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.

Size of the Can

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I turned to the flipchart, this morning, and drew a picture of a can.

“How big is the can?” I asked. “And how big is the person filling the can?”

There were several guesses from the group here in Cincinnati.

“And, how do you measure the size of the can? How do you measure the person filling the can?” I continued.

Everyone knew exactly what I was talking about. The size of the can is the size of the role. The size of the person describes the capability of the person filling the role.

Leslie Pratch just posted an article about this in the Huffington Post. She provides two specific examples and then describes how to measure the size of the can.

Your thoughts?

Applied Capability

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
How do you develop longer Time Span in an individual?

Response:
Elliott Jaques, in his research on Time Span (Requisite Organization), believed that each person has an innate ability to deal with a certain amount of complexity in the world. The complexity can be objectively measured as Time Span and is different for each person.

With that understanding, there is nothing that can be trained, learned, coerced or manipulated to change a person’s maximum capability. It is what it is.

Within that range, up to a person’s maximum capability, we can influence a person’s applied capability. Applied capability creates evidence, observable behavior, goals that are achieved.

We can impact applied capability through education, training, providing opportunity in areas of interest or opportunity where the work has value to the team member. All of these elements will stimulate (without a motivational speaker) a person to bring their highest game to the table.

Losing Sight of the Goal

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I got this question a couple of weeks ago from Michelle Malay Carter at Mission Minded Management. She accurately describes a challenge in applying the research of Elliott Jaques, specifically Time Span to role descriptions.

Question:
What I see is managers are able to look at a description of the nature of each work level and state what level they believe a role falls within, and their description sounds legitimate to me. However, when we try to align that with time span by asking them to articulate a longest task (a what by when), the length of the time span does not align with the described level of work. (Time span plots the role in a lower work level.)

Response:
When managers first create role descriptions, they get all wound up trying to determine what level (Stratum) the role is in. When prompted to describe the longest task assignment in the role, the task often falls short.

Elliott’s experience is that managers often fail to recognize what is really required for success in the role. Their descriptions fall to the observable mechanics of the task and fail to recognize the one element that drives Time Span. The “what by when” refers to the goal. Whenever I have difficulty determining the Time Span of a task, I always go back to the goal. The goal will lead you to a more accurate assessment of the Time Span required.

Example. What is the Time Span of the task in hiring a person to work our customer service counter? The observable mechanics dictate that I create a job description, job posting, conduct interviews and make a selection. The Time Span might be described as four weeks. That would be wrong.

Describing the observable mechanics ignores the “what by when,” it ignores the goal. The goal is to do all of the observable things, then have that new recruit complete orientation, training, shadowing, to the point they can work the customer service desk, solo, without assistance. That’s the goal. And that goal will take four months.

Whenever I am lost in the search for Time Span, the goal will lead me to the right place. Most companies underestimate the Time Span required for success in the role. Because they lost sight of the goal.

Future Topics Poll?

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In a couple of months, Management Skills Blog will be 5 years old. During this time, I have drawn on the conversations I have with managers. But, I always remember, conversations are mostly with yourself, there just happens to be other people in the room. So, I am curious.

As we go forward, in the general area of management and leadership, what specific topics are you interested in? What bugs you about management? What are the significant challenges you face, as a manager? What’s difficult? Where do you feel the pain? If you would think about that, and send a reply to Ask Tom, I will compile the results and post them in a couple of days.

Solving Problems in Different Ways

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I sat back. Roy sat back. “In what way can I challenge their thinking without telling them they are wrong,” he repeated, to himself.

“Well?” I waited.

“Okay, I guess I could ask them questions about how they arrived at their conclusion.”

“And what else?” I prodded.

“You mean you want me to think of more ways to challenge them?” Roy chided.

“Sure. What if the first way doesn’t work? You are a manager. You need more than one way to move your team.”

It took another ten minutes, but here is the list Roy came up with.

“I can ask them –

  • What they saw that led them to that solution?
  • What they heard that led them to that solution?
  • To describe the impact of their solution after a week?
  • To go away and come back with three other alternative solutions?
  • If their solution solves the real problem or only a symptom of the problem?
  • What is the underlying cause of the problem we are trying to solve?

There are many ways to bring value to your team. The most effective is by asking questions that move them to solve problems in different ways.

Challenge Without Coddling

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Roy was pensive. “You mean, you think, that my team only resists my ideas when I tell them they are wrong?”

I looked at Roy. “I don’t know. What could you do differently to test that?”

“How can you test it, if they really are wrong?” Roy challenged.

“Let’s assume they ARE wrong,” I matched. “In what way can we move them toward your idea without telling them they are wrong?”

“Oh, you want me to coddle them,” Roy pushed back. “I’m sorry, that’s not me.”

“I don’t want you to coddle them. I want you to challenge them, with the same energy you are showing me, now. In what way can we challenge their thinking without telling them they are wrong?”

Changing Our Minds

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“My logic is easy to see, but if I point out that they are wrong, it seems they cling to their ideas even stronger,” Roy’s words rang in his ears.

“When you are faced with a rather difficult problem, where the answer isn’t so obvious, have you ever kicked the can around in your head, deciding one thing, only to change your mind in the very next minute?” I asked.

Roy smiled. “Well, yes, sometimes you have to think about something and you change your mind, from one side to the other.”

“And it happens pretty easily, in your own head, to change your mind?” I added.

“Well, yes,” Roy agreed. “So, what’s your point?”

“If it is relatively easy to change our minds, why is it so difficult for your team to change their minds, when you tell them they are wrong?”

Everybody Has a Dot

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“They just don’t listen,” Roy complained. “You would think they would have some respect. After all, I have been doing this job for more that 15 years.”

“It’s because they have a dot,” I replied.

“What do you mean they have a dot?”

“A dot. Everybody has a dot. Your team members, each, have a dot. You have a dot. Only your dot doesn’t match their dot.”

Roy was quick. “Okay, but if their dot is wrong, why don’t they listen to me?”

“I don’t know, why do you think?”

Roy was ready for bear. That’s a Texas expression that means Roy wanted to argue. And he was perfectly willing to go first. “Sometimes, I think they are just pig-headed, stubborn. My logic is easy to see, but if I point out they are wrong, it seems they cling to their ideas even harder.”

“Imagine that,” I pondered out loud.

Calibrating Time Span

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
I have a basic understanding of Strata and Time Span. My organization has a central office and several small regional offices consisting of a Director, 1- 2 program staff and an office coordinator. The Director’s role requires a Time Span of 12 months with most responsibilities between 1-3 months. The Director’s staff works in Time Spans of days and weeks.

The limited pool of employees makes it difficult to build bench strength to replace a departing director. I can find staff who comfortably cross Strata I and II, but how do I build bench strength or promote from within when I need a Director with Stratum III capability?

Response:
First, we have to calibrate the Time Span required. While many of the tasks (goals) of the Director are shorter than 12 months, if even one of the goals are 12 months, then that’s the capability that you need.

The second thing we have to consider is the time it takes a person to mature from one Stratum to the next. Most managers think about coaching and mentoring programs in terms of months. In reality, for a person to naturally move one full stratum takes 10-13 years. Yes, we progress, but slowly.

Unless you have the luxury to cycle promotions over a ten year period, you have two viable options. This means your strategy of internal promotion is not likely to be responsive to produce Directors within the time frames required.

The first option is to create a Director acquisition program, an incubator that recruits and holds prospective managers until you need them.

Your second option is to redefine the longest Time Span task assignments so they fall more in line with Stratum II. Understand this will redefine the role of Director, but will allow you a larger candidate pool to find successful Directors.

Decisions Under Stress

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“Why do you think the Director of Sales and Marketing made the decision to move your bigger accounts to house accounts, away from your best salesperson?” I asked.

Krista glanced to the ceiling, “I don’t know. I mean, I know we are struggling. I look at the financial statements and the razor-thin profit at the bottom.” As Krista spoke, I could see the tension building in her face. Her eyes narrowed.

“Where did you just go?” I probed.

“What? What do you mean?”

“As you were describing your financial statements, you left the room, mentally. Where did you go?”

Krista chuckled. “Last Tuesday, we had a meeting. I shared the financials with the management team. It was a short meeting, not much to say. The market is tough. I only remember a moment, staring at the Director of Sales. His face was white, perspiring. I didn’t say anything. I could tell he was uncomfortable. Not like he was having a heart attack or anything.”

“But, he was stressed,” I interrupted. “And he was looking at the financials. And then he made a decisions to hold back your largest accounts and not pay commission. And you lost your best salesperson.” If you constantly experience symptoms of mental health conditions like anxiety, stress or depression, you may consider using cannabis products from indacloud.