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.

Someone Might Hold Us Accountable

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I just completed the curriculum for the next Subject Area in Working Leadership Online. Planning – Creating the Future.

I am always struck by what planning helps us do and what excuses we have for not planning more often.

  • We don’t have time to plan.
  • Our plan never works anyway.
  • We don’t have enough information to plan.
  • We could create a plan, but the boss will veto it.
  • I was responsible for the last plan and it didn’t work. I caught hell for it. No more planning for me.
  • If we put a plan together, someone will try to hold us accountable for it.

That last one is my favorite.
Planning – Creating the Future kicks off March 16. Working Leadership Online. Register now.

Objective Intuition

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From Working Leadership Online:

Question:
You talked about capability as one of the factors in underperformance. How can I measure that, so I can make better decisions about assignments?

Response:
As a Manager, you may think you have only a feeling about someone’s capability, but, in fact, that feeling can be objectively measured. This measurement was documented in statistically valid research studies by Dr. Elliott Jaques as early as 1952 and continuously validated in studies until his death in 2003.

The metric is Time Span. Time Span is the length of time a person can work into the future, without direction, using their own discretionary judgment.

As a Manager, think about any task assignment for any of your team members. Some will complete the immediate parts of the task and then get stuck, come back to you for more direction or just check out. Those Time Spans are relatively short.

Others can take a complex task assignment and carry it forward to its completion. These Time Spans may last for a few days, weeks or months. Time Span is the length of time a person can work into the future, without direction, using their own discretionary judgment.

Once a manager understands this simple concept, the intuitive feeling about a person’s capability can be objectively measured and better decisions can be made about task assignments. -TF
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Working Leadership Online, register now.
Mar 16 – Planning – Creating the Future
Apr 6 – Delegation – Ultimate Leverage
Apr 27 – Control Systems and Feedback Loops

Capability, Skill and Interest

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From Working Leadership Online:

Question:
Why do we constantly have to correct workers? Why don’t they just do the task lists given? Where is the balance between constant harping at employees and merely checking their work?

Aside from the fact that supervision is the job, I am, many times, at a loss to define why some Stratum I workers need constant correction. I realize it could be in the supervisor’s methods or it could be in the systems.

Response:
Whenever I observe an underperforming team member. I always ask myself these first questions. “Are they doing their best?” and if they are, then, “Is their best, good enough?”

If they are not doing their best, meaning, they could do better if something changed, I then follow these questions:

  • Do I, as their manager, think they have the capability to achieve the goals I have assigned to them?
  • Is their underperformance due to a lack of skill, which leads to some training and practice?
  • Is their underperformance due to a lack of interest? Are they simply not interested in this kind of work?

As the manager, you should be able to answer these questions.

Preview – Two Critical Steps in Planning

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Early this year, we kicked off our Working Leadership Online series. We have 15 people working their way through specific Field Work, spending time with their teams, and making progress on issues they face as managers. Here is a preview of the upcoming Subject Areas in this program.

Mar 16 – Planning – Creating the Future
Often, managers jump in and just start setting goals. When that happens, they miss two critical steps in the planning process. Have you ever wondered why you are the only person excited about your plan going forward? Planning – Creating the Future will explore the elements and proper sequence using a powerful planning model. In the Field Work assignment, participants will create and a publish a plan specific to their own situation.

Apr 6 – Delegation – Ultimate Leverage
Apr 27 – Control Systems and Feedback Loops
May 18 – Managing Time – Managing Yourself
Jun 8 – Team Problem Solving – Power of Team

To find out more about Working Leadership Online, just follow the link.

Rearranging Deck Chairs

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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.”

In Control

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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.”

Hard Nosed

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“My goal is to reduce inventory,” Bruce explained.

“What is the Time Span of your goal?” I asked. “You have to reduce inventory. By how much and by when?”

“Good question. All the managers just got this email from our corporate office. We need to take a hard look and get our inventories down.”

“So, tell me, if you had to reduce your inventory 30 percent by the end of next week, would that be different than if you had to reduce inventory by the end of May?”

Bruce chuckled. “Of course. If we had to reduce inventory by next week, I would put the brakes on hard. Slash pricing and blow this stuff out of here, just some hard nosed, tactical stuff.”

“And what would be your decisions if the Time Span was end of May?”

Time Span of Decisions

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“Let’s look at some of the specific decisions that you have to make today that will have impact later in the project?”

Taylor sat back. “Okay. Let’s just look at the buy out,” he started. “In the buy out, I have to purchase some large pieces of equipment that will be installed. I have to work with our project managers and also with our purchasing guy. Here are some of my decisions that I have to make today, but it may be months before we find out if it was the right decision.

“Will the price of this equipment (to be installed) go up or go down. If I make a commitment now and the price goes up, I am a hero. If I wait to make the purchase and the price goes up, I am a goat.

“Will the vendor that supplies the equipment still be in business a year from now. I may have to put down some deposit money. But even if we lose the deposit money, the real risk is trying to scramble at the last minute to find an alternate supplier. The costs may have changed and some of this stuff has lead times. If the project gets delayed because we don’t have the equipment on-site to be installed, we may be liable for a delay claim.”

Taylor stopped.

I slowly replied. “When I look at the Time Span of your Goals, I also have to look at the Time Span of your decisions. The Time Span of Discretion.

Complexity and Uncertainty

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“You know, that’s really the most difficult part,” Taylor explained. “I have to make decisions today that might not come into play for another year. I have to make decisions. I have to make commitments. Sometimes, I even have to gamble.”

“What makes it so difficult?” I asked.

“It’s the uncertainty of what might happen. It’s the uncertainty of the future. I mean, our projects are complex, you know, detail complex. But the real complexity comes from the uncertainty.”

Effectiveness and Decisions

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“Your goal is to make it all happen according to your schedule?” I continued. “Sounds easy. Can’t you just make up a schedule and tell everyone they have to follow it?”

Taylor chuckled and shook his head. “I wish. No, my schedule has to meet the Contractor’s schedule and it has to mesh with all the sub-trades on the job. And most importantly, my schedule has to be tight enough to match the budget and man-hours in our original estimate. There are a thousand things that have to go right. By the way, we have 30 other projects that will happen during this same twenty two months.”

“So, let’s talk about the decisions that go along with your goal. Every role has decisions that must be made. That’s the work that must be done. Your effectiveness in managing this schedule depends on the decisions that you make. When I look at the Time Span of your Goals, I also look at the Time Span of your decisions, the Time Span of Discretion.” -TF