If you’ve been in the L&D world for any time at all, you’ve likely had a request to create some form of soft skills training. These initiatives are typically geared toward one of two groups: customer-facing roles and leadership. Key audiences such as entry-level roles, technical departments, and hands-on manufacturing positions are often overlooked when it comes to these training topics. Soft skills are foundational and transferrable between roles, so why are we not investing in our full workforce?
Let’s consider a case study in how soft skills could be useful in a non-traditional setting for this type of training: an industrial manufacturing facility.
The scenario: John is a production worker on the floor of a busy manufacturing plant that builds small motors. He works in an environment full of noisy machines and has a heavy production quota. Safety is always a key concern, and the plant is in the process of updating many of its production lines. John’s company has recently invested in soft skills training for their entire organization. Let’s look at how a few of these skills are put into use on the production floor.
Communication
The latest production line update was completed, and there is a team meeting to discuss new procedures. John uses his newly learned active listening skills during the meeting to listen carefully, ask clarifying questions, and then repeat back the key points to ensure he has understood correctly. This not only allows John to learn the new processes quickly, but also ensures he understands and complies with the safety requirements. Since others in his department have also taken the training, they follow suit, and everyone is able to learn from each other’s questions – keeping their production manager from repeatedly answering the same questions on the floor.
When an issue occurs later that day with the new machine that John is running, his clear and concise verbal communication skills are an asset. He gives a detailed account of the issue, without adding unnecessary details. This enables the maintenance team to diagnose and fix the issue quickly, saving the company time and money with reduced downtime.
Since the maintenance technician has also gone through this new training, she uses her written communication skills to complete an incident report. Her report includes all the necessary information needed so the next technician who experiences this issue will be able to make the same fix in an efficient manner.
Critical Thinking
After several days of using the new production line, John and the other operators have recognized that the inspection step is causing a bottleneck. Instead of waiting for leadership to notice that production quotas are not as expected and run an investigation, John and his teammates use critical thinking and teamwork to determine that some portions of the inspection could be completed at each station, rather than all being done at the end of the line. Because the production team is intimately familiar with their assigned machines, they can make suggestions that the engineering team might not immediately think of. They feel empowered by their recent training, so they bring their recommendations to the head engineer, who is impressed with their plan. He makes some slight adjustments to the process, solving the issue of the bottleneck.
Emotional Intelligence
Several months have passed, and all is going well on the new line. In fact, it’s going so well that the company has taken on a new client. Everyone is excited, but their production quotas are high, and the pressure is on. One afternoon, a breakdown occurs. It’s August, and temperatures in the plant are hot – both physically and emotionally. John thinks back to his emotional intelligence (EQ) training and takes a moment to check in on his own emotions first. Understanding that his reaction can influence others, he remembers to stay calm and collected. He sees one teammate in particular who seems very upset about the situation. John takes a moment to check in with his co-worker. He validates their feelings of frustration and offers to take a quick break with them while things are worked on. John’s quick thinking not only showed empathy to his teammate, but also kept others from becoming escalated by this co-worker’s agitation.
Conclusion
Not only is John benefitting from his training in his current role, he is honing skills that will move with him as he grows in his career. John’s company is building the leaders of tomorrow by investing in them today.
John’s position is just one within a company of hundreds, but his improved skills have already made a difference in his department. Imagine the impact of these skills across an entire organization. What positions at your organization could benefit from these skills?
