Category Archives: Accountability

Illusion of Control

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“You say that the best on your team, given a wrinkle, a bump or a calamity simply make it go away,” I nodded. “But, you said, you only had a precious few. What makes the difference?”

“When I first started out as a manager, I thought I was in control,” Madison started. “I thought I was the one who brilliantly solved all the hard problems. I thought I was the one who made all the hard decisions.”

“And?”

“My first realization is that control is simply an illusion. I was never in control,” she replied. “Oh, I could plan, I could train my team in our best practices. I could speed up our output, increase our quality standards, but I was never in control.”

“What was the lesson and how did it arrive in your lap?” I asked.

“Easy,” Madison replied. “The harder I tried to control, the worse things got. Even things like pace. I would try to control the pace, increase the rate of output, but the more I leaned in, the slower things got. I would see someone on the team do something stupid, so I would take away their authority to do it. So, instead of leaping on a problem, the team would hang out waiting for me to solve it. It was definitely passive-aggressive on their part, but I am the one who created the monster.”

“So, what was the tipping point?” I wanted to know.

“One day, everything stopped,” she said. “We ran out of a raw material and production ground to a halt. I was out visiting a customer, so I didn’t find out until the next morning.”

“No one thought to call you?”

“They were scared to call me. I was such a control freak. Bottom line, we had more material received on our shipping dock, but the paperwork hadn’t been processed, so no one dared open the crate.”

“And so you yelled at them?” I laughed.

“That’s when I realized I had to delegate. And, I don’t mean delegate in the classic sense of getting stuff off my plate. I mean delegate decision making. I got the team together and asked what would have solved the problem and kept the line going? Two people raised their hands with suggestions. I gave those two people expressed authority to open an unprocessed crate.”

“But, wouldn’t you lose control of inventory on hand?” I pressed.

“For an afternoon,” Madison was clear. “Our Bill of Materials system would have backed into the number based on finished assemblies, we could reconcile with the paperwork that would eventually be processed and we would not have lost an entire afternoon of production. More importantly, I now had two people on my team who could make the decision without me. Forever.”

Wrinkles, Bumps and Calamities

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“Tell me, Madison,” I prompted. “When you think about your team, what are the characteristics you find most valuable in a team member?”

“That’s a tough one,” she replied. “I have a pretty good team. I could look at it by who produces the most output, but I manage the incoming work and spread it out evenly, so no one person gets overloaded. I could look at it by who produces the highest quality work, but we have a defined set of performance standards that every project has to meet. And, these are not mediocre threshold standards, but identify the quality that sets our company apart from our competition.”

“I understand, pace and quality are good measures of output, but still, you have team members you lean on more than others. Step through your team, one by one, what are the characteristics you look for?” I pressed.

“When things run smoothly, there is little difference,” Madison pondered out loud. “But, you know things never run smoothly. There are always wrinkles, bumps in the road and the occasional calamity. My best, and there are only a couple on my team, are those who take the wrinkle in stride, hurdle the bumps with a little adjustment and gather themselves to meet the occasional calamity. It’s when things go wrong that the best people shine.”

“Example?”

“When things go wrong, meaning something unexpected happens, most people tense up. Their logic narrows. They force solutions that don’t work, rely on old fixes that didn’t really fix. My best team members feel the same tension of uncertainty, but open alternate solutions. In fact, my best team members think about alternate solutions before the wrinkle occurs. It’s as if they are in flow in ambiguity. They remain calm. Their focus narrows, but their logic opens up to see underlying causes to the bump in the road. When they fix something, it addresses the specific situation AND provides a lesson in anticipation. In short, they make wrinkles, bumps and calamities go away. Those things still happen, but I rarely hear about them until we debrief the project.”

Shortstop or a Line Backer?

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“I got this from HR,” Nancy explained. “It’s a role description, talks about what kind of person we need. It addresses things like good communicator, detail orientation, team player, integrity, goal oriented. I am going to pair these up with some interview questions, and then we should be good to go.”

“Okay,” I nodded. “But let me ask, in what way do we describe the work? If you were recruiting for a baseball team, would you recruit for a wide receiver or a linebacker?”

“I’m not much of a sports fan,” she replied. “But, I think you have your metaphors mixed up. Baseball teams don’t have linebackers, that’s football.”

“So the mission of the organization will determine what roles we need?” I pressed.

“Of course,” Nancy was quick to clarify. “The output of my team is welded assemblies. So, I don’t need someone who is an expert in electronics.”

“Where does your role description talk about that?” I wanted to know. “It makes a difference. An organization designed as an airplane will never travel under water. And, an organization designed as a submarine will never fly.”

Fog a Mirror

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“It’s really hard to find good people these days,” Miranda lamented. “I don’t need a nuclear scientist, I just need someone to show up and follow some simple directions.”

“Over and over?” I asked.

“Well, yes, it’s a pretty repetitive job,” she replied. “I think that’s why I have a lot of turnover on my team.”

“So, anyone could walk off the street and almost immediately perform the tasks to your satisfaction?” I wanted to know.

Miranda nodded. “Yes. If we had a budget for some robots, well, we don’t have a budget for robots.”

“That’s right, no budget for robots, you’re stuck working with people. And, those people turn over. But, it seems like a simple enough job. Success does not look complicated. So, why do you have the turnover?”

“Look,” Miranda’s face tightened. “In about 30 minutes, I can get someone up to speed. You’re correct, the work is not hard. I think they leave because there is no forward path in the company, no real skills for them to develop, no innovation in the process. It’s just the work.”

“Do you think you may not expect enough from your team’s performance? If someone can just walk in off the street and immediately do the job, what is the point in that? In what way could we describe the role, to expand its decisions and problem solving, to challenge each team member to their highest level of capability? I submit, it is for you, as the manager, to ask these questions.”

Is Paying Attention a Skill?

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“Meeting, after meeting, after meeting,” Addison lamented. “If it’s not a meeting about this, it’s a meeting about that.”

“Management is about meetings,” I replied. “If you stood back from all the meetings your company has, what is the big subject area for most?”

“That’s easy,” she nodded. “Most meetings are about some shortfall, some underperformance, a debrief on why something went wrong, a meeting to fix something next time. If you listed all the meeting subjects, you would think we were a company of incompetent stooges.”

“When there is a meeting about underperformance, how would you characterize the conversation?” I asked.

“Again, that’s easy. It starts by looking for the reason why. It ends up attempting to blame someone or some thing. It gets defensive right away, everyone CYA. No real accountability for the consequence.”

“You described the play as a group of incompetent stooges. Setting aside the stooge part, is it a problem of competence?” I wanted to know.

“Yes, you could say it that way,” Addison stopped her thought. “The blame conversation usually describes someone not paying attention, or someone skipping a step, or someone too lazy to double-check. But, I don’t know if its just an unwillingness to pay attention, or a lack of skill in paying attention.”

“Is there a skill in paying attention?”

“If you break it down,” she explained. “What should catch your attention? How often do you pay attention? What distracts you from paying attention? How do you know when you are paying attention?” A few seconds of silence lingered. “We train on the steps. We train on the sequence. We train on the quality standard. But, we never train on paying attention. And, not paying attention causes most of our problems.”

A Day of Gratitude

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I started this blog in November 2004, so, by my count it looks like 21 laps around the circuit. For that longevity, I have to thank you, my readers. It is my hope that, not only do you read, but you shift the way you think about things related to your roles as managers and owners of organizations.

In the United State, this is a holiday week to celebrate gratitude in a day of Thanksgiving. Thank you for the opportunity, for me to think out loud. I raise a toast to you. I think I will have a beer. -Tom

State the Problem

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“You have a decision to make,” I said. “You looked at some new technology that has the potential to dramatically accelerate the pace of production and simultaneously ratchet up the quality of your product.”

Leo nodded in agreement. “You are correct. But there are two things I have to think about. This new technology is expensive, not related to the increase in output and quality, but its initial investment. And, once we make this investment, the second thing I have to think about is whether the team will adopt the new technology, or will they kill it. Believe me, if they want to stiff arm the project, they can kill it.”

“So, acknowledging the investment and the risks,” I wanted to know, “what steps do you need to take to mitigate the risk?”

“I think there is an order in what needs to happen,” Leo thought out loud. “I think I need to know how the team will respond to the new technology. That’s first. If they don’t embrace it, doesn’t matter how good the technology is.”

“And how will you find out?”

“I have to schedule an exploratory meeting to look at this new technology. I need to gather some data and put it in front of the team, see what they think.”

“Why do you have to gather the data?” I asked. “You have some engineers on the team, why don’t you have them gather the data?”

“But, what if they reject the new technology before we even get to first base?” Leo answered my question with a question.

“Do you think the way you state the problem has any impact on the way people approach the solution?” I pressed.

Leo nodded again. “Yes,” he stopped. “I know, I know. You want to know how I am going to lay out the problem statement in the project to get the best response from the team.”

“Yes,” I smiled. “What does that problem statement sound like? And is it really a problem statement, or a statement that points to a solution?”

Leo thought, not out loud at this point. Finally, “In what way can we explore new technology in our industry, that will dramatically accelerate our pace of output and step up our quality spec?”

“Good,” my smile turned to a remarkable grin. “Practice that, and then call a meeting.”

The Right Questions

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“Your team has its old method of solving the problem, but with this client, with this project, the old method is not working?” I asked.

Simon nodded in agreement.

“Your team has its own reasons for continuing the old method, even when it doesn’t work?” I continued. “What are those reasons?”

“I don’t know,” Simon suggested. “I suppose because that is the way they have always solved the problem before.”

“If you don’t know, then you are surprised when they don’t follow your direction,” I observed. “How are you going to find out?”

“Okay, okay,” Simon relented. “I have to ask them.”

“You have a goal, a target, a problem solved and a project complete,” I said. “How do you draw the team to productive behavior in solving the problem? They have their old way, you have a new way, but there is still a gap. How do you draw the team to your new way?”

“That’s the problem. If I ask, we will likely squander the precious time we have to fix the problem. They are likely to come up with unproductive solutions,” Simon was convinced.

“If you are not getting the response you want,” I smiled. “Are you asking the wrong questions?”

Who is Right?

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“So, you are suggesting I open the team up with a question, instead of just telling them a tried and true new method that worked at my old company?” Simon pushed back.

“What do you think will happen if you don’t get willing cooperation and support for your new idea?” I asked. “I mean, what if another week goes by and nothing changes?”

“I don’t think we have a week,” Simon said.

“Then how can you get things to change?” I continued to press. “When you declare the new way to solve the problem, what happens to the mindset of the team?”

“Well, they are supposed to sit up and listen.”

“But, that is not what is happening,” I replied. “Again, when you make the declaration, what happens to the mindset?”

Simon had to slow down. I broke the pattern of his argument. “When I declare the best way to solve the problem,” he started, slowly. “I communicate to the team there is no other way to solve the problem. I shut down the possibility of alternatives.”

I nodded. “And, when you shut down the possibility of alternatives, what is there to talk about?”

Simon grinned. “I guess the only thing to talk about is, who is right and who is wrong?”

“And, do you really want to have an argument of who is right and who is wrong, or do you want the team to explore the possiblity of a better way to solve the problem?”

Under Deadline Pressure

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“I don’t get any respect,” Simon complained. “I was hired away from my old company because I was promised I would have my own team, run things the way I see fit. But, I get here and all I get is pushback from the team. All my ideas are challenged, sometimes behind my back. It’s almost toxic the way the team agrees with me in public and then goes back to the old way of doing things.”

“So, how do you think you will earn their respect?” I asked.

“Not sure,” he replied. “I had my manager come in and give a little pep talk to the team, including the part about how I was the new manager and they were supposed to do what I say.”

“And, you are telling me that didn’t work?” I smiled.

“It seems to have made things worse,” Simon lamented. “We have a big project that has been stuck for six months and the customer is threatening to cancel the contract and take it to one of our competitors. I know how to fix the bottleneck, but I can’t get the team to implement a new process. The more project pressure, milestone deadlines, the more they fall back on their old methods.”

“So, if you can’t tell them what to do, because that seems not to work, have you tried asking?” I continued to smile.

“You mean get on my knees and beg?” Simon snorted.

“You will have to come up with better questions than a lame request,” I said. “What happens if you open the team up with a question instead of a directive?”

“First of all, it will be time consuming. If I ask about a better way of doing something, they are likely to come up with all kinds of rabbit trails leading in the wrong direction.”

“But, it does open up the possibility of a better way than the old method, no?” I pressed.

“But the time,” Simon pushed back. “It will take a lot of time, time we don’t have.”

“Which would you rather?” I asked. “To spend an appropriate amount of time exploring alternative solutions, or an elongated period of time fighting the pushback to your solution?”