ORGANISATION

AGA has been designing and manufacturing locking systems (locks, hinges, handles and latches) for over 50 years in the heartland of great locksmith entrepreneurs, Arrasate-Mondragón.

CHALLENGE
The improbable project will focus on strengthening the dynamics of organisational change, influencing the management of emotions and customer orientation. The goal is to seek mechanisms that will endure over time and reinforce the sense of belonging in the company.

IMPROBABLE COLLABORATOR

ColaboraBora, an initiative cooperative, explores new opportunities for innovation in production models, governance and ownership and analyses the empowerment and participation of citizens, among other issues.

COLABORABORA'S PROPOSAL

CBB proposes that AGA undertakes a process of identification, co-creation and prototyping in order to work on the relationships between people, departments, teams and clients.

The metaphor of doors in this process will serve to tackle the internal challenges of the organisation. Which doors must remain open? Which should remain closed? For whom?

The process will begin by analysing which doors exist in AGA, what and whom they connect or disconnect, how open or closed they are and if their distribution is suitable or satisfactory. After this, some challenges for change will be set: posing “uncomfortable questions and feared scenarios” will identify elements and experiences to change and help bring about a relational transformation within the team and, consequently, the company. The process will conclude by collectively prototyping different ways for people to tackle change, thereby making the rest of the team participate in this transformation.

PROJECT 

Come in without knocking

A driving force group leading internal change processes in the organisation has existed for some time now in AGA. It is a group comprising seven people from different departments whom ColaBoraBora accompanied during these months so that they could be the ones focusing on the challenges set and provide shape to the devices-tools they will activate to resolve them.

During this work of accompaniment some group needs arose that were addressed during an initial phase:

• Provide cohesion to the driving force group: shared vision, establish a common language and recover the ‘muscular tone’ of the group’s relationship.
• Incorporate into the strategic vision already possessed by the group: passion (the desire to do things), emotion (feelings and emotions that lead us to work with others) and the ability to imagine the practical (which allows us to outline each new small step).

The second phase of the process was focused on analysing the organisation’s contextual situation in order to devise actions-devices to help address the challenge in a practical manner (what do I have to do today so that within five years I have managed to change the organisation?). They used analytical tools to achieve this (Problem formula, Sociogram) and prototyping (Cocktail shaker of prototypes, And what if...).

RESULTS

Three projects under development were settled on to implement and evaluate throughout 2015:

• "Si me necesitas llámame" (Call me if you need me): informal interdepartmental microconsultancy sessions to share the day-to-day.
• "Nosotros hacemos calidad" (We make quality): sophistication of the meetings on quality by incorporating feedback and multidirectional communication.
• "Predicar con el ejemplo" (Preach by example): training and dissemination actions on forms of relating based on “The Four Agreements” of Toltec wisdom.