Creating a high-performing culture: Lessons from the trenches

Broken processes or broken culture?

What happens when process improvements that are aimed at increasing quality aren’t leading to better results?

You can try to retool the processes–again–but that doesn’t get to the underlying problem. What you really need is a culture shift.

Siemens Drive Technologies was facing this very problem. The company had acquired a US-based manufacturing plant to broaden its global footprint, but the plant was plagued with increasing costs and quality issues. The organization implemented a Quality First initiative, but the leadership team recognized that the plant’s siloed culture was a barrier, and nothing short of a cultural transformation was needed.

Grassroots or executive-driven?

Siemens partnered with Linkage to tackle the challenge and launched the Drive Forward initiative. While the leadership team drove the project, it was a grassroots effort that was implemented by managers and individual contributors. Proven planning tools and a back-to-basics approach helped create a culture focused on positive business opportunities.

Culture drives performance

Key strategic goals are now aligned up, down, and across the entire organization, thanks to a cultural mindset that focuses on positive opportunities for the business. Decision-making quality and efficiency have improved, as has employee engagement at all levels of the organization.

Hear the full Siemens transformation story at the Human Capital Institute Learning and Leadership Development Conference in Boston on November 19. Join us for a workshop with Mara Kreutzer, HR Director and Strategic Business Partner at Siemens Industry, Scott Conner, General Manager of Large Drives Products at Siemens Industry, and Stuart Cohen, Change and Transition Consultant at Linkage.