Lawrence relented. We had been talking about the role of the manager. Two months into the job, Lawrence was feeling stretched way too thin.

“Okay, if I give up scheduling the plant floor and let my supervisor, Nicole, do that, I am afraid our department won’t meet our goals.” Lawrence shifted, very uncomfortable.

“Lawrence, you have a new role. It is Nicole’s turn to make sure the work gets done. It is her job to make sure things are done right.

“Your new job, as a manager, is to focus on the system, to make sure the right things get done. Remember last year, when our demand went to 125 units per day. Our big machine could only produce 100 units per day, so all the raw materials got stacked up in front. By Friday, we were 125 units behind. We went into overtime, hired more forklift drivers (browse around here) and rented extra space to store the raw materials. Our costs were increasing and we still only produced 100 units per day.

“It was only when George, the old manager, decided to run the big machine 3 hours extra each day that we worked through the backorders. We were able to get out of our storage space and let go the extra forklift drivers. Our costs went down and we were running 140 per day.

“Effectiveness is not only doing things right, but doing the right things.” -TF