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.

Computers Cannot Help With This

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“Why is this so difficult?” I asked. We were diligently poring over our business plan for 2011.

“Part of it, it’s difficult to look at the larger picture when you have your nose down in the dirt,” Ellen replied. “Our work volume is increasing, but we are not committed to increasing our overhead. We don’t trust the market. This is very complex.”

“But, your company is used to dealing with complexity,” I nodded encouragement.

“This is different. Detailed complexity, we can handle. I mean, we have a staff of computer geniuses, who can write code to handle a hundred thousand details. But, this is different. You can’t write a computer program to deal with this complexity.”

“Why not?” I pressed.

“This complexity is not detailed complexity. And that’s why this planning exercise is so difficult,” Ellen shook her head. “This complexity comes from uncertainty. You cannot write a computer program to deal with things you do not know.”

Whose Journey Is It?

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“So, life is NOT a river,” Ellen repeated.

“No,” I replied. “And I cannot teach you the things you need to know to become a better manager. You cannot read a book on management and suddenly be a better manager.”

Ellen looked disappointed.

“If you can’t teach me, then who?”

“Ellen, it is your journey. You are responsible for the preparation. You are responsible for taking the steps. You are responsible for learning along the way. What you choose to read and who you choose to listen to are important, but you are responsible for the learning.”

Life Is a River

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“I know I need some help,” Ellen explained. “I am in a new role, I have to step up my game. I know you and I know that many people trust you to help them. I need you to teach me, so that I can become a better manager.”

“I am flattered,” I replied, “but I must tell you a story.”

There was a young woman searching for the meaning of life. She had heard of a wise man who lived at the top of a mountain, who, by all reports, could help in her quest. So she made preparations for the journey.

It was a long journey, traveling by foot. Many overnights before she arrived at the mountain. The mountain was not particularly dangerous to climb, but the path was another two days journey into a higher elevation.

Finally, she arrived, and sat with the wise man she had heard so much about. After explaining the reason for her travel, she asked the question. “Sir, what is the meaning of life?”

To which, the wise man quickly responded, “My child, Life is a River.”

The young woman was clearly taken aback. “I heard you were a wise man, so I traveled many days to arrive at your mountain, then traveled two more days into the clouds to speak with you about the meaning of life, and all you have to say is that Life is a River?”

The wise man looked directly at her, “You mean, it’s not a river?”

Measuring Capability

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“So, if it’s not experience and it’s not skill, what is it?” came the question from the corner.

We had been discussing how you compare the “size” of the role to the “size” of the person.

“Elliott called it capability,” I replied. “One of the largest determining factors (not the ONLY, but the largest) for success in any role is a person’s capability.”

“Aren’t we talking semantics here. Of course, a person has to be capable. Duh!”

“It would be semantics, if capability were just some vague notion. But Elliott found a way to measure it. And it’s not experience, skill, personality or passion. Capability is something measurable, something different inside of each person, something that matures over our lifetime.

“Each of us is born with an innate capability to handle a certain level of complexity in the world. The measure of capability is Time Span. How long into the future are we thinking and executing?

“Two team members, side by side. One can handle a project, as long as its completion date is within the week. The other team member, with higher capability, can plan and execute a project that takes two months to complete. Any competent manager, thinking about their team, can immediately put names to the person with one week capability and the person with two month capability.”

It’s Not Training

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“How big is the role, and how big is the person filling the role?” I repeated.

“That’s why training is so important,” came a reply from across the table.

I nodded. “Yes, having the proper skill and being competent in that skill is important. And skills can be trained. And how many of you have sent two people to training, one gets it, the other doesn’t?”

The chuckles confirmed the answer.

“So, what’s the difference between the two people. It’s not experience. It’s not training?

What’s at Play is Not Experience

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“How big is the role, and how big is the person filling that role?” I asked the group. “Elliott calls this the size of can. How big is the can and how big is the person filling the can?”

“Well, certainly, experience is something we look at,” came a retort from the far corner of the table. “The more experience someone has, the larger role they can fill.”

“Experience is certainly something most managers look at,” I replied. “And how often does experience lead us astray. In fact, does someone have ten years’ experience or one year’s experience ten times? How many of you have placed someone, with experience, in a role, only to find them failing after a few short weeks? What did we miss by relying on experience as our determining factor?”

Who the Hell was Elliott Jaques?

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“Who was Elliott Jaques, and what was his research all about?” There were six of us seated around the table and the question floated like a pass from Drew Brees.

My usual response to that question takes 3 hours, but it was late and I had to be up early. I struggle with that question, because any response is the first step in a long and important journey for any manager. But still, it was late and I had to be up early.

“Elliott Jaques was the most profound management scientist on the planet,” I began. “His study of organizations spanned more than 50 years, generated 23 books and left a legacy for every manager to follow. Elliott observed that each person has, within themselves, an innate ability to deal with a certain level of complexity in the world. Some people are quite comfortable working on projects that will not be completed for one year or more; some cannot manage to get beyond next week.

“Each of us is different. And that difference is measurable.

“As managers, we look at the individuals on our team, and we make running intuitive judgments about what tasks we can assign to which person. It is that judgment — about who can do what, by when? — that was the focus of Elliott’s research.

“How big is the role, and how big is the person filling that role? This is not about personality or a skill set. This judgment is about capability.”

But it was late and I had to be up early.

Like Herding Cats

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“So, how long could they keep that up?” I repeated. “As long as nothing changed, how long could your team simply repeat what they did the day before?”

“Well, forever,” Nathan exclaimed. “But things do change.”

“Bingo!” I said. “Things do change and that is what management is all about. Customers change, technology changes, raw materials change, processes change, even our people change. Management is all about change. Change is your guarantee of a never-ending employment opportunity as a manager.”

I smiled, but Nathan didn’t appreciate my jovial attitude.

“I think I am tuned in with that. So, why am I having so much trouble with my team. They don’t listen to anything I have to say.” Nathan’s head swirled as if his thoughts were making him dizzy and he was trying to stabilize.

“Here is the problem,” I replied, waiting until Nathan’s eyes were settled. “Everyone talks about managing change, as if it is the prime directive. We manage this and we manage that. Here is the clue. People don’t want to be managed. People want to be led. Oh, there is still plenty to manage, processes, systems and technology. But try to manage people and it will be a bit like herding cats.”

The Shadow of Constant Scrutiny

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I manage a department of 12 people and have been quite successful over the past 5 or 6 years in improving the quality of the work and the morale of my team.

I have a team member with good skills but, he takes forever to get anything done. In my effort over the years to make him more productive I’ve afforded him the opportunity to become skilled at many different tasks, each time hoping that this would be the one that “clicked”. His production level, however, never improves even after the “learning curve” of any new skill is overcome.

I’m finally facing the fact, that this guy will never make the shift from being a thinker to a doer. Letting him go is difficult for me though, since I’ve acted all this time as his “enabler”. I probably should have realized his limitations a lot sooner and avoided the situation I’m in now.

What’s your take on this?

Response:

Some people master a skill quickly; others may complete a task only after some hard work (which takes time). Your response (training him in many skills) to the amount of time for task completion may have been misguided, making matters worse, even slowing his production time.

1. Determine what you need this team member to do. This should be based on what the company needs from him. What is his role? Write this down. Instead of training him on many different tasks, focus on the essentials of his deliverables. Don’t create a role around him. Determine the role and determine his capability to fill that role.

2. Baseline evaluation of the “candidate.” This is a very serious conversation. You have had these conversations before, this one is different. Your prior conversations have been searching for something he might be good at. This conversation will focus on what the company needs from him in his role. This will be a focusing conversation. The next conversation will be your evaluation, after one day, of his baseline performance in that role.

3. Improvement metrics. Rather than looking to train him on many different skills, the focus should be on throughput speed in the essential deliverables the company needs from the role. Examine each step in the process that speeds him up or slows him down. We don’t need him to learn a whole bunch of other skills, we simply need to get him faster at the essential skills.

4. Evaluate his long term contribution. After a period of three weeks, as a manager, you will know whether his behavior is becoming more effective or staying the same. As his manager, it will be time for you to make a judgment. It will be time for you to make a decision. Is the candidate becoming more effective in the essential role that we have for him? This is a yes or no question.

5. If the answer is yes, then you have a contributing member. If the answer is no, inform your manager that you are de-selecting this person from your team. If your manager has another role which might be suitable, turn this person over to your manager for placement. If your manager has no other role, it is time to release this person to industry.

Every part of this should be explained to the candidate. There should be no secrets. The candidate should understand the consequences of underperformance. At the same time, underperformance does not make him a bad person. It is likely that he will be relieved that he can look for a position more appropriate to his speed level, rather than live in the shadow of underperformance and constant scrutiny.

The Reward for Hard Work

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“I know I need to delegate more often,” Sharon explained. “But, it just takes that little bit of extra time that I never seem to have. It’s just easier to do it myself.”

“How many hours do you put in each day?” I asked.

“Well, ever since I became a manager, probably ten or eleven. It seems the harder I work, the more work there is to get done.”

“Sharon, do you know the reward for long hours of hard work?” I could see she was going over the obvious answers, dismissing them one at a time. In the end, she had no answer.

“You’re right,” she said, “at this point in my career, I don’t need another plaque to put on the wall. I don’t need to be Employee of the Month, again.”

I smiled. “The just reward for long hours of hard work is more long hours of hard work.” I stopped. “Is that why you are working so hard?”

Sharon stared, first at me, then the wall behind me, then I think her stare began to burrow into her brain.

“Unless your intention is to work even harder and for longer hours, you have to begin to work differently.”