In the summer semester of 2021, Prof. Dr. Thomas Bayer's conception seminars took place at the Faculty of Business and Economics at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (HNU) as part of the Organizational Development major. The students worked in groups on real-life change management issues facing regional companies such as Utzin Utz AG, a manufacturer of flooring installation systems in Ulm. Uzin Utz sees the exchange between companies and students as an important factor for sustainable success. For this reason, the Ulm-based family-owned company regularly offers HNU students practice-oriented topics for project work. Dr. Florian Neymeyer, Head of Human Resources, IT and Legal at Uzin Utz AG, was particularly interested in the question of how a culture of trust and innovation can be promoted in the company in concrete terms.
Implementation of a positive error culture
The two HNU students Andreas Braig and Linda Kolar jointly decided to work on this issue. Their theoretical elaboration and conceptualization focused on the implementation of a positive error culture, which aims to convince managers and employees to deal openly and constructively with errors in order to position the company as a top employer and innovation leader in the industry in the future. The concept developed by the two students was so well received by Mr. Neymeyer that he implemented it as part of a pilot project with the support of Ms. Kolar as a working student in his People & Organization Development department in the fall of 2021.
Fumble - a football term
In compliance with Corona hygiene regulations, the first "FumbleNight" took place on November 9, 2021. Fumble is a football term and was used by Uzin Utz in its in-house strategy paper. The HNU students Ms. Kolar and Mr. Braig therefore picked up football metaphors in their change concept. The term "fumble" is used in football language and means something like making a mistake (the "egg" is dropped accidentally).
During the "FumbleNight", managers and employees report openly and honestly about what and why they failed in the past and what they learned from it. Furthermore, the participants received deep insights into the topic of psychological safety in a short lecture by Christian Brosig. Towards the end of the event, all participants had the opportunity to give their feedback on the "FumbleNight". Among other things, they stated that they would like to see a repeat of this format. With this kick-off event, which was developed from a practice-oriented teaching concept by students at the HNU, the first step was taken at Uzin Utz toward an open culture of error and thus also of trust and innovation.
