Growing Together: Inside Chatfield Global’s Grow Phase | Duratrack Case Study Part 3
Case Study: Chatfield Global LLC and Duratrack
Part 3: Growing Together: Inside Chatfield Global’s Grow Phase
Introduction to Chatfield Global LLC’s “Grow” Concept
Chatfield Global LLC’s "grow" phase evaluates future organizational design and staffing levels, seamlessly integrates newly recruited talent into existing teams, and emphasizes foundational skill building and leadership development. Building upon Duratrack’s existing strong culture, growing a shared language around leadership, behavioral norms, and reinforcing company values, were the focus. Additional energy was spent envisioning Duratrack’s expanding organizational structure to showcase their growing leadership influence and positioning high-performing team members in roles they are passionate about.
Along with the initiatives above, Duratrack tackled several additional initiatives within the "grow" category. These initiatives include training in both English and Spanish, 1-on-1 coaching and development planning, career coaching, executive coaching, and enhancing HR practices and documentation.
Shaping the New Team
Chatfield Global’s first goal was to integrate Duratrack’s newly recruited Plant Supervisor, Production Scheduler, and Customer Service/Account Manager into Duratrack’s team. With intentional onboarding plans and a gracious group of Duratrack employees to welcome them, the goal was to ensure this new team became a cohesive, happy, and highly productive unit. Alongside onboarding the three new hires, Chatfield aimed to develop individual team members for future leadership roles within Duratrack.
Communication-focused training was the first all-company training topic to roll out. The first set of courses covered fundamentals of communication, nonverbal communication, active and empathetic listening, collaborative communication, giving feedback, conducting crucial conversations, and intentional questioning.
The second set of courses focused on evolving the team member’s mindset and behaviors, which includes learning about generations in the workplace, critical thinking and problem-solving, behaviors and empowerment, and managing oneself through change and transition. One of the significant outcomes of these training programs was the formation of stronger bonds within smaller groups, especially among Spanish-speaking employees. The choice Duratrack made for Chatfield to deliver the same training topics in both English and Spanish facilitated continuous conversation and learning beyond the training sessions. As noted by Chatfield Global’s Organizational Development Consultant and bilingual trainer, Talia Block, "It is incredible to see the smaller groups forming bonds and becoming more open with one another. This is especially great for the Spanish speakers, as they can learn and grow in their own language and continue the conversation outside the training and on the production floor. Employees feel empowered to change and improve for themselves and the company's betterment. There is a shift occurring in behaviors and how the employees relate with one another as they see the possibilities for what can be and how an already great company can become even better."
Creating a Clear Path for Duratrack’s Future
Another goal at Duratrack is to establish a clear path for employee growth as the company continues to grow. This involves developing a modern organizational chart and a succession plan that aligns with the company’s future growth plan and expected retirements. By doing so, Duratrack can better prepare for the future and ensure that all employees understand their current roles and potential career progression within the organization.
Understanding the vision for the future structure enables Chatfield Global and Duratrack senior leadership to take a step back, evaluate the big picture, and turn more attention to working “on” the business rather than “in” the business. Russ Scott, President and Owner of Duratrack, Marcy Brajkovic, President and Owner of Chatfield Global LLC, and Melissa Reid, currently Duratrack’s VP of Operations, have formed a casual, yet focused and intentional executive coaching partnership. As a neutral third party, Marcy gave Duratrack’s leaders free space to develop new ideas and give their thoughts on Duratrack’s future through inquiry-based exploratory conversation. The executive coaching happens organically at Duratrack, rather than in a more formal way.
Melissa Reid has taken advantage of the executive coaching opportunity as she begins her transition to her next role in her career development. Although Melissa has excelled in her long career and her current position as the Head of Operations, she has always had a love of serving customers. Through multiple conversations about her interests, goals, and ideas for the future, Chatfield helped Melissa shift her focus from leading operations to leading sales and driving an excellent customer experience. We asked Melissa what excites her most about her shift to sales, to which she explained, “My experience at Duratrack is in operations, scheduling, and purchasing. I know so many different aspects of the business, and I can tie them together to deliver a fabulous experience to the customers as I'm trying to help them address their needs. Because I'm picturing different work centers, processes, and teams of employees that we can use to help provide the right solutions, we can connect the dots easier in the sales process and improve lead times to our customer’s benefit. Duratrack is an amazing manufacturing company. We have over 30 different types of manufacturing processes in-house, so we can be that one-stop shop for our customers. And I love that I now get the opportunity to help our customers every day.” Melissa also sees this transition as an advantage, as her operations skillset will remain in her toolbox. “My background in operations and working closely with engineering allows me to help identify solutions and talk about different changes for design and manufacturability with the customer. And what that allows us to do is help them develop a product that's going to be repeatable, reliable, and cut costs in the manufacturing process, which will save them in the long term.” Melissa’s transition from operations to sales aims not only to align her career ambitions with her current interests, but also allows her to delegate her operations responsibilities to develop future leaders within the company and coach others as they step into greater responsibility and accountability.
The Results
Through our "grow" initiatives, Duratrack has evolved into a more cohesive and dynamic organization. Employees are not only more engaged but also better equipped to tackle challenges collaboratively. Kate Spilotro, Director of Organizational Development at Chatfield Global, acknowledges the progress: "In the past, people would go to leadership when they had something to share about a colleague, how work was getting done, or needs they have of their peers. With training and practice, everyone is becoming more comfortable with and adept at giving and receiving positive and constructive feedback. For many, this has already had a positive impact on job satisfaction and engagement." The development of leadership skills and the empowerment of individual team members has positioned Duratrack to achieve greater operational efficiency and continue to grow the culture of a truly empowered and accountable high-performing team.
This progress has also amplified the confidence of individuals, making them see their individual potential as leaders and work towards the roles they want to take on. Melissa recounts a moment when she and Russ truly saw everything click. “This was the ‘aha’ moment for us,” Melissa explains. “Chatfield came in to review a process map we created in shipping. We had all the key players from the shipping department involved in developing that process map. It was originally intended to be a time for Chatfield to show the process flow to the team to celebrate what had been done so far and to discuss next steps. At the start of the meeting, the shipping lead arrived with a new employee. While waiting on others, Marcy asked the lead if he would start to share the good work of the team with the new employee. Wonderfully and unexpectedly, the lead took over the meeting and owned sharing the map that he had helped create with the rest of the shipping team. The pride that I saw in him, and the pride that I saw in the team, I think it really hit home for Russ and me. Just seeing the confidence and seeing the rest of the team ask the lead questions, and walk through it together, they even identified something that they had missed before, and they made corrections. That's what all of this has been about. We moved into this new facility to grow our space to do more for customers, and we quickly realized we needed to grow our personnel to match the new space. And the investment with Chatfield has allowed us to start building the foundation for doing that.”
Learn more about Duratrack: http://www.duratrack.com/
Learn more about Chatfield Global: https://chatfield.global/what-we-do
Stay tuned for Part 4 of this case study, releasing next Thursday!
Did you miss Part 1? Check it out HERE
