Assertiveness training on the production line

Challenge

The company employs some 2,350 people at its two plants in Hungary. Our preliminary assessment (focus groups with 110 line workers across all four plants and all three shifts, plus a management workshop) revealed clear tension between managers and blue-collar workers. Its root was communication: some managers weren't empathetic enough, and the workers couldn't voice their opinions and problems assertively enough.

Solution

• We designed a two-sided intervention: managers received leadership communication training, and blue-collar workers received assertiveness training.
• Until then, the line workers had at most attended lecture-style training. So we built a practice-based, one-day programme: forum theatre, transactional analysis made simple, improvisation exercises, and trying things out on the spot.
• Short sessions with many participants, with easy-to-remember models and relatable situations.
• The trainer had worked as a factory worker himself and is an experienced psychodrama leader.
• In parallel, we prepared the company's internal trainers (Train the Trainer) in four parts. They carried the programme on independently.

Result

We delivered the training 25 times, and over the following months every blue-collar worker took part. It became part of the annual “classroom day”. In 2018, the programme won the HRKOMM EQ Special Award.