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.

Accountability in the Decision

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“What’s the risk?” I asked. “What if you promote Ryan to this new managerial role and it turns out to be the wrong decision?”

Cheryl hesitated. “Not good. It’s never good when you put someone in a role and they don’t work out.”

“And who will I hold accountable if it doesn’t work out?”

Cheryl suddenly realized that, as the manager, she would be in the hotseat, not Ryan. “When you think it through like that,” she started, “I guess it would be me.”

I nodded, “Yes, so how could you make this decision on more than a feeling? Because I WILL hold you accountable.”

“Well, if you are going to hold ME accountable for his success or failure, I am not so sure.”

“In what way can we make certain that this is the right decision?” I insisted.

Good Intentions and Taking Chances

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“Ryan is stepping up,” Cheryl explained. “He has been a supervisor here, four years, now. We would like to promote him to a manager role, but want to make sure we aren’t making a mistake.”

“What’s he doing, now?” I asked.

“Shipping supervisor. It used to be a no-brainer, but logistics has gotten more complicated, and we implemented a bar code system. He managed to keep up with all the changes. He has a crew of three people, picking, packing and shipping. Saved us some heavy budget, when he discovered a vendor program that allowed us to consolidate some of our freight. We are thinking about putting him in charge of the entire warehouse. As a manager, he would be in charge of maintaining all our inventory systems, cycle counts, spotting stock-outs. It’s a much bigger role.”

“But you still have your doubts?”

Cheryl moved her head side to side, “Yes, but the more I talk about it, the more I think I have made my decision.”

“Made your decision, based on what?” I pressed.

“Well, he has done a good job in his current role. I just have this feeling,” she replied.

“Feelings are nice, like good intentions. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. How can you be more certain that you are right?”

“I don’t know. I guess I will just have to put him in the job, take my chances. Have to wait and see.”

A Different Way of Looking at the Work

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“I am afraid,” Susan spoke. “My company is growing, but we are not as profitable as we could be. Don’t get me wrong, we are still profitable, but the percentage is shrinking as our revenues grow.”

“What do you think is happening?” I asked.

“We have always been good at getting the work out the door. If there is ever a problem, we are like a bulldog, whatever it takes, to complete the order. Problem is, we have to be bulldogs more often, which means we dip into overtime, eat the freight, expedite production, which all erodes our profit.”

“When did you notice this?”

Susan had to stop and run images through her mind. “We’ve been on a roll the past three months. I mean, in the past, we have had occasional spikes, and we could always push our way through, but now, the push is constant and we are paying the price.”

“So, it’s more than making sure all the work gets done, we have to get the work done – efficiently, and profitably. Efficiency and profitability doesn’t come by pushing with tenacity. It comes from a system. It’s a different way of looking at the work.”

The Promotion Was a Mistake

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question
I have a team member who has always been the “go to” person on his team for as long as I can remember. Anytime anyone needs help, they call on him. He is an expert on how our machines run. He is always cheery, enthusiastic. So I promoted him to supervisor. That means, now, he is in charge of scheduling, making sure each day’s production is complete, checking raw materials for the next day. It doesn’t seem like a lot of responsibility, but I think the promotion was a mistake.

Response
It doesn’t seem like a lot to you, because those responsibilities are well within your Time Span capability. You have a team member with a high interest in machines and how they run. He can probably listen from across the room and tell if something is wrong with a machine.

In his new role, listening to a machine doesn’t go far. You are asking him to use a new set of tools – schedules and checklists. Machines work in real time. Schedules work into the future. He may not be interested in the work of a supervisor and you may be asking him to play a Time Span role beyond his capability.

There is one simple way to find out. Ask him.

Prescribed Duties and Discretionary Decisions

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“Do you, as the Manager, sit with your team and talk about the decisions they have to make as they collect this data?” I asked.

“Well, we go over how to fill out the form. We have training every month on changes to the form or changes in the way it is processed,” Arlene replied.

“Have you ever had a team member follow all the instructions, complete every box on the form, but at the end of the day, there were problems?”

Arlene started laughing, nodding her head. “Oh, yes!” she blurted. “We had this one guy, we had to let him go, finally. And it was difficult, because he did everything he was supposed to, but he was such a mess, disorganized. It was all last-minute with him. I mean, he would get the filings in just under the wire, but the underwriter, who had to approve the paperwork was always kicking it back. In the end, the customer would not be approved and they would be mad at us. But remember, all we do is the paperwork, we don’t approve the underwriting.”

“That’s not true,” I countered. “You could tell the difference between poor performance and good performance with this guy. As his manager, when did you know you had a problem?”

“Oh, it was the first week. You could just tell,” Arlene explained.

“And, how long did it take before your company terminated him?”

Arlene hesitated, “Eighteen months. But we had to give him a chance. We had to make sure he had the proper training and that he didn’t just get a batch of problem customers.”

“He didn’t fail because of the training,” I replied. “And customers are always problem customers, so that’s not it. And he did not fail because you didn’t tell him what to do, the prescribed duties. He failed in the discretionary part, the decisions he had to make as he approached the work. These are the decisions that managers never talk about with their team. And it is these decisions that make the difference between success or failure.”

Hiring Talent Begins September 19, 2011

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We are gathering the next group for our online program Hiring Talent, which kicks off September 19, 2011. As the economy (slowly) recovers, your next hires are critical. This is not a time to be casual about the hiring process. Mistakes are too expensive and margins are too thin.

Purpose of this program – to train managers and HR specialists in the discipline of conducting more effective interviews in the context of a managed recruiting process.

How long is the program? This program will take eight weeks.

How do people participate in the program? This is an online program conducted by Tom Foster. Participants will be responsible for online assignments and participate in online facilitated discussion groups with other participants. This online platform is highly interactive. Participants will interact with Tom Foster and other participants as they work through this program.

Next program starts September 19, 2011. Pre-register Now.

Who should participate? This program is designed for Stratum III and Stratum IV managers and HR managers who play active roles in the recruiting process for their organizations.

What is the cost? The program investment is $699 per participant.

When is the program scheduled? Pre-registration is now open. The program is scheduled to kick-off September 19, 2011.

How much time is required to participate in this program? Participants should reserve approximately 2 hours per week. This program is designed so participants can complete their assignments on their own schedule anytime during each week’s assignment period.

Pre-register Now.

September 19, 2011

  • Orientation

Week One – Role Descriptions – It’s All About the Work

  • What we are up against
  • Specific challenges in the process
  • Problems in the process
  • Defining the overall process
  • Introduction to the Role Description
  • Organizing the Role Description
  • Defining Tasks
  • Defining Goals
  • Identifying Time Span

Week Two

  • Publish and critique role descriptions

Week Three – Interviewing for Future Behavior

  • Creating effective interview questions
  • General characteristics of effective questions
  • How to develop effective questions
  • How to interview for attitudes and non-behavioral elements
  • How to interview for Time Span
  • Assignment – Create a battery of interview questions for the specific role description

Week Four

  • Publish and critique battery of interview questions

Week Five – Conducting the Interview

  • Organizing the interview process
  • Taking Notes during the process
  • Telephone Screening
  • Conducting the telephone interview
  • Conducting the face-to-face interview
  • Working with an interview team
  • Compiling the interview data into a Decision Matrix
  • Background Checks, Reference Checks
  • Behavioral Assessments
  • Drug Testing
  • Assignment – Conduct a face-to-face interview

Week Six

  • Publish and critique results of interview process

Week Seven – Using Profile Assessments

  • Using Profile Assessments

Week Eight

  • Publish and critique results from Profile Assessments

Registration
Pre-registration is now open for this program. No payment is due at this time.

Note –
This program concludes prior to the Thanksgiving holiday (USA) and will be the last Hiring Talent Program offered in 2011.

Listening for Organizing Behavior

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“So, I have been ignoring the most important skills during the interview?”

“Perhaps.” I said.

“But it almost seems silly. Am I supposed to ask if they can count?”

“Russell, you said that a critical break-down is in material counts for each day’s production. It is more than just counting. Try these questions.

“Tell me how you handled the materials staging for each day’s production. How many finished units did you produce in a typical day? What were the raw materials that went into each of the finished units? Where did you warehouse the materials? How did you move materials from the warehouse to the staging area? How long did that take in advance of production? When did you check on material availability for each day’s production? How did you handle a stock out?

“Russell, in response to these questions, what are you listening for?”

He smiled, “I’m listening for organizing behavior, working into the future, anticipating problems. It is more than just counting.”

High Productivity Can Create Excess Inventory

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“I need you to make a phone call,” I told Corina. She looked puzzled, feeling guilty about something she wasn’t sure of.

“There’s a lesson in this,” I continued. “It’s a counter-intuitive lesson that most people and organizations don’t learn until it’s too late.”

“So, you are talking about the difference between the company’s goal and my goal for the plant?” she asked.

I nodded, “Yes, the difference. There shouldn’t be a difference. But no one sat down and punched through all this, so there could be agreement. In fact, I would bet that you never sat in a meeting to truly clarify the goal for the plant. I would bet you assumed, by all manner of policies and directives, to produce as much as you could as efficiently as you could.”

I was nodding. Corina was nodding. “How much excess inventory is now hiding in that warehouse?” I asked.

Corina smiled, but quickly realized what had seemed to be good news wasn’t after all. “I would have to pull the reports, but I think we have about four weeks of production built up in the warehouse. I mean, we were building to forecast, but we weren’t selling to forecast.”

“Okay, let’s make that phone call.”

How Freely to Talk About Time Span

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From the Ask Tom Mailbag –

Question:
How freely do you explain Time Span (based on the research of Elliott Jaques) throughout the organization?

Response:
Time Span is as natural as behavior.

All behavior is goal directed. The goal may be to pursue a dream, or to relieve boredom, but all behavior is goal directed.

If we can understand a goal in its simplest form, a “what, by when,” we can see Time Span as a natural part of all behavior, and a natural part of every discussion about behavior.

“I am going to the store.”

“What time do you plan to return?”

So, I am curious. Why the question? Is there some part of Time Span that you feel uncomfortable talking about? Ah, there’s the rub. There IS something that makes you uncomfortable.

It has to do with labels.

There are many judgments that are within our authority, as managers, to make. As a manager, is it within your authority –

  • to determine what tasks need to be completed?
  • to determine a reasonable amount of time for the task to be completed?
  • to assess the effectiveness of the team member in completing the task?

The answer is, yes.

But, it is NOT within your authority to tell Jim (or Fred or Julie) that you have judged their maximum capability to be Stratum I. There are several reasons (in no particular order) –

  • You might be wrong.
  • Your incorrect assumption might become a destructive permanent label.
  • As a manager, you have no method to collect the data, to do the analysis, to make that judgment.

Elliott was very careful and specific in his language. As a manager, it is within your authority to assess the effectiveness of the team member in completing the task. Assessing effectiveness in completing a task is much different than judging the maximum capability of an individual.

Elliott made a clear distinction between maximum capability and applied capability. As managers, we are not equipped to judge maximum capability. Yet, as managers, we can observe applied capability. The reason we can see applied capability is, there is evidence of the work product. As managers, we can know the intention of the goal, the circumstances of the work environment, and the behavior of the team member engaged in the task. We can see applied capability.

And applied capability may be far different from maximum capability. I may have the capability to complete the task, but not the skill. I may have the capability and the skill, but not the interest. If I am not interested, you will never see my maximum capability.

On the positive side, as my manager, it is incumbent on you to help me discover my potential (the difference between maximum capability and applied capability), to discover those elements, like training, education and placing me in a role where I value the work. When those elements line up, I will be more effective in the role I play. And you will see job satisfaction go up, with no need for a motivational speaker.

Yes, Time Span is a natural part of every conversation about goals.

Work Longer, or Work Differently?

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“A leader is someone who gets things done,” Stephanie responded. “At my church, whenever there is a project that needs to get done, people scatter. They all have excuses. They don’t have enough time. They are too busy. They don’t know how. So, the same one or two people eventually get asked to run the project.

“But when I look at those people, they are busier than anyone else. They always have more on their plate than the next person, yet somehow, they always get the job done. And they seem to get it done with little effort, even though they probably have less time to devote to the project than anyone else.”

“So, what do you think is the difference?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I mean everyone seems to want to help out, but some people just do it. There is a big difference between wanting to get something done, and actually doing it.”

“My question is still on the table,” I said. “What is the difference? What are the factors that make it so?”