By Isaac Galang and Bianca Gempesaw
Last January 22, AEV successfully reintroduced SDD to reignite the interest of team members, and remind them why we are doing this initiative. The online event was attended by over 180 team members across AEV and other SBU partners, all extending support to help make things simple and fun within the organization.
Super Ditch Day is an initiative that we launched in 2022 for the first time and it aims to eradicate processes, services, products, and even behaviors that don’t add value anymore. The ultimate goal is to collect ideas from all of you and see how we can improve our ways of working within our SBU or even across the Aboitiz Group.
—Dea Franko Csuba, VP for Transformation, AEV
As suggested by its tagline, Super Ditch Day is an initiative that empowers team members to have a say about how to improve their ways of working. Every idea submitted by employees is given the opportunity for review, with owners expected to take action–ranging from suggestions about improving a certain process, reviewing a policy, highlighting a behavior, and the list goes on.
Within AEV, the initiative generated a total of 156 ideas from the last time it was launched, and currently has a total of 91 ideas ditched. And with the recent relaunch, ideas are now starting to pile up that will help contribute to streamlining the roadblocks in AEV.
“SDD will make us feel heard, valued, and most importantly, it made me realize the power of contributing even seemingly small ideas. In a massive organization like ours, it’s easy to feel like a speck in a vast sea of ideas but that is the beauty of it, we should always appreciate the impact of our ideas no matter how small it is”, said Atty. Bits Tanupan of Tax Advisory and Compliance Services, AEV.
WHAT’S NEW?
Embracing the battle cry of ditching complexities, the SDD committee, led by the AEV Transformation Team redesigned the initiative’s core features to enhance its user experience, transparency, and accountability.
The project team went the extra mile to improve SDD’s current system, exemplifying the A+ 10 behaviors and further driving the group’s journey towards its great transformation.The revamped Super Ditch Day brings forth supercharged efficiency with its new process flow, submission form that captures more detailed entries, and a dashboard that promotes transparency and allows team members to see the status of the submissions in real time.
One notable feature is the creation of the SDD Council– a group of different team representatives that will help ensure that all ideas have been properly captured, reviewed, and, for those that are ditchable, be implemented.
“We in AEV Legal are eager to collaborate, innovate, and enhance efficiency. We’re excited about working not only within our team but also with other CSUs. We commit to a positive, can-do spirit, and make this journey towards the great transformation an inspiring and enjoyable one!”, said Mark Robles of AEV Legal.
ESTABLISHING THE DITCH CULTURE
A key takeaway from this big initiative emphasizes cultivating a positive “ditch culture”, empowering A-People to boldly challenge the status quo and find better ways to get things done. SDD is more than just a one-day event, it should be ingrained as a religious practice. Team leaders and members must muster the courage to ditch processes that hinder them from doing their best transformative work within their team, and across their respective teams.
Super Ditch Day stands not only one of the initial byproducts of the Aboitiz Great Transformation, but was fortified with its firm anchoring in the A+ 10 core behaviors and is propelled forward to spark more waves of transformation. This initiative demonstrates change by instigating real transformation close to home–a shift in behavior by working smarter and ditching the complexities that can ultimately reshape our work culture and the organization.
“The SDD program boosts AEV’s value through process simplification, raising productivity, reducing efforts, and enhancing efficiency. To contribute and ensure success, we must actively engage, assist fellow council members, and encourage our CSUs to participate and share insights. Ongoing learning and providing valuable feedback based on our experiences are crucial.”, said Jobelyn Urbano of GIA
LOOKING BACK AND MOVING FORWARD
The initiative was originally launched in 2022. During that time, the entire Aboitiz Group generated over 1,971 ideas and successfully implemented over 300 ditch ideas. The numbers continue to grow as teams remain committed to eradicating processes, policies, services, and even behaviors that don’t make sense anymore.
Fast forward to 2024, which is the year of “becoming” a techglomerate, AEV is the first one to relaunch the program that aims to spark a ripple effect internally. As a result, various business units within the organization are now gearing up to prepare and launch their respective “ditch day” plans to ensure that everyone has a participation in transforming the organization towards being simpler, faster, and synergistic.
