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.

Off the Island

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“I’m worried,” Lydia explained. “It’s like the tv show ‘Survivor.’ I used to think, how contrived. A group of people get together and vote to throw someone off the island. Who does that?”

I was quiet. Lydia looked up and continued.

“The tv show had to throw someone off the island, because it was a rule of the game. I always thought, if it were me, I would refuse to vote.

“But, here we are. I have to vote someone off the island. Only it’s not a vote. I have to decide. And I have to decide before Friday. This is a tough decision.”

Organized for Indecision

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
I was recently hired as a supervisor in a volunteer outreach center. There are many funding sources (board members) for the center, with one paid Executive Director.

When I was hired I thought I would be accountable to the Executive Director, but once I started, I learned that no one person controls any of the activities of the center. Most volunteers are “hired” by board members, and I am to supervise and give direction. However, there are no clear lines of authority, accountability or communication. Even though these people know I am their supervisor, they run to the person who “hired” them for their direction. While the board members mean well, they are not on the day to day scene. No one recognizes me as their supervisor and I don’t know how to create a team atmosphere when each volunteer runs to their board member for direction.

I have taken this to the director and he says these people are large contributors to the company and we can’t afford to offend them. I am not wanting to offend. I want to work as a team.

Response:
You are looking at your organization, as if it was a business. Elliott Jaques describes this business structure as a Management Accountability Hierarchy. The purpose of an MAH is to achieve goals. This involves conscious work, cooperation and accountability.

At the same time, there are many other types of organizations:
Academic organizations
Religious organizations
Charitable organzations

They are organized around different principles of authority and accountability for their own purposes.

Here’s the rub. Whenever an organization decides to actually “do” something, engage in work to achieve a goal, they often find they are not organized to do so. They flounder with indecision, unclear accountabilities and an absence of managerial leadership practices. The result is half-baked ideas, poor execution, waste of resources, money and time.

The most effective volunteer or charitable groups are those that run like a business, meaning with the structure of a Management Accountability Hierarchy. Changing to that structure requires a clear vision and mandate from the top, from your Executive Director. Without that, you will be subjected to the predictable floundering that you describe. -TF

Start Time to Due Date

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Comment from Kevin to yesterday’s post Mine to Keep.

Comment:
I am interested in how you made the connection between due date and time span. Just because a deliverable is required later in the process, does not necessarily mean that it has a longer time span or involves more strategic thinking.

For example, when building a machine or facility, the design (site layout, engineering drawings etc.) are needed first while the finishes (paint, tile etc) could be required last. Yet it may take years of coordinating stakeholders, engineers and architects to develop the design vs. a few months of focus groups etc for the finishes. In this scenario, I would rather handle the design and delegate the finishes.

Therefore, it would seem as though the “what by when” might be a bit simplified and that we should rather focus on “what and how long” in order to differentiate between the due date and the time span.

Response:
Thanks for the distinction. Time Span is measured from the starting time for the task and indicates the time during which discretionary decisions are made to achieve the goal. Your example of the construction project is correct. Due date, as the measurement for Time Span, only works when the start time for everything is NOW. You are correct in measuring the Time Span from when the tasks are actually assigned, though the due date may be late in the overall construction process.

Mine to Keep

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“When you sort your goals by length of Time Span, the “by when” part, what do you see?” I asked.

Colleen was actually re-sorting her list using arrows. “I am going to clean this up and put it in Outlook, but I can already see the short Time Span goals are those I can delegate. And some of the longer Time Span goals need to be split into some shorter Time Span goals, and I can delegate those as well.

“And some of the longest Time Span goals,” she continued, “well, those are mine to keep. Those will require a different kind of thinking. I cannot delegate that.”

Which Ones to Keep

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“Convert my notes into a list of what by whens? That’s easy enough, but how is that going to help?” Colleen challenged.

“When you list out your what by whens, you will have a simple list of goals. Embedded in those goals will be the magic to help you organize.”

“So, then I could sort the list out by the things that are most important?” Colleen asked.

“No,” I replied. “The magic is in the by when. The by when will tell you the Time Span of the goal. List them all, shortest Time Span to longest Time Span. And, what did you say was your next decision, as a Manager?”

“To decide which goals are mine and which I should delegate,” Colleen smiled.

“When you look at the Time Span of the goals, which are the ones most appropriate for you to keep and which are those most appropriate to delegate?”
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Just a quick note, a milestone. Management Skills Blog published its first post November 15, 2004. This week completes four years of publishing. And I feel like we are just getting started. Look for some big changes coming in January.

Transforming Your Notes

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“That’s the first place I am stumped,” Colleen admitted. “Some of the tasks I know I should be doing, and some of the tasks I need to delegate.”

“How are you going to make that decision?” I asked.

Colleen laughed. “I could keep all the stuff I like to do and give away the rest.” She stopped. “But, that probably won’t work.”

“When you look at the list of things to do, the tasks that have been assigned to you, how easy is it to pick out the goals embedded in the list?”

Colleen looked at her notes. “Not so easy. It made a lot more sense in the meeting.”

“You know you need to organize this list in some way. But you can’t do that until you transform your notes.”

Colleen looked puzzled.

“Look, the goals made sense in the meeting,” I continued, “but to create an effective list, you need to transform your notes into a list of what by whens.”

Sorting the Tasks

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“I am a little overwhelmed,” Colleen admitted. “I just got out of a planning meeting. We’re looking down the road a bit. I think I got a promotion, not a raise, just a new area that I have to supervise in addition to all the work I am already doing. Downsizing, you know.”

“Lot’s to do?” I asked.

“Yes, and I know I have a team to support me, now a bigger team. Some of the things we have to accomplish are brand new to me. I am trying to sort things out.”

“So, you have a fresh set of goals and priorities? How are you going to organize what to do?”

“I don’t know, but I have to decide fast. I’m not sure what things I have to work on and what things I can give away to my new team. I guess I am going to have to make some quick evaluations.”

“What are you going to start with, organizing the tasks or evaluating the people?” I prompted.

“I am thinking about a spreadsheet,” Colleen replied, “a spreadsheet listing my team members across the top and listing the tasks down the side.”

“And how are you going to sort the tasks?”

Most Important Discipline of Time Management

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“There are many disciplines for Time Management,” I said. The group was taking notes. “Which is the most important?”

“OHIO,” shot a voice from the back of the room. “Only Handle It Once.”

“Okay,” I replied. “But who cares? Without this discipline, who cares if I handle a piece of paper once or handle it 50 times?”

“Prioritization?” came another guess.

“And what is it, that makes one task more important than another task?”

“The goal?” answered a voice in the third row.

“The goal,” I repeated. “Without the goal, all Time Management is meaningless.”

Difference Between Success and Failure

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“But, I don’t understand. They fill out the form. What discretionary decisions do they have to make as they collect the data from the customer?” Arlene asked.

“Lots, and it is those discretionary decisions that determine success and failure,” I replied. “Let’s look at the form. The first field is the name field. So, you capture the name data for me.”

“Well, it’s your name.”

“Wrong place to start. See, you think if you put my name in the name field, you are done. You missed the first discretionary question.”

Arlene sat up. “Which is?”

“What’s the goal. That’s the first question. What’s the goal?”

“To complete the form?” Arlene tested.

“No! The goal is to have the name information accurate on the policy, so in the event of a claim, there is no clerical confusion or denial of coverage based on the mismatch of a name that may be compared to driver’s license or other identifying paperwork.”

Arlene nodded her head. “So, your name isn’t your name.”

“Not at all. You know me by my nickname. To complete the form, you will have to ask a better question. Mr. Foster, I need to make sure the name on the policy matches your other identification, what is the full name on your driver’s license?

“Arlene, it is questions like these that make all the difference between success and failure. And there are too many of them to train. They become the discretionary decisions for the team member. And if you want a productive discussion with your team, sit with them, as their manager, and talk about the discretionary decisions they have to make. To reach the goal.”

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 information on 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.” -TF