or they feel that they’re doing it for themselves, not a boss who is scouring above them. This is the highest motivation you can achieve. The employee mind frame is one that they are there to help improve the organization as a whole and they believe in what they do. Employees want to create perfect engines. They strive to produce perfect engines expecting no reward other than their own satisfaction. There are no performance incentives. The result – of the jet engines have just a single defect, something cosmetic, the other are perfect. How is all this possible you ask? It can’t just be because the boss leaves them alone, you say. Well, it also has a lot to do with trust. Trust is the most important word in this plant. The boss trusts the employees and they in return trust her and each other. One worker expressed his feelings, ‘I was never valued that much as an employee in my life.’ ‘I had never been at the point where I couldn’t wait to get to work. But here, I couldn’t wait to get to work everyday. That’s no BS!’ The culture at GE/Durham is one where they consider themselves, not as a team environment, but as a tribal community. Daily meetings are held to get updates of the day’s progress and problems, to hip-check morale, conflict, hiring, overtime, technical snags, and to plan for the future. At one point in time, everyone serves on one of several work councils that cut across team lines. These councils handle such matters as Human Resource issues, supplier problems, engineering challenges, computer systems, discipline, and rewards. Consensus is another founding principle of GE/Durham. Every decision made by the team is done so by consensus. When people are hired they go through extensive training on how to reach a consensus and how to work with people. So how is this all possible? How was something so perfect and unique able to function smoothly? The answer to thes...
