GerA 2020

The ALSTROM Transport Deutschland GmbH is facing a big challenge. The change strategy must be communicated as well as lived. With this requirement, Jens Bünte (personnel manager for Germany & Austria) contacted DIALOGPICTURE. Relatively quick, the situation of the company was clear and so they developed a communication strategy, which was not only visually appealing but also galvanizing and thrilling. Since the strategy is dependable on acceptance and co-creation of the employees, we decided to do two creative workshops to develop the picture conceptually. The first workshop involved 15 managers and resulted in a picture world which had a hub as a center point of the “Dialogpicture”. It was important for everyone to show the past of the company, the way of the transformation program “GerA 2020” and leave out an area for pictures to illustrate the future. The preliminary considerations were agreed to by the second workshop group, which further developed them afterwards. Together with 20 change managers from different departments the picture was made concrete within a plenum and the scenes where placed in a picture world. At the end of the second workshop the Dialogpicture was filled and the story was written. They decided to use positive as well as negative illustrations, which address every employee and makes them think. The only goal: To bring the transformation program to a success.

This graph shows, that success can only evolve if everyone, meaning every person and all interest groups like CEO, management, employee, unions and employee organizations push in one direction. Coincident, it can be seen that not everybody is on board yet, whereas some think about if they should take part in this change and whereas others are already of their way.

Based on this example, the company shows how their meeting culture looks like in some meetings and what they like to change it into. On the left, there is no elaborated agenda nor participants which really listen or even come late. This does not only take away valuable working time but it is also embarrassing for the presenting person. It is desirable to have the right visualization; a clear defined agenda, active meeting participants and a time line which works and will be followed.

In the negative illustration, we see employees and managers which work on their own goals and follow those. Those goals can operate contrary. The positive illustration shows, that employees and managers work together on united goals and their attainment.

Jens Bünte
Director Human Resources Germany & Austria, ALSTOM Transport Deutschland GmbH

„Experience from former transformation programs showed, how important it is to involve the whole organization into the change process. Dialogpicture provides a great possibility to implement worries, ideas but also expectations of as many people as possible and to display the in an understandable way. The initial skepticism of one or the other has changed into excitement only after a few days. This is probably not my last “Dialogpicture”.

Ralf Dingerdissen
Bogie Operations Director Germany ALSTOM Transport Deutschland GmbH

„When we were at Dialogpicture in Hamburg for the first time and saw all those many, great examples of other companies we were totally flashed from the first second on. This had to be our tool. We managed to enthuse the whole management team. We are very proud at our Dialogpicture and it helps us every day to implement our transformation process.” Why did you decide to go with the Dialogpicture method? During the benchmark visits in different companies with successfully implemented change strategies, we recognized it as an efficient tool for the support of the change process. Which chances do you see in this method? One big chance is a different method for communication apart from PowerPoint and frontal meetings. With the help of Dialogpicture all functions, hierarchies and groups come together in an informal discussion. The room for interpretations of the visual illustration develops talks and discussion from the first moment on. The illustration of complex topics makes the discussion between colleagues and employees way easier. How did you develop the Dialogpicture? We went through a two-hour process in which the management team under the supervision of Didier Pfleger, CEO of ALSTROM Transport Deutschland GmbH created the picture frame, goals and story line of the one day creative workshop. Based on those requirements a group of so called multiplicators or change agents built the final picture as well as separate scenes in a second one day workshop. After the presentation, the rest was finetuning. What was the reaction of the two workshop groups? Both groups were, even with first skepticism, part of the project with a lot of enthusiasm. They discussed and even fought but only to find a solution. The spirit which should have been accomplished through the transformation program was present from the beginning. How was the collaboration with DIALOGPICTURE? We got to know DIALOGPICTURE as a professional partner which made us go into the right direction. In every phase of the development there was room for “our” picture. Additionally, to the outcome, which we are really proud of, we had a lot of fun at the discussions with our project leader Dania Buchal and her partner Herrn Anders. How do you apply the Dialogpicture? The ASTROM Transport Deutschland GmbH runs through a change process now. This includes many classical approaches to increase the competitiveness and the Dialogpicture creates not only a perfect addition to the transformation program but also to transport the often-neglected factor “human”. With the illustration about good or bad behavior a dialog is created between manager and employee and it can be talked about expectations but also needs informally. What is the resonance for the complete Dialogpicture? We presented the Dialogpicture to the management team and the change agents and die overall opinion is: Awesome! There are all waiting to take the picture and start the cascading. Right now, we are working on the communication strategies and at the next works meeting we will start. Was your expectation met? Short answer: Yes! But it is too early to give a final resume because the cascading process has not started yet.

The first leadership workshop was the visual basis for the later concept if the Dialogpicture.

Together with the change agents of the transformation program the basis of the leadership workshop were further developed and filled with different scenes. Relatively quickly the workshop group decided that they had to develop positive and negative scenes for the Dialogpicture to make it fit. The participants communicated the Dialogpicture afterward as a change multiplicator to their department.