Lessons Learned from we, the people, shared during times of challenge and controversy...
We dedicate this LinkedIn Article to the 92,000 Nortel Networks Employees who lost their job due to the dark forces of:
A. Lack of cooperation, coordination and collaboration,
B. Spending more than our budget called for,
C. The arrogance of believing we were best in class and nothing could stop our magnificence
We were razor sharp intelligent, many of our patents captured the inspiration of thousands that woke up every morning to conceive the very progress some claim as their accomplishments today.
I was chosen to be the spokesperson for an initiative called Supply Chain Management, why?
Project Plato, an experiential exercise…
Project Plato incorporated the teachings of the famous philosopher.
Through sequential steps, the project revealed the reasons why an end-to-end view of a supply chain is integral to continuous improvement, customer satisfaction and building customer loyalty.
As participants played the game, it revealed how and why it was imperative to communicate between all the links in the chain.
Team learning was vital because teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations.
This is where the ‘rubber meets the road,’ for unless teams can learn, the organization can NOT learn. Creating a network of people with shared vision is VITAL. Project Plato builds leadership at every link of the organization by letting participants realize that sharing knowledge and communicating that knowledge freely across the supply chain guarantees competitive advantage.
But… how was it determined that I was already a person that cooperated, collaborated and communicated?
The Project Plato game was held in Dallas, carefully selecting the participants so we could have representatives from the end-to-end flow of information, products and services.
We had suppliers, members of the Caribbean and Latin American group, me included, all the way to customers.
When we arrived, we were separated into teams randomly selected.
These teams were given a goal, each member was given a ‘secret’ bag with instructions and the end result was a project that put together all the pieces of the puzzle.
The fun started… I opened my bag and read my instructions, the first question that crossed my mind was, how would I build my part without understanding how it would ultimately link to the person to my left, the person to my right, and ultimately the entire room?
Whom-so-ever knows me, knows that I will speak to anyone… so, not knowing the people in the room, I asked the person to my left to let me see what he was supposed to do.
The reaction was surprising, he said…
Hope, don’t you understand the bag is my ‘secret’ bag?
If I share it with you, there is no longer a secret…
I turned to the woman to my right and the same reaction…
So I started to laugh and said aloud, how on Earth am I supposed to complete my task if I do not know how it would fit with your part of the project?
Everyone in the room was so busy trying to keep a secret from one another that only my table heard my cry, but Al Toews, Canadian who is so brilliant he may be Plato reincarnated… came over and asked:
What is your name?
‘Hope!’? He said, how appropriate…
My table participants all turned toward me and we began to talk and soon enough we were all working together trying to determine who was #1 in the process, #2… and so on…
We finished our table project in no time flat…
Let’s face it, there were engineers, customers and we were laughing when we said we were done…
The entire room went wild, how was that possible?
So we talked to the table to our left and soon they were involved in figuring out how to connect to our table… the table to the right, noticing the fun, came over and worked the other way around trying to figure out how to connect at the end of our project…
The room became LIVE and now we were all working as bees or ants and we finished the entire project in less than 2 and 1/2 hours…
The room went silent when the coordinators, Al Tows, Andrea Shapiro and Carol Lorenz stood before the team and said…
‘This is the first time this happens to us and we have done this throughout the organization with many groups from many countries, in fact at times, nothing is accomplished and we have to explain the reason for failure…
So what was different with you?
That is something we need to analyze because in this room there was magic and we think we know why.’
Well, many lessons learned were captured… but NO ONE SAID the reason was because I communicated, cooperated and collaborated, kept no secrets, broke the #1 rule and KEPT NO SECRETS from anyone…
Live and learn… the story of my life…
But the organizers knew… they understood…. I was invited to spend time with the PhD groups in Canada… and I became the spokes person for Internal Audiences traveling through the Caribbean, South America, Canada, Europe… but I refused to travel to the Middle East because I was told I had to follow the rules of cultural mores that I was not willing to follow…
Today, without even realizing it, we have replicated the experiment and today many share information to create understanding, no one is looking to get credit or gain position and power, we are all participating -through communications to the benefit of Miami Lakes… Miami-Dade County, State of Florida and ultimately, these United States… my home, sweet home!
Project Plato, Nortel Networks, 2000
From my perspective, the key to learning is that we need to change the way we think. Our communications must be OPEN, and we need to build strong relationship ties with our supply chain links up and down the stream.
In the room with us that day were representatives of our Customers, Cable & Wireless, and Grace, Kennedy, both from Jamaica.
Other participants representing the Caribbean Region team included Juan Samalot, Director of Sales; Natalie Singh, Account Manager, Cable & Wireless and Hope Reynolds, Caribbean Region Marketing Communications Manager.
The Project Plato exercise included Nortel Networks representatives from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom, as well as from many United States to include Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina and Texas...
Project Plato is a revolutionary approach to experiencing an End-to-end view of Nortel Networks Supply Chain to make sure that our three key areas -people, technology, process- work towards one ultimate goal: providing our customers with what they need, when they need it and in the quantities desired.
Project Plato attempts to change the way we think about supply chain management; it takes participants from the natural tendency of seeing their isolated contribution, and moves them toward ‘systems thinking.’
领英推荐
Systems thinking is a hot concept today.
As Peter Senge shares in his book, The Fifth Discipline, most ‘event are distant in time and space, and yet they are connected within the same pattern.
Each has an influence on the rest, an influence that is usually hidden from view.
We can only understand systems by contemplating the whole, not any individual part of the pattern.
Project Plato questions the ‘mental models’ deeply ingrained assumptions or generalizations that influence how we understand the world and how we take action. Through interaction with other Nortel Networks employees, representing different cultures and / or organizational structures, the participants learn to see from different perspectives, and gain a view of the supply chain in its entirety.
Back in those days, I authored this entire write up, concluding:
Organizations have one true asset…
the INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL of the people that form the organization.
The intellectual capital consists of tacit knowledge, which -in contrast to explicit, codified knowledge- is difficult to articulate in writing and is acquired through personal experience.
It includes: scientific expertise, operational know-how, insights about an industry, business judgement and technological expertise…
When people use tacit knowledge most often to solve problems, the person-to-person approach works to promote itself as an experiential exercise because it intends to surface and share among participants, the tacit knowledge of the organization.
Without even realizing it, when my Father asked what was I prepared to do to save these United States, I started to attend all government meetings, from HOA classes to be certified in my Board participation at Lake Glenn Ellen, to going to classes in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Coral Gables and the West Coast because I began to realize that HOAs were formed by neighbors who… the minute they got on the Board wanted to:
‘have power and control’
on how others live their lives rather than adhering to Governing Documents, Deed Restrictions, Florida Statutes and without realizing they have a fiduciary responsibility to do what is best for others, not for the self.
Attended all Municipal meetings to understand the inner workings of Town Hall. My behavior got me selected to be on the Cultural Affairs Committee and within three weeks, I was told I could not communicate about what they were doing because of something called Sunshine Law… nothing more than the secret bag I had been given during Project Plato.
So, I went before the Council resigned and told them they could stick Sunshine Law where the sun don’t shine because that would have prevented me from doing what I like and that is:
TO COMMUNICATE, often and much to inspire understanding of a system, process and people… Why?
Because our lives, our property, our family, neighbors and colleagues very survival depend on full understanding!
Today… as we share all things relating to Miami Lakes, please understand that in that effort, we are sharing how to save the Republic, how to resolve the challenges of…
We are facing issues that affect all Americans who happen to reside in the State of Florida… May we be granted WISDOM to become a powerful force that ultimately learns the POWER OF UNITY of purpose… we are AMERICANS… a free and independent people!
Join us!
Citizens Unite to Resolve Blasting Damage to Property
This Article honors former Nortel Networks colleagues:
We made dreams come true, we were revolutionary, we changed the world of communications. We were unique, imaginative, nothing but the sum total of 92,000 employees and whom we chose to be while striving to achieve our objectives... Raise the glass to the great memory of:
NORTEL NETWORKS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fyN9iKxbSo
We shall NEVER forget Nortel family of friends, contacts, customers and colleagues... The best company I have ever worked for!
We enjoyed making these commercials and still remember one conference in Puerto Rico where we danced to the music… https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=KrlU7gCoi-E
Best marketing commercials:
To friends and colleagues here, there and every where, thanks for the impressions received. Happy, Healthy & Safe 2024
Someone came up with an Exist Interview, as we were all 'severed' the song was called Day Nortel Died with the music of Bye, Bye Miss American Pie
154 Countries, 92,000 employees... more patents than any other company to file for bankruptcy:
We were:
HOW THE WORLD SHARED IDEAS... Here is the work done to create the campaign Come Together!
Toward the end, there was so much strife, In France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4tK72MrYg
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1 年We no longer seem to have a community, when it comes to Miami. People do not have the time or commitment to be involved.
This Article is written to honor former Nortel Networks colleagues!