Time to re-direct the focus of my project

So, as some of you may or may not remember from class, Jun gave us the specific instructions to NOT simply stand in front of the class and say, "this is my problem. I solved the problem by using Google Sites." I'm not sure if that was in direct response to my blog on my project, but that was exactly what I had planned for my presentation. Now it's time to refocus more toward a process oriented approach.

To recap, at B&L Bike Shop we have no written policies and very little formal training. This has made things very difficult on new staff and has increased the work and stress level for the more experienced staff. I want to look into ways to solve this problem.

Key to the solution is going to be change management. Currently we have a culture of blame and defense. This means that if you can, make sure to blame the problem on someone else, and if you can't, defend yourself to the very end. When someone makes a mistake the approach is how can I cover my rear end(I have the feeling this is not a dynamic unique to the B&L work place). We need to change how we look at problems that arise from one of cover one's posterior to one of trying to make it so the mistake does not happen in the future. In essence we will need to shift to culture to center more around the learning process. This means that if there is a problem with inventory, or a customer policy is not followed properly we need to look at it as a structural flaw, not a personnel flaw.

This aspect of the project will be very tough. I don't know quite how I will be able to change the company culture without the help of the owner/manager. As I get further and further into this project it is become more and more clear that this will have to happen from the top down, not from the bottom up as I had originally hoped.