What new plant managers almost always get wrong in the first weeks

In the first week the new plant manager sees things that are obviously wrong. A warehouse that is overflowing. A meeting that goes round in circles. A procedure that is done twice. The impulse is strong: I will change that immediately, then everyone will see that things are different now.

The problem is not that the observation is wrong. The problem is that every condition in the plant has a history. The overflowing warehouse may be the answer to a supplier who has been unreliable for years. The meeting goes round in circles because two years ago someone took a decision that nobody is allowed to reverse. Anyone who does not know this changes the symptom and wonders why it comes back.

My advice, hard as it is: no structural decision in the first weeks. Note down everything that strikes you, with the date. Follow up every observation and ask how it came about. After a few weeks you have a list that contains not only problems but also their causes. Then you decide, and you decide correctly.

The new plant manager has a full calendar. Handover meetings, introductions to the executive board, reports, systems, approvals. All of it is necessary. But it takes place in the office. And the hall you are responsible for sees the new person only on the introductory tour.

The people on the line notice very precisely who shows up and who does not. After a few weeks an image has solidified that you can hardly correct any more. Either you are someone who comes, asks and listens. Or you are someone who reads reports and sends instructions.

I recommend spending a fixed time in the hall every day during the first weeks. Not as a gemba walk with an entourage, but alone, at changing locations, with a single question: what is stopping you from doing good work today? The answers are your real handover report. And the people who give them remember that you asked.

In the first days, people come forward. They come with advice, with warnings, with suggestions about whom to keep an eye on. They are friendly and helpful. And they are often the ones who have the most to lose in the old system.

That is not ill intent. Whoever offers themselves first wants to secure a place in the new order. The danger is that the new plant manager builds their picture of the plant from these first conversations. Then they know the view of those who came forward, not the view of the plant.

Deliberately talk to those who do not come. The shift leader who has been there for many years and never stands out. The clerk in order processing who knows why delivery dates do not hold. The maintenance technician who knows every machine. These people have no interest in influencing you. They only have knowledge. And they do not expect to be asked, which makes your question all the more valuable.

It is tempting to attribute the state of the plant to the person who was there before. It is a relief, it creates distance, and the executive board often likes to hear it. But it comes at a high price.

The employees worked with the predecessor, some for years. Some liked her, some did not, but almost all of them built things under her that they are proud of. Whoever devalues the predecessor devalues that work along with her. And whoever does that should not be surprised when the team meets the new ideas with caution.

A plant with several production areas got a new plant manager who declared at the first staff meeting that from now on, at last, work would be done professionally. The sentence was not meant maliciously. It still cost months, because every shift leader understood it as a verdict on their own work. What works better: acknowledge what is there, and say what you want to build on. Even if you see some things differently. Especially then.

The executive board has expectations, often with a deadline. The new plant manager translates these expectations into targets and passes them on. Within a few weeks the hall knows that something big is coming, without knowing what, and begins to protect itself.

Here lies a task that many underestimate: the plant manager is not the mouthpiece of the executive board. They are the translator in both directions. Upwards they must explain what is possible in the plant and what needs time. Downwards they must turn expectations into something people can understand and support.

That requires standing in front of the plant now and then, when an expectation from above is not realistic. In the first weeks that is uncomfortable, because you have no credit yet. But that is exactly where it is earned. A team that experiences the new leadership representing it upwards will go through thick and thin afterwards.

When I accompany a new plant manager, I recommend a simple structure for the start:

• Listening before deciding. A list of all observations with their history, before anything is changed.
• Daily in the hall and in the order processing office, alone, with the same question for everyone.
• Conversations with the quiet ones, not only with those who come forward.
• One small, visible improvement that the team itself proposed. Not your idea, but theirs. That shows that listening has consequences.
• An honest conversation with the executive board about timeframes, before targets go downwards.

All of this seems slow. It is the opposite. Whoever uses the first weeks to understand decides faster afterwards and decides better. Whoever decides immediately spends the first year correcting their own decisions.