Author Archives: Tom Foster

About Tom Foster

Tom Foster spends most of his time talking with managers and business owners. The conversations are about business lives and personal lives, goals, objectives and measuring performance. In short, transforming groups of people into teams working together. Sometimes we make great strides understanding this management stuff, other times it’s measured in very short inches. But in all of this conversation, there are things that we learn. This blog is that part of the conversation I can share. Often, the names are changed to protect the guilty, but this is real life inside of real companies.

To All, A Good Night

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Originally published Dec 2005.

As Matthew looked across the manufacturing floor, the machines stood silent, the shipping dock was clear. Outside, the service vans were neatly parked in a row. Though he was the solitary figure, Matthew shouted across the empty space.

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.”

He reached for the switch and the lights went dark. He slid out the door and locked it behind.
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We hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Management Blog will return on Monday, January 6, 2025.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. -Tom Foster

Can’t or Won’t

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“My team seems to think there are some problems they face that will never be fixed,” Kari explained. “It’s always, here we go again. Same problem, different customer.”

“Do you think they can’t fix the problem or won’t fix the problem?” I asked.

“Can’t fix or won’t fix, what’s the difference? The problem still ends up on my desk, again,” Kari flatly stated.

“Often, people prefer a problem they can’t fix to a solution they don’t like.” **

Kari thought for a moment. “You’re right. To fix the problem, they have to stop production and figure out what’s going wrong. Instead, they would rather flare a few tempers and call for help.”

“This is where you have to decide if this is a matter of can’t or won’t. Often, someone who won’t solve a problem, or even try to solve the problem, feels like they don’t have the capability to solve the problem. They feel incompetent and give up. Your job, as a manager is not to solve a solveable problem, but to build the competence of the team to solve the problem.”
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**Shades of Lee Thayer, Competent Organization

Be Prepared

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“My boss tells me I need to have a plan for next year,” Joseph complained. “I don’t know why he thinks it is so important. All the plans we have ever published are out of date within 60 days. Maybe some targets are still in place to mark progress, but the rest of it gets chucked.”

“You are correct,” I replied. “And so is your boss. The plan is just a work product of a process. And, it’s the process that is critical, not the work product.”

“So, we sit down and imagine what things we could tackle, what problems might come up,” he said. “In the course of events, some things come true and some don’t. What’s the point? When they happen, if they happen, we will just deal with it.”

“What if you are not prepared to deal with it?” I nodded. “One characteristic of competence is the ability to constructively imagine into the future, anticipate those opportunities that could be leveraged, identify things that could go wrong, the forces that might work against you. And, be prepared. The competent housepainter carries extra paint brushes. The competent plumber carries extra tools and common supplies, even it’s not on the work order. The competent teacher steps into the classroom with a lesson plan. The competent driver starts out with a full tank of gas, even if the trip is only 100 miles. The competent manager builds a team with capacity and cross training.”

“When I was a kid in the Boy Scouts, our motto was Be Prepared. Do you mean like that?” Joseph asked.

“It is one of the first things I look for in an individual, related to competence.”

Who Owns the Problem

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“Ownership thinking, that’s what I want to focus on,” Joel said. “Too many problems bubble up to my level. I want my team to own the problems that come their way.”

“Explain to me,” I replied, “how problems bubble up to you?”

“Pretty simple,” he started. “The team encounters a problem they can’t solve, so they bring it to me, deposit it on my desk and leave. It’s now on my desk, so I end up owning the problem. I want that to change.”

“Why do you think they can’t solve the problem?”

“You’re right. Sometimes, I think my team is totally incompetent. They can’t solve the problem because they are incompetent.”

“So, is there a connection between competency and owning the problem?” I wanted to know. “Is it possible that if you are not competent, you cannot own the problem?”

Joel thought for a minute. “Are you suggesting a shift in my focus?”

I nodded. “You can focus on who owns the problem, or you can focus on competence, meaning increasing competence. Do you think that team members, competent to solve the problem, hesitate to own the problem?”

What the Goal Doesn’t Tell

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“But, can’t we celebrate for just a moment? It has been a good year,” Yolanda was insistent.

“Yes, indeed. Celebrate the moment. And, there were good moments. But, what does that tell you about the future? Achieving this year’s goal tells you the mark in relation to your forecast, which was created a year ago. Where is your current journey and where are you along that path? Achieving your goal in relation to a forecast doesn’t tell you what went wrong that you can learn from. Achieving your goal doesn’t tell you where you could be if you had taken a different path. Achieving your goal doesn’t tell you about the preparations you took, the capacity your team developed, or didn’t develop.  It doesn’t tell you how good your competitors are, what the market was like or if you have the right people.  It doesn’t tell you who, on your team, has potential.  It’s fine to have the goal as a mark, but focus on the things that drive the goal.  Those are the rich moments in your journey.”

Call to Adventure

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“We finished the year in fine form,” Yolanda announced. “We met all of our goals with some to spare”.

“Good, now what?” I asked.

“We’re going to have a party,” she smiled.

“Yes, and then what?” I pressed.

You’re never happy, are you?” Yolanda pushed back. “I know where you are going with this.”

“Arriving at your destination is the end, and it is fine to celebrate the mark. But what is your journey? What’s next? That is the call to adventure.”

Multiple Paths

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“Stop with the frantic heroic efforts,” I said. “That is supervisor strategy. You’re a manager, now. Your strategy is a system focus. Stop working harder and longer and start working smarter. How can you see the work as a system?”

“You mean starting with when we get the work order from sales?” Paula wanted to know.

“That’s the way your team sees the work,” I disagreed. “As the manager, you have a larger scope than the team. You know the work starts way before the team gets it. The work starts back in sales, informal discussions about unsigned contracts in the hopper. Your system has to account for all the anticipated work volume AND the unanticipated variability in the work volume.”

“I can sit in on the sales meeting and get some visibility on projects in the works,” Paula nodded. “But, then what happens when the project gets delayed or completely scuttled?”

“Variability means variable,” I replied. “As the manager, you have to make contingency plans, multiple paths to the goal, anticipate what might happen and be ready to call an audible. A system not only has to account for the same characteristics of every project, but also has to account for the individual nuances that are different about every project.”

Go Find Out

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“So, what you are saying is that I am stuck with the team I have?” Paula floated, uncertain in her conclusion.

“Yeah, pretty much,” I nodded. “Unless you think you should fire them all and do the work by yourself.”

Paula huffed a little sigh. “So, if I am stuck with the team I have, where do I start? I mean, sometimes things get tight out there. We have deadlines and things going wrong. Sometimes, we need extraordinary effort just to get to the end of the day.”

“You seem to think it takes heroic effort to just keep up with the work on the schedule? That if you worked a little harder, or worked a little longer, you could stay above water?” I asked.

“But I can’t,” Paula protested. “I can’t yell at them any more than I already do and I can’t work overtime more than one hour per shift.”

“What if you could dispense with the heroics?” I wanted to know. “What if you could still meet your schedule, but things were dull and boring? What would have to change?”

“Not going to happen,” she put her hands on her hips. “We start the day, then get a priority rush job right off the bat, throws everything off schedule. I mean, if I knew we were going to get a rush job, I could have re-shuffled some of the work, pulled someone off another project. But, I never know.”

“And, why don’t you know?” I asked. “The day before, could you meet with the sales team and find out the unreasonable promises they were making with customers? You are the manager. You have the authority to re-shuffle resources to accommodate a rush order, if you only knew about it. So, get out of your office and go find out.”

Ordinary People

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“My team is a bunch of idiots,” Paula started. “They can’t get anything right. Everything they touch turns to rust.”

“Oh, really?” I replied. “When did this start?”

“Always been this way,” she said.

I nodded. “Before you were promoted to manager, weren’t you a member of this team? Were they idiots then? Were you one of the idiots?”

“Okay, okay,” Paula agreed. “Maybe I was an idiot, back then. It’s just so frustrating being a manager. I wish I could get better people on my team.”

“Why would that make a difference?” I asked.

“If I had better people, I could get better results,” she pursed her lips with a defiant look in her eyes.

“So, you think you would get extraordinary results if you had extraordinary people?” I prodded.

“Yes, absolutely,” Paula sat up straight.

“What if I told you there were not that many extraordinary people out there. That most people are just like you and me, more ordinary than brilliant. Your challenge, as a manager, is to get extraordinary results from ordinary people. If that were true, what would you do? What would you work on? By the way, if you WERE able to get extraordinary results from ordinary people, maybe your team wouldn’t look so ordinary.”

Gratitude

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We have a formal holiday in the USA this time of year, to give thanks for the opportunities and people in our lives.

And so, I want to thank each of you for the opportunity to come into your busy day, at least for a few moments, to stir the pot, rearrange some things in your head. I started this blog in November 2004, so by my count, that makes 20 years. I thought that ten years would be a milestone, never thought that 20 was possible. And I have you to thank. Some ask, how do you keep doing this? The real question is, how could I stop?

I think it’s time for a beer. Happy Thanksgiving, November 2024. -Tom