Vative – Truly Innovative Cultural Transformation

Not all innovative designs are physical! Instead, the innovation can be targeted at transforming the culture and mindset of the most important asset in your organisation – your people.

In 2019, Workwear Group (WWG), Australia’s largest workwear provider, identified an internal desire to improve productivity through automation. However, when a process is flawed, automation only creates more flaws – and at a faster rate.

WWG understood that in order to create sustained improvements, they needed to create a better place to work. The leadership team knew that to receive buy-in from their front-line, they needed to address the values, beliefs, culture and mindset of the organisation. As a result, WWG enlisted the business optimisation services of Vative to transform their organisation through strategy, leadership alignment, business analysis, people capability and development, and project management, using methodologies under the Continuous Improvement framework.

Vative employed an organisation-wide program using Lean tools and methodologies to empower leaders within the business to make simple yet powerful changes for an educated and innovative approach to their work.  The core of the engagement involved an Executive Alignment session, Lean Capability Development program, End to End Value Stream Mapping and ensured the involvement of the entire workforce in the implementation process.  

A complete cultural transformation occurred over the span of 9 to 12 months, translating the desired future state of the organisation, into their present state. Through developing a mindset that encouraged growth and contribution, the number of improvement ideas generated by team members doubled. The changes were not simply instantaneous, but have been sustained, because the people at WWG feel valued and know that any contribution they make towards change is taken seriously. Productivity and employee morale has reached a milestone that was once thought to be unachievable, and it goes without saying that WWG is truly a better place to work.