I could tell Gail was uncomfortable.

“Do you trust your team?” I asked.

“Of course, I do,” Gail snapped without blinking.

“Then why don’t you turn your control system into a feedback loop so your team can see the production pace through the day?”

“But what if they really get behind and I don’t know about it,” she pushed back. “There will be hell to pay with my boss if something goes wrong and I don’t know about it.”

“Do you trust your team?” I asked again.

Gail was slower to respond this time. “Well, yes,” she nodded.

“Then strike an agreement with your team,” I replied. “You figure out the threshold of the pace, so if they get ten units behind or five units behind, whatever you are comfortable with, that your team is required to pull you in to make a decision.”

“And so if they are only four units behind?”

“Then, it is within the discretionary judgment of the team, to adjust their own pace to make up the four units. But if it slips to five units, they call you.”

The color was coming back into Gail’s face.