1.
7 Secrets to
Union-Management
Success with Teams
Partners in Progress Conference
Michigan Labor Management Association,
East Lansing, Michigan
April 10, 2014

2.
Your Presenters
Fenwick Koller Associates
• Ron Koller
• Rick Fenwick is on assignment with a
client
REVELN Consulting
• Deb Nystrom

3.
Context – Learning Outcomes
• Gain new & different perspectives on
managing union-management
differences
• Understand latest research into why
union-management relationships fail
• Learn a PROVEN approach to improving
union/management relationships

4.
Why Union Management Relations?
Model of Union Management Relations
Source: Husczco & Hoyer, 1994

5.
Why Union Management Relations?
Adapted from Huzczo & Hoyer (1994). Used with permission.

6.
Passing ships in the night …
Union Says Management Says
1.Management are
dictators
1.We can‟t even agree
on basic things
2.Bad communication
1.Union ignores the
business
2.They fight everything
3.Bad communication

7.
High Performance Partnerships
Union-Mgmt
Ineffective
Work against
each other’s
interests
Compliance &
non-compliance
Destructive
conflict
No Union
My way or
the highway
Compliance
Little
conflict
Union-Mgmt
Effective
Working with
each other
Ownership &
Commitment
Constructive
conflict
=> Resolution
Lower
Performance
Higher
Performance
Highest
Performance

8.
7 Secrets to Union-Mgt Success
1. P artnership (in practice … not theory)
2. R ecover from Inevitable Mistakes
3. O perate w/ Joint Guidelines/Boundaries
4. inVolve the frontline
5. E ngage in One Agenda
6. N avigate Conflict
7. N ever Check the Box! Go for
Sustainability

9.
#1 – Hit Partnership Reset
Domination, Compliance Trust, Persistance
Left: Factory Worker, by Rob – Flickr cc, Right:, ABC news report

10.
Roles
Rules
Relationships
Goals
Foundation
How most work groups spend time

11.
But what happens when the going gets
tough?
Relationships

12.
What if there was a way to do it differently?
Roles
Goals
Relationships
Rules

13.
#2 - Recover from Inevitable Mistakes
Source: Cohen-Rosenthal & Burton (1994)

14.
10,000 Mistakes
Our greatest
weakness lies in
giving up.
The most certain
way to succeed is
always to try just
one more time.
- Thomas A. Edison
Thomas Edison around the time he invented the phonograph by
Library & Archives Canada

15.
Inventing
I never perfected an
invention that I did not
think about in terms of
the service it might give
others...
I find out what the
world needs, then I
proceed to invent...
"Thomas Edison And Henry Ford" by Tom Raftery

16.
#3 Operate w/ Boundaries/Guidelines

17.
Freedom is actually
a bigger game than power.
Power is about
what you can control.
Freedom is about
what you
can unleash.
~ Harriet Rubin
"Freedom" by Dee Teal - Flickr cc

18.
#4 – inVolve the Frontline
“Change is a threat when done to me,
but an opportunity when done by me.”
Rosabeth Moss-Kanter

19.
People Progress at Different Speeds
ENDINGS
NEUTRAL
ZONE
NEW
BEGINNINGS
People in an organization may be experiencing all phases at the same time:
Not yet
begun New BehaviorsTime...

20.
#5 – Engage in One Agenda
Source: ABC News

21.
#6 – Navigate conflict constructively
Even after some improvement,
leaders easily fall back into patterns

22.
Model by Stephen Denning,
the former Program Director of Knowledge Management at the World Bank
His original model, Organizational Tools for Changing Minds – is posted on “There‟s No Such Thing as Leadership? Pull, Influence and „Open Space‟ vs. Power” -
REVELN.com
Vision, Storytelling,
Persuasion,
Conversations,
Role-Modeling
Inspiration
Tradition
Ritual Management
Performance Systems
Information
Coercion
Threats
Fiat
Punishments
Intimidation
Negotiation
Planning....
Incentives
Control
Systems
Promotion

23.
#7 – Never Check the Box,
Go for Sustainability
Never Check the Box





24.
Photos: Sponge, by rob.knight Flickr cc
_______
Beyond
Resilience

25.
Don‟t wait to collaborate
2007
Platinum award
Wixom
1st NA plant since
1999 to win on a
platform of union &
management
cooperation

26.
Don‟t wait to collaborate
It closed the same week.
It was completely demolished in 2013.

27.
7 Secrets Re-cap
1. Partnership reset
2. Recover from mistakes
3. Operate w/in B&Gs
4. inVolve the Frontline
5. Engage in One Agenda
6. Navigate conflict
7. Never Check the Box, Go for
Sustainability
Social
Technical
Getting both
leadership teams
on the same page
(Tops)
Getting the
org board
(Middles/Bottoms)
Human side
(politics & conflict)
Work on behavior
varies over time
A
B
C

28.
Photos & slides will be
available via:
• REVELN.com/Tools/
• Visit Fenwick Koller
Associates:
www.fenwickkoller.com/

29.
Following Up
Email
Presentation
C =
Conversation

30.
Other Workshops Available
• Implementing change
• Building commitment to change.
• Using empathy in leadership to produce
high performance and high commitment.
• Resolving conflicts in the workplace.
• www.UnionManagementRelations.com
• www.FenwickKoller.com
• Reveln.com/Tools (Adaptive Change,
Antifragile, Best of the Best newsletter)

31.
Appendix

32.
Involvement Leads to Commitment
“Change is disturbing when it is done to us,
exhilarating when it is done by us.”
Rosabeth Moss-Kanter

33.
If you think change is hard
• Change is hard
• Sustaining change
is even harder

34.
Research for Never Check the Box!
• A study prepared for Northeast Ohio that
reviewed the literature on
labor/management cooperation (2002), it
stated that working cooperatively
together for a period of 3 years promotes
sustainability.
• The same report stated that practicing
multiple characteristics of effective
labor/management cooperation
increased the probability of sustaining
effective relationships.