Diamond Mining
SITUATION
Communication was not effective and critical and important objectives for the organization were not being achieved.
DRIVER GOAL
- Establish a process for improving communications to all employees and ensuring business unit managers regular participation in the process.
RESULT
- Established evaluation criteria and baseline evaluation, plus monitoring and reporting.
- Developed training programs and trained supervisors and managers
- Implemented new meeting formats.
Case Study
Improve Communications in a Diamond Mining Operation
Issue
Executive management at a diamond mining operation was concerned that communications were not effective and that critical and important objectives for the business were not being addressed. In addition they were concerned that business unit managers were not adequately involved in or informed by existing communication efforts. Although executive management had pressed for improvement in this area, there had been no significant results.
Highland Approach
The team conducted a detailed analysis and identified the daily work team meetings as an appropriate vehicle for improving overall communication down through the various organizational levels. These meetings were the primary and most frequent opportunity to communicate with employees about safety, expectations for the day and to provide up and down communication between management and employees. The quality, content and length of meetings varied significantly from area to area and was determined by the supervisors who led the meetings. The Highland Group determined that improvements in training, evaluation, coaching and processes were needed to achieve management’s goals.
Actions Taken
The Highland Group partnered with client leadership teams to implement training programs for supervisors when conducting daily meetings and for managers to evaluate those meetings. The new processes improved the quality, content and completeness of communications and successfully engaged business unit managers in oversight and regular participation in the process. A System For Managing the process was created and included routine reporting to management for the conduct and completeness of the daily meetings. Rapid and measureable results were achieved and client staff managed the rollout of the new communication processes for the second half of the project.
