The Oreo cookies kept falling apart. Here’s how the company solved the problem – by listening to its employees

It all began when a man opened a fresh package of Oreos and found a crumbling mess of broken cookies. Disappointed, he bought one other package and discovered the very same problem.

As luck would have it, this gentleman was actually a board member of Mondelez International, Oreo’s parent company, and he quickly brought the matter to light.

Then-CEO Irene Rosenfeld was stunned. If there was a quality control issue with one of its board members’ cookies, there was a likelihood there have been already crushed Oreos in packages across the country, or even the world. How did this occur? Every Oreo factory had systems in place to catch and fix exactly most of these problems. And why did she only discover about it now? Irene decided the best way to discover what went flawed in the packaging system was to ask the people on the front lines: the factory staff.

It turned out that the Oreo cookie packaging factory had recently installed a recent machine that would pack up to six times as many cookies at a time compared to previous machines. However, something clearly went flawed with this machine and the cookies were crumbling – something those on the line were almost definitely aware of.

If only the company could tap into the expertise of its frontline employees before it was too late, a lot of time and money could have been saved. This experience led Irene to wonder what would have to change for an organization to consistently leverage its own collective intelligence? What would an organization seem like that focused on questioning and learning in its strategy and decision-making?

Find wisdom on the front lines

In my experience, the most dear and vital source of ideas, knowledge and information in any organization is its employees, especially those closest to the front lines. Teachers, nurses, factory staff, customer support representatives, salespeople, retail staff, cashiers, and truck drivers are examples of staff whose proximity to real “action” gives them access to information largely invisible to those higher up in the organization.

While “reaching the front lines” has been widely known as an organizational necessity, few corporations have successfully moved from theory to effective practice. Efforts to engage the front lines are typically too superficial or disconnected from reality for employees to trust that any time and energy they invest will impact decision-making.

I made this error while leading a five-yr expansion project at Teach for America. All key indicators increased except one: morale among teachers and staff continued to increase declining. My team realized that we couldn’t just apply top-down ideas that were born in our boardroom, we would have liked information that only those on the front lines could access. Meanwhile, the scope of our “inquiries” among teachers and staff was limited to surveys, focus groups and interviews. Teachers doubted whether these efforts would bring about useful changes and subsequently didn’t take them seriously. We had to have an interest in what they really thought, knew, and felt – something we couldn’t really discover without asking.

So we would have liked a different and higher way to learn from our people. We needed to keep people protected to share what they really thought, so we opened up about the challenges and dilemmas we were working on with teachers and administrators, and then asked useful questions that were designed to reveal their best ideas for solving them . We listened fastidiously to learn what only those on the front lines could teach us, and then applied that knowledge to the changes we made. Morale skyrocketed and the project was a huge success.

This experience taught me that it is not the job of leaders to come up with solutions. The idea is to turn into truly curious about the experiences and knowledge hidden in employees’ heads and build the culture and systems that unleash their collective genius.

Here are 5 strategies for finding wisdom on the front lines:

1. Reduce the effects of power dynamics by recognizing that you simply have a dilemma or puzzle and they need their partnership care for it. Name the value you see and put it in perspective.
2. Let them know in advance when final decisions might be made and what role they are going to play in making and/or influencing decisions. Allow decisions to be made as close to the front line as possible.
3. Lengage them in the challenge by providing them with all possible data pointswhile also asking them to help them re-understand the issues by adding additional information they see.
4. Give them the strength to develop recent solutions by asking “how could we…” questions and generating as many creative ideas as possible before any ideas are evaluated or deprioritized. Ask them to prioritize the solutions they think are most appropriate and share their reasons.
5. Consistently communicate to employees how their ideas and opinions influenced organizational decisions. If you possibly can’t act on their ideas or opinions, or you possibly can’t respond instantly, allow them to know why and what you propose to do next.

Whether you lead a company or work on a team, you possibly can turn into more embedded in your workplace and you will see immediate advantages.

This essay was taken from Jeff Wetzler’s book: Ask: Tap into the hidden wisdom of those around you to discover unexpected breakthroughs in leadership and life. Copyright © 2024. Available from Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.