Panasonic BTB

3 Day Conference | Wisconsin

Picture This

Sixty-five directors and middle managers from a division of a global electronics firm are meeting for three days at a conference center in rural Wisconsin to plan initiatives to achieve their goals for the coming year. Upper management has defined a new direction; and many roles and personnel have changed⎯it’s re-org time. On the evening of the first day they arrive in the ballroom, which is set up to look like a blues club, and are seated at tables of six. Some Muddy Waters is playing in the background, and on the stage is a band setup—drum set, amps, PA, mics, etc.

They haven’t been told what’s going to transpire, but they will soon find out. The house lights dim…

After the first song, the MC sets the context for the evening: “We know from experience that everyone here has some business blues; what you may not have, is a good way to express those blues in a constructive way, and a process to look into how you can, individually and as a group, go beyond those blues. Tonight you’ll have that chance. You’ll have the opportunity to write a business blues song about your work at Panasonic, and sing that song with the FTM band.” A few groans, some laughs, a little buzz goes through the room. The MC gives some context about the tradition of working blues, how it applies today, and how the innovation, teamwork, collaboration, time management, risk taking, etc. that it will take to accomplish this in two hours are the same sort of competencies that they are going to need to accomplish the business goals the were presented this afternoon.

Impossible—seemingly. Perfect—yes. Before the songwriting and performances begin, the group has a chance to discuss what the pressing issues are, which ones carry the most juice, and what impact they are having on their results—all this is raw material for the songs to come. They also get a chance to pick their own blues name, e.g. High-Voltage Tammy Watkins, or Fearless Freddie Bluestein, which, aside from being fun, gives the participants a chance to step outside of their day-to-day personas and approach the task at hand from a different perspective. Sprinkled throughout these processes, the band plays some of their own business blues songs, like “Call Me, Beep Me, Page Me,” or “The Overcommitted Blues.”

Just before songwriting begins, the band plays a song they’ve written just for this event, the Panasonic Blues, developed from interviews with key players leading up to the conference. In a half an hour they’ve gone from a general discussion about blues and business, to a song specifically about what’s going on in their company. They’re ready! The band presents a few templates—songs participants can imitate in form to compose their song—and they’re off. The people seated at each table become a “band,” and are coached by FTM band members as they write and rehearse their song.

The energy builds in the room as the bands pick their names, write the lyrics and start singing the songs to each other. Hoots of laughter and exclamations of “you can’t say that” ensue. The energy buzz builds as the bands work in a flurry to complete the seemingly impossible assignment.

Then comes performance time. The excitement climaxes as the audience watches their co-workers, some in hats and sunglasses, sing, dance, and get out their blues.

They’ve sung, they’ve laughed, many said it’s the most fun they’ve ever had at a business event. How does this translate into organizational change and productivity?

Their FTM event was a smashing success; great songs—funny, truthful, and they took interesting; creative turns in lyrics and song forms. Their performances were strong, perhaps aided by the fact that Panasonic has a deeply entrenched karaoke culture, so they had experience singing in front of each other. There were even some verses in Japanese, complete with translation.

The next morning they returned to the same room greeted by the band playing some easy “morning” blues. The program opened with a highlights video of the performances that helped, along with their morning coffee, to remind the group of the state they reached the night before.

They were then introduced to the Beyond The Blues process. The purpose: to address the issues they identified with specific actions, and to implement those actions in new ways, so next year they won’t be singing those same blues.

The Beyond The Blues consultants led a debrief of the processes used in creating, rehearsing and performing the songs. They posted the insights, the patterns that were revealed, and the systemic conclusions of everyone present. These spoke directly to how they wanted to operate differently in order to get the kind of results they were going for in their business. In small groups they drafted proposed standards, operating principles and agreements that would support improvements in their system going forward. These were presented to, reviewed and adopted by the whole group, with musical support from the band.

Because one of the main themes was long, inefficient meetings, the group was taught the MetaMeeting Process. This is a simple (but not necessarily easy) format for running effective, results-based meetings using objective setting and meeting management roles to keep meetings on track and on purpose. This was a concrete tool that was taken back and implemented division-wide.

The group then generated a list of the themes and subject matter of the songs they had composed, and prioritized them by identifying which issues will have the most impact on making the new year’s business goals. After a short brainstorming training, done as a talking blues, they broke out into brainstorming teams and generated ideas and potential actions to address the high-priority issues. The energy was high, and the VP was smiling. The criteria for ideas were that they be actions within their circle of influence; something that they could develop and implement with the empowerment and resources that were available in the room.

A lot of ideas came back. Each priority area had plenty to choose from—definitely not the same ol’ blues.

On the break the VP decided to go with one idea that had been presented: to form cross-functional project teams around the high-priority areas, including the reorganization coordination team. When they came back, this was done, and the teams generated their first draft project plans. They were empowered to make their own decisions on the ideas presented, and plan out the implementation. They were on the blues’ case and chasin’ ‘em out the door.

The VP shared that through the Beyond The Blues process his group came to a place of enthusiasm and concrete action that otherwise would not have happened.