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Management pundits offer quick fixes, but we know better: reducing employee turnover requires a long-term investment in engagement—that harmonious state where employees enjoy coming to work, want to make the whole a better place and have a hopeful eye on the future. Lilly Venezuela, a South American country subsidiary of the worldwide pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, made the investment—and everyone reaps bountiful rewards. Working at times alone, at times with others, employees pursue ideas, routinely share information, welcome challenges, and go the extra mile. They are engaged with their own potential and the company’s possibilities; they are inspired, happy people contributing to innovation on a daily basis.
In conversations with members of staff, I learned that the wellspring of such engagement is believed to be teamwork on problems directly or indirectly related to the job one does; this built on a conviction that the human drive to solve problems in pursuit of innovation is hardwired.
Here’s how it works. The framework is the company’s commitment to Six Sigma—a method of solving problems, making improvements and developing innovative solutions. In the course of a Six Sigma project, a team determines why a process isn’t working well or well enough, proposes solutions, and methodically tests the top possibilities. Anyone may propose a Six Sigma project, and project scope may be anywhere on the continuum from local—an office comprising a few people—to a business function such as strategy, or a country-wide practice such as sales or marketing. Every Lilly country team keeps a master list of Six Sigma projects. Virtually every employee joins a Six Sigma project team aiming to improve a process.
“Virtually everyone has ideas and wants to share them. That is true no matter what job a person does. So we make it our business to hear from everyone. Employees are proud to participate in developing innovation”, shared Edmundo Jimenez, General Manager at Lilly Venezuela.
PLANNING PROJECTS
Importantly, before proposing a project, the initiator creates a list of questions that help determine whether there is a case for starting a project. At this stage, colleagues from various areas of the business may assess the evidence. This requirement for thorough analysis to determine the suitability of an issue for project status is one of the company’s most important tools, ensuring that observation and analysis are part of the company’s DNA and that resources go to significant issues. If the case is made, the project leader builds a multidisciplinary team who examine the data from many perspectives in order to correctly identify the source of the problem and therefore the basis for proposed solutions. Venezuela’s executives were emphatic about the wisdom of a multi-disciplinary team, which equips people with a broad enough view to identify the right problem and improves chances for making a good and right solution.
In this culture, the watchwords are seek to know rather than seek to be right. The company discourages yes or no and rewards the test mentality. Power comes from inspiration, not control. Wherever they start, people find the right job at the right level. Thus all employees contribute ideas and see things through to implementation of something improved or something new.