The turquoise management strategy in PKS Gdańsk-Oliwa S.A. officially came into effect on 1 September 2017. Following the July announcement of a new chapter in the company history, personal meetings and workshops took place during which the employees were learning new rules of company operation and rules of cooperation. Regarding the introduction of self-organisation CEO Rafał Olszewski addressed the employees with the following Letter of Intent:
What goals do I set for myself and the company?
- I would like to hear the following sentence: “Nothing better could have happened to me than working at this company” – from someone who will be retiring in the future from PKS.
- I would like to ask you for support in the solving of difficult company matters because not always can we the management work out and implement appropriate decisions.
- I would like you to make more decisions, I would like to depend on your knowledge and vast experience.
- I would like the colleagues to be able to enjoy work.
- I would like the people in the company to be able to grow, train and educate themselves and search for and find their place in the company according to the talents they possess.
- I would like the colleagues in the company to earn a rewarding salary, a higher one than the market average in our sector.
- The company security and the colleague security are the most important things for me.
- Therefore, I want this company to have a strong market presence, to grow steadily and generate profits.
- I voluntarily want to depart from directly influencing the directions of the company’s development and to pass onto my colleagues the power to make day-to-day operational decisions. I believe in the wisdom and experience of each and every colleague and, in particular, in the wisdom and experience of teams.
What is this to look like in the day-to-day company practice?
- The company will be organised in a form of self-managing operational teams.
- Operational teams will be composed of forwarders and other specialists willing to join them.
- The first self-managing forwarder operational teams will be the teams in which we will be working out and testing a new formula of operation.
- Support teams will remain organised as before until we find a similar reasonable formula for them which will correspond to the new company culture.
What will the work in operational teams look like?
- In teams all colleagues are equal, regardless of their experience, seniority or positions held earlier. All management and coordination positions are made redundant.
- Teams set their own work style and the roles of particular members themselves.
- Teams set their own goals internally.
- Colleagues are fully capable of making decisions (having asked for an opinion) and bear complete responsibility (for the decisions made).
- Decisions are made by those colleagues who are knowledgeable about a given topic once they have asked for necessary opinions.
- We work based on trust, not control.
- In teams we promote openness and sincerity, we speak about our strengths and weaknesses.
- We focus on constant skill development (we learn, we train)
- We share knowledge and experience in team and in company.
- Every colleague may search for and change their workplace in the company or the team, so they can find a place where they will be able to realise themselves and feel professionally fulfilled.
- Coaches of self-organising teams will be selected among colleagues. One coach will work for a number of teams, he/she will not be a manager but merely an advisor when the team is incapable of overcoming the emerging problems.
2017.07.07
