Productivity Breakthrough - II

I've been spending a lot of my driving and eating time (and some of my sleeping time) thinking about new ways to motivate people. In particular, I need new ways to motivate my tailoring staff. Our production levels are low partially because the garments we make are complex (darts, french seams, pin tucks and pleats, zipper details, slippery fabric that's hard to handle), but I often have a sneaky suspicion it's also because there is no sense of urgency at my workshop. In other words, there is nothing to lose if a tailor were to stitch a garment slowly because they are paid a monthly salary rather than a piece rate fee.

A few months ago we tried this system of making a monthly chart with every tailor's name on it and the points they earn from garments. It had a great effect on productivity initially- tailors could see how many points they were earning everyday and they could also see how many points their peers were earning. I felt high on life, wrote a blog post about it and gave myself a pat on my back. I know, that last one was really uncalled for, because after a couple of months productivity started dropping again. Absenteeism, lack of team work, and one departure from the team left the tailors who were showing up to work feeling less motivated.

So in September when I had to launch my Monsoon collection at my store in Chennai and send clothes to Mumbai (where we are retailing at Sanctum), I knew something had to be done about productivity right away. Plans of shifting to a larger workshop, hiring more tailors and increasing our production capacity were in the pipeline but still a few months away. I was out of incentive-based ideas, so I tried my all-time favourite backup strategy: complete honesty. We had a staff meeting during which I explained how important this business is to me- it's so much more than the money, it's about doing something well and creating a brand that we really believe in. I told them how lucky I was to have them as a part of my team and that each one of them was an artist in sewing and fabric handling. Finally, I told them about the pressure I was facing: launching the Monsoon collection late would mean poor sales in September, and not delivering those pieces to Mumbai might mean losing that account.

When I told them we had to produce 500 garments that month, I wanted them to give me their word that it would happen. I hate playing the role of a school teacher or a cop- walking around all the time to make sure everyone is doing their work and doing it on time. So I wanted some assurance from them. I offered to pay double their wages for overtime work, and sponsor meals for those who came into work by 7am or stayed at work past 8pm. I also put up a sign on the bulletin board with a tracker chart to show where we stood everyday with respect to our goal (and I offered a small token bonus if we reached our goal- this is over and above the overtime pay and meals compensation).

I got their assurance by the end of the meeting. Some were more reluctant than others- the general feeling was, "I'll work hard and try my best, but I can't promise anything". Energy levels the next few days were high, and I started relaxing. I spent time away from the workshop and didn't pay close attention to the production tracker. On September 13th I took a look at the tracking chart and flipped when I saw the cumulative number: 139! How were we supposed to reach 500 garments if they hadn't touched 250 by the middle of the month? I asked the team what was going on, and how they could give me their word without making a sincere effort towards their goal. Again I heard the same thing: "We're trying our best to do what we can within work hours". And although I completely understand where they are coming from, because I remember all too clearly what it was like to be just another employee in a company, I lost my temper. How could they expect to jump up from 350 garments a month to 500 with all other factors staying constant? Working longer hours had to be a part of the plan to achieve that goal! I stormed out, afraid of saying something that I would regret later.

Things really changed from that day on. Tailors took shorter breaks, they worked overtime, and really pulled out all the stops to reach our goal. We ended up having more than 5 absent days (across the entire team), and I did end up spending a lot of money on production that month just to sustain their long hours. But reaching 500 was such a sweet reward- both for the team and for myself!

I made a graph (I majored in economics, I'm allowed to do nerdy stuff like this) to see how things changed after my tantrum on September 13th. Not that getting upset should ever be a solution to a problem, but it was a way to communicate how much I depended on their cooperation and production did increase quite steadily after that.

Our celebrations included cutting a cake (of course the guy at the cakeshop couldn't spell "Thank You", giving me another opportunity to tell my staff how the little details are so important) and I braced myself for another awkward thank you speech (awkward because I'm always so conscious of my atrocious Tamil while talking to my staff). But halfway through my speech, as I was thanking them and telling them how much this meant to me and how it really re-affirmed my faith in our ability to work as a team I realized that my Tamil really doesn't matter with them anymore. Sure, there are times when I'm trying to explain something complex and my production manager has to step in to translate for me, but what counts is that they get me. They get why I started Brass Tacks and what the company stands for, and why this is so important to me. And for them to put in that kind of effort because it was important to me and the company- that was really moving! I didn't need to articulate that perfectly in Tamil for them to see my gratitude.