Establishing effective communication within this project
group was our first achievement. This outcome took 6 weeks of hard work
to achieve and was a good indication of the amount of time and effort all
other outcomes would take to achieve.
The story prior to this event:
Situated in Kensington, an inner city suburb of Melbourne
Herbert Adams Bakeries (HAB) employs 575 people. More than 50% of these
employees come from a Non-English speaking background(NESB) with 41 nationalities
represented across the site.
As with most Australian companies, HAB began a process
of workplace change during 1995 and 1996. This change included the establishment
of a range of consultative committees with employee representation, accredited
training programs and preparations for planned changes to work practices.
Late in 1995 it became apparent that the implementation
of many of these changes was being hampered by communication difficulties
across the site. People were sceptical of change and unable to understand
the management explanations being given through mass meetings and printed
memos. Employees were becoming frustrated with the constant ëunexplainedí
changes that were occurring in their workplace and management were becoming
equally frustrated with the apparent lack of interest in these changes
from a majority of the workforce.
As a result of these events the Language and Literacy
in Action project was funded to develop a Communication Strategy for the
site which would enable more effective communication between and across
all sections of the companyís workforce. The project was to establish
a ëlearning setí which was a representative group of managers,
shop floor operators and committee members. The communication strategy
was to consist of a series of strategies which would address workplace
communication issues on all levels. These strategies were to then support
the cultural change policies and improve communication practices within
the site. They would result in an improvement in peopleís understanding
of workplace change, training in the Certificate in Food Processing, and
facilitate cooperative and cohesive work practices.
Now the story continues:
In the beginning the proposal for this project identified
the language and literacy needs of the workers as the greatest obstacle
to communication across and within each section of the site. With more
than 82% of shop floor operators from a non-English speaking background,
with many unable to speak or read English well enough to communicate with
their Australian born colleagues the problem seemed obvious. Teach everyone
to speak and read English and the problem would be fixed.
As the project began, though, it became obvious that this
was not the main obstacle to be overcome. The learning set was representative
of the workplace in more than just the mix of roles and occupations in
the room. It was also representative of the politics and attitudes of the
different areas of the workplace. It was so well representative that the
area of the worksite that complained most loudly about being isolated from
the rest of the site in everyday matters was the only sector unwilling
to join the project learning set. While the group tried a number of strategies
to encourage this sector to join in they remained outside the project at
all times.
As the first sessions of the project began to unfold it
become obvious to us all that there were many issues to be ëdiscussedí
before it would be possible to make progress on the development of a Communication
Strategy for the site outside that room. After six weeks of arguing issues
that were to do with day to day problems, perceptions of responsibilities
and work roles, accusations and rumours the learning set reached a point
where they identified the problem with communication across the site. At
the same time they realised that they had argued their way to a point where
the group was an important component of their work life.
The group had developed a positive dynamic and although
the sessions had initially been very torrid they had also been valuable
in bringing to the front, in a powerful fashion, the most pressing problems
within the worksite. Communication was a major problem but this was not
caused by the fact that many people had difficulty communicating in English.
Instead it was a problem of attitudes, misinformation, rumours circulating
on the grapevine, lack of communication processes and lack of acknowledgment
and understanding of these problems.
Having gotten to this point the group as a whole decided
that the situation called for a solution which would address all of these
aspects of the problem. Hence the decision to set out to ëCure the
Worldí ! There was a barrier to communication the size of a mountain
and the group felt the urge to conquer the mountain and reduce it to a
molehill. So the aims and objectives were defined as:
Mission Statement
To open channels by developing a method of communication
which works for all people.
Objectives
