Digital Dealer - June 2019 - 15

ANY DEALERSHIP CAN COMPETE ON CAPITAL
EXPENDITURE LIKE ADVERTISING, BUT NO ONE CAN
COMPETE WITH A STORE THAT VALUES AND PLACES
THEIR STOCK IN THEIR EMPLOYEES."
Or inspecting instead of
simply expecting. He could
have chosen to sit in his
office and guessed at outcomes or become dependent upon his managers to
tell him their ideas of what
was happening. The MPI
should not be reserved for
the service department.
It needs to be a regularly
performed leadership practice. Remember; "You do
get what you inspect, not
what you expect."
The following is a very
cool and enlightening example of how just the act
of measuring affects the
outcome.
Based on a five-year
study conducted in the
1920s at the Western Electric Plant in Cicero, Illinois,
a professor from Harvard
Business School Management wanted to determine
the optimum level of lighting for employees to create
the best production output.
Actually, they really wanted
to find the least amount of
light to "stream" into the
plant to save money and
still get good production
from the workers. Where
would the happy medium
occur?
They commissioned a
team of students to watch,
document, and observe
the assembly line workers. The premise was to
measure the physical and
environmental influences

of the workplace such as
brightness of lights, humidity, and the psychological
aspects such as breaks,
group pressure, working
hours, and managerial
leadership.
The lumens were
manipulated up and down.
Lo and behold, when

Electric employees were
practically working in the
dark, yet productivity was
exceedingly high. Plant
management was happy.
Employees were happy.
They all looked forward to
going to work each day.
Win-win situation: happy
employees, low electric

THE TEAM IS
IMPORTANT; THERE IS
A SOCIAL SYSTEM THAT
IS INTERDEPENDENT IN
THE WORKPLACE. THE
INDIVIDUAL TALENTS IN
YOUR STORE ARE PALED
BY THE SUM OF THOSE
TALENTS WORKING
TOGETHER."
more light was fed into the
factory, the workers were
happy, productivity went
up, and everything was
copasetic.
Then, they started to dim
the light. The expectation
was that productivity would
go down, but to everyone's surprise, productivity
continued to climb. They
made the decision to dim
the lights even more and to
everyone's bigger surprise,
productivity climbed higher.
Whaaaat?
This inspection process
continued for a while. It
actually became a little
humorous. The Western

bill. Life was good all over
the place.
The commissioned
study was coming to an
end. The diligent observers
packed their notebooks,
clocks, pocket protectors, calculations, wing
tips, white coats and left.
Within a mere two days,
productivity started to go
down. More light maybe? Productivity was still
in a downward spiral.
After much analysis, the
definitive conclusion was
that the real catalyst in
all this was the 'attention'
the workers were getting
and how valued they felt
D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

because of it. Where otherwise they don't get any,
except when something
goes wrong. That alone
kept the morale and productivity up. It had nothing
to do with the amount of
lumens in the factory.
Why is this important?
	  Management needs
to understand that there
are unintended, unthought factors that affect
productivity. Watch what
you say, how you act,
and what you emit to your
team.
	  Management should
be mindful of understanding what and how to deal
with the emptiness after
a project was managed,
implemented, and life
returns to normal. You
must start a new initiative.
Keep your initiatives,
learning, leadership, and
personal growth workshops on-going!
	  The relationships
that managers develop
with employees tend to
influence the manner in
which the workers carry
out directives and the
productivity they produce.
Better focus on positive and enhanced new
employee relationship
initiatives. Employee
satisfaction index (ESI)
makes better CSI. Believe
it and live it.
	  The team is im-

Continued on pg. 16

JUNE 2019

15
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Digital Dealer - June 2019

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