There is a certain beauty to a factory that I have always appreciated. The hustle and bustle of products moving through the process creates a flow that reminds me somewhat of a river making its way through a town. There is a current flowing and you can almost see waves created by the movement. Likewise, the steady cadence of pad printing and screen printing machines lends a calming sense to the creative commerce going on about you. But the most beautiful aspect of the factory is the collection of people assembled. The multitude of ethnicities provides a visual cross section of the rich heritages that make up our society. People from many different cultures are all working in harmony toward a common goal.

This story begins back in February of this year. Our new production manager, Michael, had been working in the factory for about three months. It had been a tough time for him as most of the work force was less than totally responsive to his attempts to improve productivity and quality. We were running at about 85% on-time delivery, which created numerous problems each morning as the late shipments were reviewed and decisions made as to how to get the product to our customers when they needed it.

Old loyalties die hard. Being the new guy, Michael had his work cut out for him as he kept slugging away. As I was passing through the factory one day, I stopped and simply asked him how I might help him accomplish what he wanted to do. His face lit up like a Christmas tree and he quickly told me that he needed some kind of recognition program that we could implement with little expenditure. As we talked, I asked him what he wanted to start measuring. That became our starting point.

One of the problems that we had was late startups of the machines, so we decided to measure startup times. We had no idea where we were going, what it would look like, nor what the ultimate results would be, but agreed that it was a direction in which we wanted to head. We also agreed that we would say nothing to any of the workers about what we were doing and that we would let the program grow organically.

We bought some white boards and placing them along the center aisle of the factory, one for each line. That first week Michael listed all startup times for each machine in a line on its respective white board. Next to any time of 15 minutes or less he placed a star. At the end of the week he made a list of “star” performers who had achieved three, four or five days of acceptable startup times. That first week there were approximately 19 total machines on the list.

After the list was posted, I took the list and walked around and shook the hand of every operator who had made the list. To each one I said the same thing: “You did a wonderful job last week. Thank you for your hard work.” To those not on the list I said nothing. The idea was to reinforce the accomplishment and not give attention to the negative. The response from the operators was overwhelming. Each one looked as if I had given him or her the keys to the kingdom, and by the time I had finished making the rounds, I felt like a million bucks myself.

During the second week I had operators stopping me and excitedly telling me that they were going to have five stars by the end of the week. As that week closed, we had approximately half again as many machines on the list and I again made the rounds thanking people for their hard work. During the week, Michael was continually talking with the production workers praising them for their efforts.

This went on for three or four weeks, each having a greater number of acceptable starting times than the previous. After three weeks I stopped making the rounds. The numbers held steady for a few weeks, but then dropped off just enough to be noticeable. As Michael and I were discussing the development, he indicated that he had not been paying as much attention to the performers, and so we agreed that he would “make the rounds” and apologize to each operator for not recognizing their achievements. The next week the numbers shot up again.

During this time we both had been talking with the VP of operations, telling him that what people wanted was the thanks from “the big guy.” He always had the intention of going around, but never quite got to it. At the end of one particularly tough day for the VP, I said “Jerry, it’s time,” and took him out to the factory, grabbed the list off the wall and we made the rounds together. People were so pleased that their faces literally glowed and at the end of it he admitted that he felt pretty good himself. To reinforce the process in his mind, we showed him the results of the week following his tour. The numbers were higher than they had ever been before.

And so it has gone. Sometimes we make the rounds and sometimes we hand out chocolate. There is no pattern to the recognition, so people never know when it is coming. Other forms of recognition have been added. One is a large silver balloon that flies over the machine with the longest continuous streak and that balloon is moved with much ceremony when someone beats the current streak.

One of the most impressive offshoots from this was the response from the floor supervisors. Feeling quite empowered, they put together an Employee of the Month program that is entirely driven by metrics. Of course, the bestowing of the award is done with much fanfare and the response is tremendous. The list of nominees is posted with pictures prior to the voting by the supervisors. When the first Employee of the Month was announced, the entire factory whooped and screamed and the winner was quite overwhelmed.

What are the results? Well, we are currently running at about 98% on-time deliveries and a majority of the available machines are pushing product within 15 minutes of the start of the shift. Quality has improved dramatically and morale and productivity are the highest that I have seen in four years.

More than anything else, this has proved to me that the most effective management is positive reinforcement. It’s not a lot different than parenting. Recognizing positive behavior and ignoring the negative is the surest way of eliminating the unwanted behavior. People want to be the best that they can be, but they won’t achieve that unless someone recognizes the effort.

Negative behavior in this case is really unmotivated behavior, and our example works for those who are not inspired to be their best. For the record, truly negative behavior does need to be dealt with, one-on-one, not ignored.  I will address this issue, problem employees, later on.

I would add one other item to my list of what makes a factory beautiful. That is the way that people respond to being treated like the thinking, feeling human beings that they are. Kudos to Michael for taking the risk in doing things differently, and kudos to all those employees who helped to prove some now classic theories about human needs and motivation.

Andrew Coutermarsh has an MS in management from Antioch New England Graduate School where he is an adjunct professor teaching human resources development. He holds SPHR  (Senior Professional Human Resources) designation from the Society of Human Resource Management, and is director of human resources for Prime Resources Corp.