When our children were younger, my wife and I often went on bike rides towing them in a child's bike trailer. As you might imagine, a child experiencing such speed always wants more. We frequently heard them saying, "Faster! Faster!", usually when we had slowed down because we were struggling to climb a hill.

This impolite demand was viewed as a teaching opportunity by my wife. She explained to them that their demands didn't really motivate us to go faster. Instead, she told them it would be much more motivating to us if they said, "You're doing a good job!" It worked. Now people we would encounter on our rides often heard the shouts from the trailer, "You're doing a good job! You're doing a good job!"

I received a "You're doing a good job!" from Lisa Cox of Timet Castings at the SPA Annual Membership meeting on Dec. 10. She had read an article I wrote for an earlier issue of this newsletter. She liked it and shared it with employees at Timet. Because not all employees are able to attend, she said the article had been useful in giving these people exposure to happenings at the SPA event I described. Thanks to Lisa's comment, let me attempt to "take you there," to the 1998 Membership Meeting.

Ray Uniejewski, Jim Foflygen, and many others from Cerdec Corporation, the host company, did a fantastic job of putting together what could only be described as a motivating, informative, and high-quality meeting. The enthusiasm and pleasure of employment in a participative, Scanlon atmosphere nearly radiated from the Cerdec people present. This was so striking that one of the non-member visitors to the meeting asked a Cerdec leader if they had brought along all of their enthusiastic employees, and left the rest back at the plant. We didn't have long to wait to discover the answer firsthand.

The Cerdec plant tour in the afternoon clearly showed that enthusiasm and motivation of Cerdec employees is much more the rule than the exception. Cerdec, being in the pigment business, did a wonderful job of "showing their colors" in terms of involvement and creativity. I wonder how many of their competitors use a bread dough mixer and a Hershey Kiss machine in the manufacture of their products.

I am pleased to have had the opportunity to continue my Scanlon experience and exposure to Cerdec into the next day, Dec. 11. Paul Davis and I stayed over to sit in on Cerdec's monthly U.N.I.T.E. (Using New Ideas To Excel) meeting. The occasion was a celebration of sorts. Paul presented a framed photo of Joe Scanlon in recognition of the tenth anniversary of their U.N.I.T.E. plan being in place. It was an emotional and heartening experience.

I was equally impressed at the meeting to see employee participation in action. While not all SPA member companies use formal suggestion systems, Cerdec does. Reporting the status of these suggestions is a major agenda item of this standing U.N.I.T.E. team meeting. The power and economic value of a Scanlon Plan was clearly evident as suggestion after suggestion was reported as "closed and implemented."

In addition, I witnessed an atmosphere in the meeting that I have consistently observed at Scanlon events. This is an atmosphere of safety and freedom that allows employees the opportunity to honestly speak "what is on their mind." Pointed questions were asked, and respectfully answered. In the midst of all of this, there were frequent bursts of laughter as someone threw in a humorous comment.

To sum this up, I would like to direct my children's statement to Cerdec and the other SPA member companies. You're doing a good job!! Translation? Keep doing what you are doing. It's working wonderfully.