered as a retention plan and an innovative vector.
Their 2013 Cool Sites offer is being designed around the implementation of an amenities room, wellness related events, community impact program, synergies with vendors to offer discounts to the residents, improvement of the visibility of Schneider Electric products and solutions, and the implementation of a “Schneiderized site” program! These actions fall within “Relax & play”, “Enhance vitality”, “Take away time consuming constraints”, “Bringing life to the site beyond just day-to-day business”, “Live the brand, provide meaning”.
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Detroit, USA
Detroit shared their employee engagement experience with me. This experience has proven to be “creating opportunities for people to work together and realise their group potential in no-consequence conditions”. Enhancing better collaboration and generating more energy:
The Detroit site is a field office. In order to work on the solutions gap, they decided to involve their trainees who brought massive energy and innovative ideas to the program.
Larry Kosiba, the Cool Site leader explained that “the program has generated a lot of energy, and we now consider that we are very ‘Cool’!” He went on to explain that the results from this program include higher Field Office energy, and higher levels of employee engagement. “We have organised events, we held a healthy salad days lunch [instead of the usual fry up] where each employee brought something along (enhancing vitality and brining life to the site beyond day-to-day business). There is new enthusiasm, more collaboration, and great after-hours team building that didn’t exist before!” (Merging personal and professional life).
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Houston, USA
Houston is “breaking down the silos” by “Creating opportunities for people to work together and realise their group potential in no-consequence conditions”.
Jamie Todd, the Houston Cool Site leader, explained that at first the idea of implementing the Cool Sites program was quite a challenge considering that there are many Schneider Electric “labels” working on that site: Telvent, Summit, Square D, Gentor, BMS. This mixture of labels, (or associated brands as we call them) basically meant major silos, and not much mixing.
Thanks to the residents’ survey, the Cool Sites team were able to recognise the areas in which improvement was needed, which sparked rapid implementation of a number of actions such as: Lunch ‘n learns featuring the installation of energy solutions on the site (Live the brand and provide meaning); and providing new services for the residents such as dry cleaning, car washing, oil change… (Taking away time consuming constraints).
They introduced a “Cool donation” facility, enabling the employees to make donations to charities such as “toys for tots”. They implemented an “electronic recycle day” as a sustainable development action, and a “Cool Pot Luck” whereby the residents all brought in their favourite home-made dish to share with their peers. (Bringing life to the site beyond day-to-day business).
These few actions, although looking rather minimal from the outside, created an abundance of positive energy amongst the residents of the site.
These different activities slowly chipped away at the silos and the teams are now inviting each other to their respective events – something that never happened before! The silos are broken. Collaboration is TOP! The true horsepower of the site is being unleashed. Jamie Tod then went on to tell me “We are connected as a company in a way we have never done before.”
So, here we have a site with “more energy”, “better connected”, “silo ridden”. Look at what a difference this has to make to people’s daily enjoyment of coming to work. Look at what a difference this has to make from a business perspective. Imagine the innovations that are going to be released here-forward. Watch this space!
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Budapest and Szigetszentmiklós, Hungary
“The Cool Sites program is bringing life to the sites beyond day-to-day business.” Aron Berkes, Cool Sites Hungary leader. In Hungary, the residents’ survey clearly demonstrated that there was a need to improve the quality of the social areas. As a result of this, the employees were given the opportunity to improve these areas to their own devices. They all pitched in and helped out! Painting the walls, decorating, cleaning – creating “their space”. (Creating a sense of ownership in ones workplace). Drastic improvements were also made to their working environment by creating new meeting rooms for telephone conferences. Glass walls were introduced in the open spaces to decrease noise distraction. The dressing rooms were cleaned up and modernised.
They went a step further by introducing a “fresh fruit for all” once a week initiative (Enhance vitality), as well as a “once a month” activity (Relax & Play). They set up an Olympic games broadcast to support the Hungarian Teams during the 2012 London Olympics, opened their sites and held a “bring your kids to work” day. They now organise birthday celebrations on the sites (Merging personal and professional life). These small, simple, and inexpensive changes made a vast improvement to the global work environment satisfaction levels within the site.
Social area improvements:
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India:
Creating a sense of ownership in ones workplace: Employee engagement. In India 8 sites were selected to on-board the Cool Sites program in 2012 (representing a headcount of 4,000 people).
The Cool Sites team first of all analysed the project scope and deliverables, and translated their understanding into actions. (Creating opportunities for people to work together and realise their group potential in no-consequence conditions).
To start off with, a key question was analysed. Why employee engagement? The results:
Employee engagement reduces quality errors Employee engagement reduces work related accidents Employee engagement increases customer satisfaction Employee engagement generates higher productivity and innovation Employee engagement generates higher profit margin growth A very in-depth diagnosis was implemented on the sites, which led to the creation of some mandatory actions. These actions covered merging personal and professional life, creating a sense of ownership in ones workplace, creating opportunities for people to work together & realise their group potential in noconsequence conditions.
All of the above came directly from India! None of it was Corporate top-down “you musts�. This is where I can see that every culture needs empowerment. People need to feel responsible for their lives, home, family, and workplace! (Merging personal and professional life). Independence creates innovation and right brain thinking (4). Open doors = open minds. Support for making progress in the work place is one of the major important factors (5) that can influence motivations and emotions at work, along with recognition, incentives, interpersonal support, and clear goals, by giving the opportunity to employees to take their workplace in hand, this can be seen and considered as a means of support for innovation. It is giving people meaningful work in a freelance fashion.
(4) A Whole New Mind - Daniel H. Pink (5) The Progress Principle - Teresa Amabile & Steven Kramer
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China: Creating opportunities for people to work together: The China deployment team designed their own project plan. They created a project team consisting of Site Leaders, HR business partners, Global Marketing members.
They then developed their project plan, deployment plan and communication plan. They initiated a “final ok process” meaning that the Cool Site Leader (ground level person who follows the process on the actual site) would present their Cool Site request to the Country President plus a “Cool Sites” jury and explain why he/she feels that his/her site should be deemed “Cool”. This is a huge deal in a country like China. For a manufacturing site leader to have the opportunity to present in front of the Country President is an extremely rare occasion!
Relax & Play: Creating One’s own Happiness in the Wuxi-Proface site via the creation of their very own “Happy Corner” The Wuxi-Proface site decided to take action upon an uninteresting area of their site – a hallway. Knowing that they needed a place where they could sit and read, have a coffee with a colleague, and organise social events, they came up with the idea of developing a “happy corner”. The employees took the initiative to transform this boring old hallway into a “Happy Corner” in their own innovative, costeffective manner. They created their own positive inner work life experience.
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China continued:
Some other examples coming from the 27 sites in China, in working towards fulfilling the three levers for their Cool Sites nominations, and therefore the main lines mentioned earlier in this chapter are:
Animation & Events: Sales Conferences, Quarterly Town Hall Meetings, Leadership Round-Tables, Annual Party, Employee Clubs, Outings, Charity events.
Services to the residents: Resident and guest guide, Green transportation-bicycle rental, a reading corner, health management, cafeteria/restaurant, shuttle bus, first aid box, post office facilities, ceramic cup distribution, on-site florist, Cool Site magazine, tea tasting, laughing bar, a newsletter….
Experiencing our products and solutions: A truck show (mobile showroom), Energy Efficiency showrooms, LifeSpace control rooms, they have our solutions within their lighting control in the offices, and green building solutions (used and on display)!
These pre-cited examples have all been shared as best practices amongst the sites, further enhancing innovation, silo breaking, and collaboration!
So when we a look a little closer to what’s happening in China with the Cool Sites program, once again, we are looking at empowerment and creating a sense of ownership in ones workplace.
The above examples apply to 13 commercial and 14 manufacturing sites which are seeking “Cool” status by 2014 YE, this represents an approximate headcount of 20 000 people.
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Cool Sites IS an innovation vector When speaking with the different key actors in the Cool Sites program within the countries, I note down small phrases that I hear pop-up. Phrases that make my heart leap with joy, as I witness that this Cool Sites program is improving our employees’ inner work life experience on a daily basis
(6)
along with sparking innovative actions,
thoughts and processes within our company, further to what already exists. These comments really show people’s excitement and satisfaction for the program. It changes how they perceive and experience the workplace, and their engagement to work.
“We are connected as a company in a way we have never done before” Jamie Todd, Houston TX, NA
“The program has generated massive ENPS improvement and mega communication improvement.” Jose Luis Leon, St Louis MO, NA
“We are bringing life to the sites beyond just business!” Aron Berkes, Hungary, Global Ops
“We encourage our sites to use their creativity – they have freedom to deploy and communicate. They are coming up with many innovative ideas.” Amelia, China Deployment team
“It really feels Cool to be a COOL site!!! This certification will further boost our initiatives in this direction.” Vikas Goel, Global Supply Chain, Hyderabad, India
(6)
The Progress Principle - Teresa Amabile & Steven Kramer
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“We are very happy and excited to receive this news. Now, with the official Cool site status, the Singapore team will have stronger responsibility and must process the extraordinary energy to make Schneider Electric truly a Great Place to work. To continue with this journey, we are currently reviewing proposals from the employees and at the same time, collaborating with the real estate management to make SE Singapore a fantastic ‘Cool Site’.” ANG Koon San, Country President, Singapore and Brunei
“We are excited and honored to be part of this initiative. Cool Sites has proven to be an excellent vehicle to further engage our employees, gather their feedback, and drive continuous improvements. Thanks for your sponsorship.” Steve Monteverdi, Cost Mesa, CA United States
“Myself and the team commit to develop this as the coolest site with support from all.” Shrinivas Chebbi, Exora Business Park, India
“Thank you for your congratulation mail. Your words are motivating and encouraging for keeping up with the program; I feel that this kind of program helps people feel more comfortable at Schneider, be happier and satisfied.” Alejandra Guzman, Palmas Polanco, Mexico D.F.
“On behalf of the team in CMK, ‘TERIMA KASIH!’ (translated to Thank You!) for this honour! It’s the team’s effort that made this possible! Cool Sites is a really ‘cool’ program as it cultivates the sense of passion in our team, and has made our ‘Second Home’ not simply liveable but a place we are geared up to be in daily! We are definitely proud to be part of the Engaged Schneider’s Family! Have an engaging 2013”! Jusnemanwaty Osman, Shah Alam, Slangor, Malaysia
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Chapter 4:
Research & reading discoveries I have done quite a bit of research and reading recently and have referred to my sources in the previous pages. My selection of books turned out to be fairly varied; whether related to inner work life happiness – The Progress Principle by Theresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, or Authentic happiness – Flourish by Martin Seligman, or even a bit of right-brain thinking – A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink, or for a change, The unstoppable power of leaderless organizations – The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom.
I have illustrated the parallels between The Progress Principle and the Cool Sties program throughout much of my work.
The Starfish and the Spider, and A Whole new mind also impacted and enhanced my reflections and convictions on the Cool Sites program and its drive towards innovative openings via wellbeing in the workplace. Here, I’d like to share with you why they had special influence on how I think about the Cool Sites program.
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The Starfish and the Spider -
Ori Brafman and Rod A.
Beckstrom If we take a starfish and chop off a leg, it survives, right? Even better than that, with certain starfish, you chop off a leg and it grows a new one, plus, the leg that was chopped off develops into a whole new starfish. Try doing the same thing with a spider. Chop off a leg, and it becomes seriously handicapped. Chop off its head, and it’s dead! Whilst reading this book, I often reflected on the similarities between a starfish and the Cool Sites program. I cannot see the Cool Sites program dying so easily. We learn a lot in this book about centralised organisations and decentralised organisations. “Centralised” being a spider image, and “Decentralised” the starfish.
I would like to make a comparison between the Cool Sites program and the centralised and decentralised theory. Schneider Electric is a fairly centralised organisation with decentralised tendencies, and here, within the Cool Sites program, we are looking more towards a decentralised set-up. Let me explain.
Cool Sites ideas are simply flowing from our employees. There are no specific rules as to who may or may not come out with their ideas. Employees are taking up initiatives in organising workgroups, brainstorming, and even hands-on activities such as painting walls, decorating hallways, organising and participating in fun events. So, should a specific player drop out, or leave the team, this is not going to damage the momentum of the program.
A decentralised organisation, which is equivalent to a sea full of starfish, can have a true Pandora’s box (positive) effect. Sometimes the Sites who are on-board the Cool Sites program can perform an action that may seem small or insignificant, but that turns out to have immensely positive and innovative consequences. Like small ripples on the sea making their way around the world.
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Another topic evoked in this book is peer to peer services. The Cool Sites program in some ways reminds me of P2P (Peer to Peer) services. (Craigslist, Grokster, Emule and Wikipedia for example). If you put people in an open system, they will automatically want to contribute. A great example of this is Wikipedia… within 5 years of existence; Wikipedia took off with over 1 million articles in English, and 200 languages in all – thanks to the openness of the system. Within the Cool Sites program, we have a collaborative digital tool whereby the entire Cool Sites community world-wide can contribute with their news, their quick wins, their best practice sharing. It is starting to take off, and I strongly believe that within no time at all, it will be rocketing with buzz and momentum.
The Starfish and Spider also talks about Catalysts and Catalyst situations: The Cool Sites program has a Catalysts approach. Get the thing up and running, then let it continue along its way without controlling or owning it. A catalyst is all about letting go and trusting the community. A catalyst is a person who initiates a circle and then fades away into the background. A catalyst will lead by example, but never forces views. Mary Poppins was a catalyst – she turned up in a disconnected, disjointed, dysfunctional family, got the children to behave, urged the clueless parents to pay attention to their kids. Once her goal was accomplished, she rode her umbrella into the sunset and left the family to take responsibility for itself.
Another fine example of a catalyst is Bill Wilson, who founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. Bill, an alcoholic himself, who had been informed by his Doctor that if he didn’t give up drinking, he only had 6 months left to live, decided that he could get help from other people who were in the same predicament. It’s easy to rebel against a psychiatrist. It’s much harder to dismiss your peers. And so AA was born. The organisation functions just like a starfish. You automatically become part of the leadership – an arm of the starfish- the moment you join. The one thing that remains constant is the recovery principle – the twelve steps.
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Nobody owns AA. Bill realised when the group became a huge success and people from all over the world wanted to start their own chapters that he had a crucial decision to make. He could go with the spider option and control what the chapters could and couldn’t do. Under this scenario, he’d have had to manage the brand and train applicants in the AA methodology. Or he could go with the starfish approach and get out of the way. Bill chose the latter. He let go.
The Cool Sites program has been developed, the tools are there to use, guidance is there when needed. There are 6 principal rules to follow (the 3 prerequisites and 3 levers): Ensuring safety, a good global working environment, general overall satisfaction, events and animations, services to the residents, and experiencing the Schneider Electric products and solutions. The program in itself has a deadline of 2014, but once the seeds have been planted, the program is sure to continue, and to continue growing thanks to the starfish who will ensure continuity. Schneider Electric is one massive ocean full of Cool starfish!
A whole new mind –
Dan Pink.
Dan Pink illustrates to us the six essential abilities you need to make your way across this emerging land-scape: Design. Story. Symphony. Empathy. Play. Meaning.
Now I don’t know whether or not you noticed, but in the “Services to the residents” China examples mentioned in chapter 3, you will see that one of the actions consists of a “laughing bar”. Excellent! Do you realise the impact that laughter can have on us? Let me share with you. Here I am, a Saturday morning at ENSCI, reading and working alongside my promo buddies, and, bang!, Dan Pink tells me all about it in his book, “A Whole new Mind”.
“Dr. Mandan Kataria, a physician in Mumbai, India likes to laugh. A lot. In fact, he believes that laughter can function like a benevolent virus – that it can infect individuals, communities, even nations. A few years ago he scaled back his medical practice and refashioned himself as the Typhoid Mary of laughter. His mission: to trigger an international laughter epidemic that he says can improve our health, increase our profits, and maybe even bring world peace. His means of transmission:
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laughter clubs – small groups of people who come together early each morning at parks, village greens, and shopping centres to spend a half hour laughing. Kataria’s plan to change the world by making it laugh can seem, well, laughable. But if you visit a laughter club, as did Dan Pink one damp morning in Mumbai, you can see there’s a method to his mirth.
Today about 2,500 laughter clubs convene
regularly around the world. Many of them are in India. Others have sprung up in China, and in the West – in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, and several hundred clubs in the United States.”
The fast-growing venue for these clubs is in the workplace.
“The whole purpose of laughter club is to be more playful,” Kataria told Dan Pink. “When you are playful, you are activating the right side of your brain. The logical brain is a limited brain. The right side is unlimited. You can be anything you want.”
Now let’s contrast Kataria’s movement, and the workplace laughter clubs it has spawned, with the Ford Motor Company of the 1930s and 1940s. At Ford’s River Rouge plant, laughter was a disciplinary offense – while humming, whistling, and smiling were evidence of insubordination.
As British management scholar David
Collinson recounts: In 1940 John Gallo was sacked because he was “caught in the act of smiling,” after having committed an earlier breach of “laughing with the other fellows,” and “slowing down the line maybe half a minute.” This tight managerial discipline reflected the overall philosophy of Henry Ford, who stated that “When we are at work we ought to be at work. When we are at play we ought to be at play. There is no use trying to mix the two” On the contrary to the above example with the post-Depression grimness that gripped the River Rouge plant, co-mingling work and play has become both more common and more necessary. At times, it is even an explicit corporate strategy. Take the airline business.
Southwest Airlines is one of today’s most successful
carriers, earning a regular profit while many of its competitors wobble on the edge of insolvency. The company’s mission statement offers clues to its stellar performance. It says, “People rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it” – a 180-degree turn from Ford’s mandated joylessness.
According to the Wall Street Journal, more than fifty European companies – including Nokia, Daimler-Chrysler, and Alcatel have bought in consultants in “Serious Play”.
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“The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression. To play is to act out and be wilful, exultant and committed as if one is assured of one’s prospects.” – Brian Sutton-Smith, professor of education (emeritus), University of Pennsylvania.
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Chapter 5:
What happens when employees take ownership of their workplace? My conclusion. conclusion. We are creating a new mindset and new way of working that is going to realign cultural boundaries, give a true sense of belonging, help our employees on a quotidian basis, show that we care and that we are taking care of our employees, opening possibilities to go the extra mile. All of which are vectors to creativity and innovation.
The heart of innovation starts with the people. For innovation to work, we need to touch the people. In order for people to be innovative, they need to be well and they need to believe. Well and being go hand in hand. Believing is being convinced and believing includes appropriation, which is why by creating a sense of ownership in ones workplace we are generating appropriation towards a same company culture. The culture of a company is the starting point of innovation.
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We are enabling employees to be in charge of their workplace and to create a sense of ownership, therefore taking control of a large part of their lives. People need to feel responsible for their lives, home, family, and workplace.
By creating a sense of ownership there is more buy-in to the company, more responsibility given to the employees, which generates higher satisfaction rates, which brings us to a higher retention rate. We create a mass positive energy effect.
Along similar lines, we are assisting their quotidian lives by facilitating or taking away time consuming constraints, and merging personal with professional life.
By
implementing these actions our employees have more time, more energy, and less unnecessary stress.
We are taking care of our people’s health and vitality. We are encouraging them to have some fun. A healthy mind and body mixed with a lot of laughs is an explosive cocktail to creativity and innovation. When we “feel good” we have a much larger capacity to address difficult tasks. When we are having fun, our creative side is less hindered and more efficient.
By creating opportunities for employees to work together and realise their group potential in no-consequence conditions, we are giving them the opportunity to move forward faster, fail faster, and succeed sooner. We are also breaking down the silos and enhancing cross business collaboration.
Work IS personal. People invest years of their lives in education preparing for careers. Entrepreneurs invest so much of their person, personal time, and personal being in their work that it is horribly difficult for them to let go when they sell their “body”. When looking at employees in their workplace – who, when they invest themselves in making their workplace a distinctive and engaging place to be, they appropriate this place as part of their personal selves.
Work is simply part of being human! Progress gives a personal sense of achievement. A program like the Cool Sites program at Schneider Electric is an enabler towards obtaining and achieving personal work satisfaction. And, let’s face it, by creating a distinctive – light work atmosphere in times of turmoil, this can only help and encourage employees to be further motivated, to search deeper within themselves and to free their creativity.
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Enhancing team spirit is a must when times are down. A Cool Sites achievement can have a positive counter effect on a work setback. Work setbacks are true roadblocks and cause personal uncertainty, doubt, confusion in self-sense, and can be major motivation killers! If painting a work corridor and turning it into a great place to be and to share happy, celebrating moments with colleagues can counter-act the negativity endured and produced via a personal work setback, then this is huge! Look at the difference this multiplied effect can have on a company! This is stimulating positive inner work life.
We have to ensure that positive work life experiences outnumber the bad! We recall negative incidents/actions more intensely and in more detail than positive ones, so we need to massively outnumber those negatives with positive experiences; like taking one’s workplace in hand & creating a sense of being by showcasing the company’s products and solutions, by animating the site with business and nonbusiness events, by making daily life more convenient with local services – laundry, food delivery, car washing, a nursery, and so on.
Meaningful work which triggers positive work life doesn’t have a size or scale. It doesn’t mean revolutionising the workplace; it simply boils down to feeling as if what I’ve done has some meaning to it.
Next steps to continue keeping this Cool Sites program alive, viable, innovative. We need to embed this program into the DNA of the Site Leaders for it to continue beyond 2014 (program deadline date). Actions are to be implemented. The Cool Sites levers need to be part of their daily routine. Not only will this enable longevity of the program, but it will also increase the Schneider Electric “is a great place to work” image on a long-term basis, facilitating employment attractiveness. Newly graduated engineers will be knocking on our doors to join our Cool Company!
We need to Design / implement / deploy a world-wide Cool Sites challenge by using our collaborative platform. This challenge will enhance site innovation and best practice sharing. No point in reinventing the wheel; however, the wheel can always be improved and modified for different needs. - 38 -
Creation of a “Cool Sites Scout” team. Design / train / implement / deploy. We need to create a network of Cool Scouts to take an interest in the Cool Sites program. Executives who, during their travels will visit sites and discuss with the Site Leaders, tour the sites, positively reinforce the Site Leaders, hold an event at which they formally present the Cool Sites award, discuss the distinctiveness of the site; the actions implemented around the three levers. Enhance empowerment.
Quality vs Quantity plan. We need to ensure that this program remains qualitative and not just a party program, or “chasing numbers” program. This is to be done via the Country Presidents’ implication. Also, the fact that we are now part of the Schneider Electric Planet and Society Barometer will enable us to push for the quality aspect globally, knowing that the program is going to be audited externally on an annual basis.
To sum up: I hope that you have enjoyed discovering this program and the implications behind it as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you. I am strongly convinced that this program is taking us somewhere exciting, and that the unleashing of human power and innovation is just starting. The future impacts for Schneider Electric are going to be huge. Already, at the end of 2012, just a few months after the official deployment of the Cool Sites program, we managed to touch and make a difference to over 33 000 people in 25 different countries. 82 sites in all. And this is just the beginning!
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ANNEXES ANNEXES
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Annex 1:
The Cool tools The following tools were designed specifically for this program:
The resident survey: Each site surveys its residents (paper or electronic version) based on the three prerequisites and the three levers.
The purpose of the survey is: -
to listen to the voice of the residents
-
to learn what the site residents’ values are
-
to better understand what kinds of events and or/services would make the work site more enjoyable
-
to help lead and guide the Site Teams in proposing and implementing improvements that will be valued by the residents, such as o
Stress-relievers for residents
o
Productivity improvers
The principles of the survey are: The Resident Survey is the first step of the Cool Site process: Sites Leaders have to survey the residents to launch the CS project on their Site.
The Objectives of the Resident Survey are to: 1.
Inform the residents that this program is launched
2.
Ask residents for their level of satisfaction
3.
Ask residents for suggestions of improvements and ideas
What the Sites Leaders have to do with the results: 1.
Start the self-assessment process (see the Guide for Self-Assessment)
2.
Build the action plan, based on gaps and suggestions
3.
Give residents feedback with the results and action plans
This survey has to be conducted every year: Its objectives are to show people that we care, to recap the actions performed, to re-assess the progress made, and to collect new ideas. If the score is too low, the “Cool Site” nomination is lost
The results from the surveys are collated and analysed and the average score calculated.
Then comes the Assessment form:
The average scores for the three prerequisites and three levers are noted in the “official Cool Sites assessment form”. The Site Leader, then does a self-assessment of the site, and analyses the results and gaps.
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The Self-Assessment is the 2nd step of the Cool Site process. The Objectives of the Self-Assessment are to allow the Site Leader to: - plot Resident Survey results - identify the gaps between the site leader’s view and the residents’ view - define the Action Plan on the Cool Site levers - apply (or not) for the Cool Site nomination according to the score
The Criteria to be rated in the Self-Assessment Tool are: - the 3 prerequisites from the Resident Survey - the 3 levers (Events, Services, Solutions)
If the Scores of all the criteria of the Self-Assessment Tool are: - over or equal to the minimum, the Site Leader applies for the nomination - lower than the minimum, the Site Leader cannot apply
The Cool Site nomination is confirmed by the Country President, based on: - the Site Leader’s request to apply for it, and - the results of the Assessment Tool and of the Resident Survey If the Site cannot apply or if the nomination is rejected, the Site Leader has to run the corrective actions and restart the Cool Site process. This process has to be carried out each year to reconfirm Cool Site status.
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Example of the Self-Assessment form:
The radar showing whether or not you are qualified as “Cool�
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Once a site is Cool, what happens? Recognition Once the site has analysed the results and set up further action plans, they request official confirmation from their Country President. I created and implemented a next step of recognition, i.e. once the Country President confirms their “Coolness”, they receive a message from our Executive Sponsor, Laurent Vernerey to recognise the efforts of the Cool Sites team. This message is sent to the Cool Sites Leader and the Country President (some Site Leaders have never had any form of contact with an Executive Committee member in their working career – it’s huge for them):
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I created this email which is also sent from the Cool Sites Global team to congratulate, and to give the existing tools and next steps of the program:
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Due to the Schneider Electric strategy to keep up with strategic times and become fully digitised, I found a way to remain aligned with this strategy by creating a QR code. The QR code leads the flasher to the Schneider Electric.com website newsfeed and explains what the Schneider Electric Cool Sites program is all about. The SE.com newsfeed is open to all public – world-wide. Anyone can go there, anyone can discover our Cool program. This is our Digi’Cool Code…. We also use it on our Cool Sites Digi’Halls and on our Digi’Cool Trophy which is sent to the Cool Sites upon nomination. Digi’Cool Code:
Digi’Cool Trophy:
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… And the award…To be displayed in reception areas, lunch rooms, meeting rooms, HR offices,…Can also be used at HR fairs, for recruitment, employer branding, etc.
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The Cool Sites program also has a collaborative networking space on the internal collaborative platform (SPICE) Schneider Platform for Innovation, Collaboration and Efficiency. This platform was launched within Schneider Electric late November 2012. The Cool Site program already has 370 followers/contributors.
Our tools repository on a dedicated space available to all:
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The very Cool 2012 results: Note, the target was very stretched, and we made it!
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Annex 2:
The history of Schneider Electric (Source: Speakers bureau, Schneider Electric) From its creation in 1836 as a producer of iron and steel, Schneider Electric has evolved to become a global leader in energy management. Along the way, Schneider Electric has contributed to the transformation of industries with an innovative, international and responsible mindset. Today, with operations in over 100 countries and more than 130.000 employees, Schneider Electric’s mission is to “help people make the most of their energy”.
Schneider Electric, some key dates
From 1836 to today, Schneider Electric has transformed itself into the global specialist in energy management. Starting from its roots in the iron and steel industry, heavy machinery, and ship building, it moved into electricity and automation management. After 170 years of history, Schneider Electric has become today the solution provider that will help you make the most of your energy. Discover its transformation below.
19th century
•
1836: The Schneider brothers took over the Creusot foundries. Two years later, they created Schneider & Cie.
•
1891: Having become an armaments specialist, Schneider innovated by launching itself into the emerging electricity market.
First half of the 20th century
•
1919: Installation of Schneider in Germany and Eastern Europe via the European Industrial and Financial Union (EIFU). In the years that followed, Schneider associated with Westinghouse, a major international electrical group. The Group enlarged its activity to manufacturing electrical motors, electrical equipment for power stations and electric locomotives.
•
Post war: Schneider gradually abandoned armaments and turned to construction, iron and steel works and electricity. The company was completely reorganised in order to diversify and open up to new markets.
Late 20th century:
•
1981-1997: Schneider Group continued to focus on the electrical industry by separating from its non-strategic activities.
This policy was given concrete form through strategic acquisitions by Schneider Group:
Telemecanique in 1988, Square D in 1991 and Merlin Gerin in 1992.
•
1999: Development of Installation, Systems and Control with the acquisition of Lexel, Europe’s number two in electrical distribution. In May 1999 the Group was renamed Schneider Electric, to more clearly emphasise its expertise in the electrical field. The Group engaged in a strategy of accelerated growth and competitiveness.
Early 21st century:
•
2000-2009: Period of organic growth, positioning itself in new market segments: UPS (uninterruptible power supply), movement control, building automation and security through acquisitions of APC, Clipsal, TAC, Pelco, Xantrex, becoming the global specialist in energy management.
•
2010: Schneider Electric strengthens its lead in the development of the Smart Grid, with the acquisition of the distribution activities of Areva T&D.
•
2011: The group reaches the landmark of €20 billion sales (pro-forma on a 12 month basis) and continues its external growth with the acquisitions of Summit Energy (USA), Luminous (India), as well as Leader Harvest Power Technologies (China) and Telvent (Spain).
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Annex 3:
10 years of Company Programs: (Source: Internal Communication, Leadership Forum 2012) As previously mentioned (and just to remind you), Schneider Electric, founded in France in 1836, has to date presented three different faces to the world through three successive centuries. A figure in heavy industry in the 19th century, a major European player in Power & Control in the 20th, the group is entering the third millennium on a sure footing as a world leader in energy management.
Faced with increasing awareness of energy issues, Schneider Electric has made numerous conquests since 1999; as much in terms of know-how and innovation as in terms of territories and markets.
During the past 12 years, Schneider Electric has set up five successive company programs, which have structured its development.
Schneider 2000
(1998-2000)
(2001-2003)
(2004-2008)
(2009-2011)
(2012-2014)
In program after program, the group has projected a vision, developed its expertise in all its areas of activity, and welcomed new talents to explore and succeed in tomorrow’s territories; our company is permanently on the lookout for new solutions, and has cultivated the art of finding ones that will serve both its customers and its own organizational system, while taking account of the diversity of its markets and its teams.
Since 2000, Schneider Electric has tripled in sales, taken the top spot in 90% of its markets, rebalanced its presence throughout the globe in both mature and emerging economies, taken a gamble and won in new markets, and rolled out a powerful offer in 5 key markets, making the change from just selling products to selling products and solutions.
Schneider Electric is currently the world leader in its Power, Infrastructure and IT businesses, and is close to achieving this in Industry, as well as continuing its expansion into the Buildings business. And the story continues... In 2012, Schneider Electric opened a new chapter in its amazing story through a new company program, which will offer new prospects for our future, and for theirs.
10 years of development and success, and this is just the beginning!
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We at Schneider Electric have been guided over the past 10 years by our company programs in order to implement our ambitious strategy to advance and transform our company.
Connect begins in 2012 with the ambition of taking the efficiency of “One” further through 2014. With “Connect”, our “One” transformations will become more robust, replicable, and long-lasting. At the same time, “Connect” will take us beyond “One” to meet the new challenges and trends we face today as “One”. “Connect” will bring the added value of “One” to all our stakeholders: our people, our customers, our shareholders, our communities and our world; thus engaging them all in our story and our collective journey towards efficiency.
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Annex 4
Connect – The program of today
Now let me introduce you to Connect: • • • •
One Company Program, 4 axes, 12 initiatives, 36 programs:
So let’s have a quick look at each axis to see what its objectives are for the well-being of Schneider Electric:
Connect to Customers: “One” helped Schneider Electric place its customers at the core of its activities. Their ambition now is to deliver a new experience to its partners and end-users. •
Partner Excellence Schneider Electric wants to leverage digitisation and its tools to transform the purchasing experience of its partners and consumers
•
Solution Excellence Schneider Electric wants to pursue its solution transformation journey to delight its targeted end-customers and drive profitable growth.
•
Tailored Supply Chain Schneider Electric wants to transform its supply chain to make it totally customer centric.
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Connect Everywhere: Schneider Electric has forged into new economies while still remaining a key player in mature economies. Connect Everywhere is its ambition to embody the vision that no matter where in the world Schneider Electric is, it is at home everywhere: with distinct and different customers, across diverse geographies to meet sensibly its responsibilities to their people and planet. •
Global Customer Intimacy Schneider Electric will reinforce its global account managers network to provide the same expert support everywhere to its strategic customers.
•
Grow Everywhere Schneider Electric will grow globally in new cities from the new economies and through new businesses in mature economies.
•
Responsible Everywhere Schneider Electric will continue to bring energy to the bottom of the pyramid and its employees will commit to ethics and sustainability.
Connect for Efficiency: Schneider Electric will become an efficiency role model in its internal processes to achieve true operational efficiency. At the same time, it will champion sustainability as a leader with its own solutions. •
Schneider Electric Model It operates everywhere according to a simple, fast, and replicable Schneider Electric Model, in order to leverage its scale and enable its employees to work efficiently.
•
Operational Efficiency Schneider Electric wants to optimise its supply chain flow and cost of goods sold productivity, and it also want to boost its pricing power and cash generation.
•
Green Champion Schneider Electric wants to be a sustainable enterprise role model in each of its sites and products; it achieves that by being a demanding client of its own solutions and services.
Connect People Schneider Electric will continue to empower, collaborate and personify its brand values. Ensuring its leaders have the tools and training needed, to listen and respond to their teams and, to plan for their future needs. Schneider Electric wants every person in the company to be inspired and engaged with the career options within Schneider Electric. It will do so by ensuring its “One” Culture will strengthen collaboration throughout its Schneider Electric community. •
Engaging Leaders Schneider Electric creates an environment where its leaders personify the culture that Schneider Electric wants, and the Schneider Electric brand values.
•
Engaged Individuals Schneider Electric ensures that individuals have every opportunity to grow with the company, and that they are recognized internally and externally as a highly attractive global company.
•
Engaging Workplace Schneider Electric knows what it knows by driving collaboration, while diverse teams bring innovation and business success o
Communities for our Collective Intelligence
o
A Great Place to Work – Cool Sites
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Acknowledgements This mémoire is the outcome of many hours of reflexion, reading, discussions, ENSCI classes, observations, working hours, paid holiday leave, late nights, sleepless nights, early mornings, but above all, help and support from many people in many different ways. Without their help and support, I would never have managed to complete this work.
Therefore, I wish to thank them: (In no particular order).
Natalie Jonkers, my wonderful mother who came to France for two 6 month periods to help me on a quotidian basis, support me morally, put up with my bad moods, encourage me along the way, and look after my 5 year old daughter, Chloé. Thanks for everything Mum. Thanks for being MY Mum. Thank You!
Frédéric Beuvry, who introduced me to, and opened my eyes to a whole new world. Who enabled me to do the Innovation by Design Masters degree. Thank You!
Olivier Lizon-Tati, my Manager. Who is constantly pushing me further, encouraging me, coaching me, giving me his time, and sharing his knowledge. Thank you for taking the gamble when inviting me to join the Cool Sites global team. Thank You!
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Kathleen Lewis, professional translator, who helped me with my “polluted English”. Thank You!
My IbD buddies! The meeting up in the Salle Orange on Saturday mornings to work on our dissertations. The endless late night exchanges on the “Innovation by Design (2011)” Facebook private space. The encouraging words. The lunches. The sleepovers. The laughter. Simone Buche, Matthieu Ranc, Marie Guitton, Pierre-Julien Cazaux. We spent a lot of time together outside of the classroom. Thank you!
Nicolas de Benoist, Senior Design Researcher – Steelcase, my Directeur de Mémoire. Thank you for everything! For getting me on the right track, and keeping me there. For your patience, time, efforts, suggestions, inputs, coaching, encouragements. Thank You!
Sylvie Lavaud, Olivier Hirt, Katie Cotellon at ENSCI. Thank you for encouraging me, challenging me, believing in me, supporting me. It meant a lot to me; you boosted my confidence. Thank You!
Claire Bryan, a very dear friend and colleague who shared her books with me. Who along with her husband, Ian, leant me a bed in their Normandy home so that I could have a “working getaway” place to go. Thank You!
Julie-Anne Rue and Stéphanie Le Dall. Two other very special and very dear friends who have constantly encouraged me along the way. Thank You!
Chloé, my beautiful little girl. Thank you for being you. For encouraging Mummy to go to school. For letting Mummy work away for hours and hours on her computer, with very little disruption. For being the apple of my eye and my very reason for being. Bisous.
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