Honor for the Game

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“Gentlemen, today is the day we play for the national championship. Today, I want to talk about honor. Honor for the University, honor for each player in this room and honor for the game.

“The university’s role is to be a part of a larger institution that collects intercollegiate athletes like yourself to play the game. We provide the uniforms, the playing field, the referees. It is our honor to create this space for you to play the game.

“And, also to honor you. It is your honor to wear the uniform, not to only to represent the university, but to represent yourself. Honor for yourself. This team did not arrive on this field today because we were good at trick plays. This team arrived here because of its discipline to fundamentals. You catch the ball because you are a half step faster than the defender. You run through a short gap because the linemen hold their blocks a half second longer. You do not get penalized because you are disciplined to focus.

“Finally, to honor the game. For some of you, this will be the last organized game you will play. And, you will remember this day for its joy that allowed you to play. It’s a game that required practice, individually and drills as a team. Mastery in synchronized movement. It is the game that collected these two teams today. The other team traveled the same journey to get here. They are meeting together, just like we are meeting together, huddled in a spirit to honor the game.”

Who’s Decision Is It?

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“I hear you have a hole on your team?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“You are right,” replied Rolanda. “I sent a note to HR to find someone for me. I hope they can place somebody fast.”

“You sound a bit casual, like the decision is in the lap of HR?” I wanted to know.

“Yes, I am a little tired, covering for the lack of manpower on the shift. The sooner they can find someone, the better.”

“Is it possible,” I said, “that it’s not HR who can recognize the best person for your team. That decision falls to you. The most important decision you will ever make, is who is on your team. That person will either make you successful or cause you to stumble.”

Is Flexibility a Skill?

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“Three things you described, not paying attention, someone skipping a step, or someone too lazy to double-check, it sounds like a motivation problem,” I said, “but, you describe it as a skills problem?”

“Yes,” Addison replied. “I assume everyone comes to work each and every day with the full intention to do their best. And, yes, sometimes, their best isn’t good enough. But it is not because they don’t want to perform at a higher level, it’s because they don’t know how.”

“But, not knowing how, points to some sort of training response on your part. And, yet some people return from training and the underperformance persists?”

“I think,” Addison thought out loud. “Maybe our focus in training misses the mark. We think that training is all about technical information. We train on our sequence and standards, but our failure points are not because we don’t have a process or standards.”

“Where do you see the failure points?” I asked.

“It could be something as simple as flexibility. We have a process, but each project introduces some nuance that is not part of our process. If we don’t pay attention to the nuance, because we are not paying attention, or we aren’t looking for the nuance because we are following a rigid checklist, we are then surprised by a failure point. But, we don’t train flexibility.”

“Is flexibility a skill that can be trained?” I pressed.

“If we can break it down, yes,” she said. “Let’s take safety. We have a safety protocol we follow on every project, it’s a checklist and it’s a hard checklist. No compromise. But, it doesn’t cover everything. We have to be flexible. The height of a project makes a difference, confined space makes a difference, flammable materials make a difference, the depth of a dig makes a difference. We have to be flexible, to make adjustments to rules to accommodate differences. We don’t train flexibility.”

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.”

Time of Year for Planning

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“In the beginning, your purpose doesn’t have to grab everybody,” I started. “It just has to grab you. It helps you set the course.”

Riley was pensive. “I took over from my father. His purpose served the company well until he passed. The company’s culture was built on it. But things are different, now. It’s not like we sell vinyl records, though that is making a niche comeback. The market is not as interested in our product offering. It is still a voracious market, but it looks in a different direction.”

“Markets drive everything,” I nodded. “When your father started his small company, he did not know if it would work. At the time, he had little access to market research. He based his assumptions on intuition and those first sales. If he was lucky, there would be enough sales to cover his costs. The bank would not loan him any money, so he had to develop his product within his own means and its meager cash flow.”

“I know the stories,” Riley remembered. “And, all of his profit went right back into the company to hire more people and buy more equipment. He took a second mortgage on the house, and mom had to co-sign the note. But, he made it.”

“And, did well,” I smiled. “But markets change. Sometimes markets want incremental improvement, but sometimes markets want a seismic shift. You are somewhere in between.”

“I can see the shift, already,” she said. “I can read the market chatter and see the little startups that take some of our customers. I want to change, but, I am not sure which direction to take.”

“It’s an age old dilemma,” I replied. “Many people think that resistance to change is a matter of will. Most have the willingness to change, it is more a matter of how.”

“Is it a skill?” Riley asked. “Is there a series of questions, or a series of problems that must be solved?”

“If it was a series of problems, what would be the first problem? And, don’t give me some general notion, but think in terms of a problem statement.”

“In what way can we determine the shift in our market needs to better create a product that responds to that need?”

“That’s a good start,” I encouraged. “Here are some other questions you might consider.

  • Who is in our market?
  • How do we find out what our market is struggling with, related to our current product?
  • How do we prototype emerging products to meet that struggle?
  • How do we maintain our current product long enough to create the cash to fund emerging products?
  • How do we measure the ability of emerging products, even small variations, to capture new market interest?
  • How do we manage the risk of failure in our experimentation?
  • How do we maintain morale in our workforce in the face of inevitable failures?
  • How do we learn from our failures, fast enough, to continue innovation?

There are answers to these questions, but first, you have to ask the questions.”

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?”