Miguel looked at me, then back to the schedule on his desk. He put the pen down and let out a sigh.

“But, it’s my responsibility. I feel guilty if I’m not here and something goes wrong.”

“Miguel, you are in charge of this work area, running two shifts on staggered schedules. What if I told you, we were planning to ramp up production in two months, to add another shift to run 18 hours per day? What would you do, then?” Miguel’s eyes got wide. I raised my eyebrows in response. “What are you going to do then?” I repeated.

“Well, I don’t know, you would have to get a different manager for the other shift.”

“Miguel, you are the manager for this work area. Everything that happens here is your responsibility. I will not have another manager so you can blame each other for things going wrong. I want one person to be responsible for the area. That’s you.” I stopped to gauge his reaction.

“Well, how am I going to do that?” Miguel responded.

“That’s what I want to know, how are you going to do that?”