originally posted on one of my several now defunct blogs, called On Engineering, under my persona The Canny Engineer, on the 26th of June 2013
After letting lady Shanghai go first, gentlemanly North America, along with cousin Mexico, took its turn at being trained by a bunch of know-it-all Europeans (and one Australian), who were airdropped into Detroit last week to bring a breath of fresh thinking to the way our product and processes are treated, and to help make this new air the one we all breathe globally.
(wow, perhaps I should become an industry marketing writer…!)
As one of the know-it-alls, I have to admit to having felt some trepidation at facing the North Americans. Our regions have been working more or less independently for the last several decades and my fear was that the Americans, with their equally vast but differently tuned automotive experience, would be open only in the expression of their hostility to our ideas.
Fortunately, that trepidation, whilst not completely baseless (I had my reasons for such thinking), did not crystallise into anything tangible, for the most part. I did notice participant numbers fluctuating during the two days of training, with some key individuals spending a remarkably small amount of time with us, even considering the typical day-to-day calls upon their time, but those who stayed throughout were attentive, asked good questions and kept us going through all the jet lag and windowless meeting room atmosphere with their overall positivity and willingness to learn.
We certainly brought new ways of thinking (though also some not so new but not fully implemented standards) to the forum, and they weren’t dismissed out of hand, as could have been the case. Having the backing of our global management team undoubtedly had a helping hand in keeping the peace there, but I got the impression that what we were presenting made sense and was difficult to argue against. The discussions were mostly about context and capabilities rather than acceptance.
My own presentations, on the engineering behind our product, and on technical problem solving, were well received, even though my first presentation went well over its allotted time. This really was the breath of fresh air that the team were looking for. Again, discussion was constructive and showed that my American colleagues were learning something that they were keen to be able to implement in their own region.
Is there a life beyond the office?
Despite the windowless conference room, which sat as an enclosed island within the sea of cubicles, I have to admit to being quite impressed by our American headquarters. It felt like a rather different company to the one I work at in Germany, altogether more professional. It exuded a quiet professionalism (aided by some careful noise damping, which is fully missing in our offices, and even a soft white noise that is intended to be filtered out by the mind, along with similar frequencies, making the whole thing “feel” quieter).
There was an excellent canteen, with a sandwich-making bar, main courses, cookies and - the pièce de résistance, a soft-whip ice-cream machine. Coffee was always available from the Starbucks bean-to-cup machines, as were various colas and fizzy drinks (in huge 12 oz. cups), with ice of course also being on tap.
Rooms with view
Alas, beyond the offices and hotel, I didn’t see much at all.
On first impressions, there wasn’t much to entice anybody out of the hotel, even though I really needed to escape - the windows were welded shut, so it was all aircon air and faintly Soviet-looking corridors.
Accepting the company transfer from airport to hotel wasn’t a mistake per se (it was lovely being chauffeured around in a Lincoln Town Car), but it did mean that I didn’t have the flexibility of a hire car this time around - and not having a car there is pretty much fatal there…
Whilst it was all about the people this time (OK, the people, the burgers and the beers), and making contacts, not having seen downtown Detroit, Birmingham, Rochester or any surrounding scenery, was a bit disappointing. I’ll have to do better next time.
Getting to and from Detroit was fine. I was pleasantly surprised by Delta airlines (I’d always heard pretty negative things about them), but the service was very good, bordering on the excessive when the purser came to shake everybody’s hand and to thank us all for choosing Delta. On the other hand, I was disappointed by the support from KLM-Delta when my return flight from Detroit was delayed by connecting flights from Miami and Orlando. Alas, they didn’t return the favour with us in Amsterdam Schiphol, meaning that I missed my final flight back to Frankfurt.
That resulted in a jet-lag-groggy four hours in yet another airless lounge and an electronics store, where I managed not to by a new tablet on a whim.
So - the next training will be on home turf in Europe. Will that be the biggest challenge of them all, trying to enthuse those colleagues in the midst of one of the biggest slumps in the automotive industry? It shouldn’t be. The biggest challenge will be turning this initiative into a resource that will be available for all new and existing employees. That’s going to be fun, for sure - more on that as and when.
At least in Europe I should be able to enjoy more fresh air than I have in the past two trainings…
