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.

Which Tasks Does the Manager Keep?

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
When we write a role description, you suggest that we break the role into different Key Result Areas, to organize the tasks and accountabilities. Will some of the Key Result Areas carry accountabilities (goals) with different Time Spans or do all KRAs in a role have to carry the same Time Span?

Response:
Heavens no. Every task, every goal carries its own Time Span. Each KRA has to be examined for its related tasks, and, yes, they will all be different.

Let’s look at two KRAs for a Stratum III role, a plant manager.

  • Plant Floor Layout
  • Production Scheduling

The specific task in Plant Floor Layout, might be to integrate a new machine into the work cell flow. That task may take 12-18 months to analyze the ROI of replacing a work cell (manual output) with this new machine (automated output), making the decision to purchase the machine, determining which machine to purchase, identifying the best vendor to supply the machine, negotiating the contract to get the machine, changing work flow to accommodate the space for the new machine (which may require a new concrete floor), taking delivery of the new machine, assembly and setup, troubleshooting (these machines never work out of the box), creating new work instructions, training personnel on machine operation, getting the machine up to capacity, to meet the output of the original ROI model. This is solid Stratum III work.

Production Scheduling may require a historical look-back at seasonal volume changes, loading work levels to match anticipated sales forecasts, making sure we have sufficient headcount in our production crews, and then specifically creating work shift schedules. The Time Span of these tasks will vary from 3-12 months, and likely require Stratum II capability.

The plant manager will be accountable for both KRAs, though the tasks in one would be Stratum III and the other Stratum II.

My expectation, however, is that the plant manager will self-perform most of the Stratum III tasks and look to delegate large pieces of the Stratum II tasks. Identifying the Time Span of the tasks gives every manager insight as to what work has to be self-performed and what work may be delegated.

Agreements That Are Invisible to Others

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“Everyone says they have integrity, but I have to tell you, when Roger told me how he managed to skip out on the maintenance fee in that contract, I got a queasy feeling.” Alice was having difficulty, even talking about this.

“I know it was only a $130, but he was so proud that he was able to beat the vendor out of his money. I don’t know, it was just weird.”

“Weird?” I asked.

“Yes. Every agreement you make with other people, you ultimately make with yourself. When you cheat other people, you ultimately cheat yourself. When you break a promise to yourself, you teach your brain to distrust your intentions. You sow the seeds of self doubt. You undermine your strength and integrity.”

I sat silent. Alice was on a roll.

“Every agreement you make with other people, you ultimately make with yourself,” she continued. “When you keep your agreements with other people, you teach your brain to trust your intentions and behavior. Agreements you keep with yourself, that are invisible to others, are the most powerful because they are pure. They sow the seeds of self confidence. You build on your strengths with a foundation of integrity.”

The End of the Story

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“I don’t understand,” Roger shook his head. “If Brad would just start earlier on these longer projects, things would be under control, and he wouldn’t be cutting unnecessary corners which compromise project quality.”

“Why do you think he procrastinates until the end?” I asked.

Roger shook his head. “Because, he cannot see the end until he is two months away. On a project with a nine month deadline, Brad cannot see the end. It is too far in the future. There is so much uncertainty between now and nine months from now, that he cannot see it.”

“So he takes no action?” I pressed.

“Of course, the pressure of the project builds, because now things are getting late, but even that, is not what finally kicks Brad into action. With sixty days to go, Brad can now see the end. And when Brad can see the end, he starts to act. It is frustrating for us, because we saw this nine months ago.

“Everyone has a story. And every story has a beginning, middle and an end. When you listen to someone’s story, you will hear the Time Span of their story. They cannot take action in their story until they see the end of their story.”

Procrastination As a Clue to Capability

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“So, how did the audit project get delayed for your ISO re-certification?” I asked.

“I don’t know. You spoke with Olivia, one of our supervisors. Her manager, Brad, is really in charge of that project. And we have had more troubles than just the audit with Brad.”

“Procrastination?” I guessed.

His eyes grew wide and his head began to nod in agreement. Eyebrows furrowed. “Yes. And I have talked to Brad about getting a jump on these longer term projects. He is okay with projects at about 60 days, but anything longer, and he really gets in the weeds. At the end of most projects, you see him power through, working overtime and weekends. When he started here, he looked really dedicated, but as time goes on, I don’t see that, as effective manager behavior.”

“What length project is Brad good at?”

“Two months.”

“And how much time is left before the audit?”

“Two months.”

“What connection can you make from that?”

He Said He Was Interested

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“What do you mean, evidence?” Stella asked. “It’s an interview. If someone says they are up to the task, that they are interested in the challenge, that they really want the responsibility, what more can you get? I mean, I asked those hard questions.”

“Exactly what were the questions you asked,” I wanted to know. “Let’s list out those hard questions.”

“Okay,” Stella started. “I asked if he really thought he was up to the task? I explained just how difficult the job would be and asked him if he would really be interested in the challenge? I asked him why he wanted that level of responsibility?”

“So, you asked him the perfect questions, so he could lie to you?”

The Candidate Assured Us

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“Your new supervisor?” I asked.

“Yes,” Stella explained. “Everyone on the interview team agreed this was the best candidate, but it’s been two months now, plenty of time for adjustment and it’s just not working out.”

“And this candidate had worked at this level before?”

“Well, not really, but he said he was ready for it. That’s why he was leaving his old job, not enough challenge in it.”

“This is a supervisor role, what’s the time span of the goals in this role?”

“Nine months,” Stella replied.

“Tell me, what is the longest task?” I pulled out a piece of paper to make some notes.

“It’s scheduling,” she continued. “Some of our equipment is very expensive, difficult to get and difficult to move from one job to the next. It can cost us $15,000 just for the riggers to relocate some of the pieces. So we schedule our logistics about nine months in advance. And when we schedule it, we stick to plan. Too expensive to do otherwise.”

“And your candidate provided evidence of nine month time span work in the past?”

“Evidence? No, but he assured us he was up to the task.”

Debriefing Winners

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“Let me see the projects that you put in for review,” I said, as Sean handed over the list. I scanned down the page, “I see you selected six, tell me, how did you decide which ones for the group to do a post mortem on?”

Each quarter, Sean’s team spent four hours going over significant projects for the quarter, looking for lessons learned. “Oh, that was easy,” Sean replied, “these were the eight biggest money losers.”

“It is always tempting to debrief a project where things have gone wrong. Once you have corrected all those problems, where are you?” I asked.

“My guess is, we are back to even steven. No loss, no gain, no harm, no foul.”

“If you really want to make progress, you also have to analyze where things went right. Pick two or three winning projects to debrief. Find out why you were able to make significant margins. Where was the advantage in those projects? Where can you find more projects like those?”

Brilliantly Professional

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From the Ask Tom mailbag.

Question

I have just joined a new company as a project manager and another PM has been assigned as my manager. While this person has been with the company for a while, he is not that far ahead of me technically, though he knows some of the ins and outs of our clients. My problem is that I have been here for a week and a half and, though I have approached him several times about assignments, he continues to keep everything to himself. I am getting tired of staring at my computer screen. I don’t want to go around him, but I don’t know what I can do.

Response

Your manager is obviously more interested in task oriented work rather than management oriented work. Project Managers manage projects, not people, so he may not even know what to do, or how to manage you.

Whatever his reasons are, it really doesn’t matter. The first obstacle you have to overcome is, lack of trust. You have to get to know him. And I am not talking about warm and fuzzy stuff, this can be brilliantly professional. Grab him at a coffee break, before or after work and try these questions:

  • Where did you go to school?
  • How did that prepare you, for your career as a project manager?
  • What attracted you to project management?
  • What is the most interesting project you have ever completed?
  • What part of your job do you find the most satisfying? (Hint, he is likely to also tell you the part he finds the least satisfying…which may be your entry into an assignment for some productive work).

Ask him what the most appropriate first assignment might be. Would it be a small project on your own, a segment of a larger project, or simply a small task in a larger segment?

Each day, ask him if there is some small thing that you could do for him that would be truly helpful. It doesn’t have to be a huge assignment, yet something you can successfully complete that begins to build the trust. It might even be an administrative task like collecting all the projects in a list and tagging the status of each project, who is working on it, etc. (This will be helpful to you, because you will know about projects in-house). Good luck, keep us updated on your progress.

Focus on the System

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“When you look at this inventory problem, where should you be spending your time?” I asked.

Bruce looked down. “You’re right. I walk around the store barking orders about removing this display or re-working that shelf arrangement. I have team members to do that, and I have supervisors to make sure it happens.”

“What should you focus on?” I repeated.

“I need to focus on the system. I mean, I can still walk around the store. It gives me a better sense of reality, but I need to focus on the system. It’s the system that provides the predictability in our inventory management. Everything else is simply rearranging deck chairs.”

Systems Approach

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“If I had to reduce my inventory by 30 percent by the end of May,” Bruce continued, “I would be able to spend more time analyzing which inventory I wanted to get rid of, adjusting my min/max and re-order points. I would look at inventory turns, lead times and ship frequencies.”

“So, what’s the difference in blowing out 30 percent of your inventory by the end of next week and reducing it by the end of May? You still get your inventory down?” I asked.

Bruce smiled. “If I just blow out my inventory in one week, I will guarantee that within two weeks, my levels would all be back. I might even have more inventory then, because people will be ordering stock outs without any rhyme or reason. In the short term it works, but in the long term, it all comes back.

“By working systematically, I can make permanent changes in stock levels. I will have much more control. We will have the profitable inventory we need, that turns, that makes us money. It gives us more predictability and consistency. It all gets back to the system.”