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.

Proud of the Chaos

3 Replies

“How do you involve Edmund in the decision making about solving the problem?” I asked.

“As soon as we have the project specs,” Ruben explained, “when we know the outputs and the deadlines, we call a meeting. Edmund is the supervisor, so once we get into production, he is the one to call the shots. So, he is there, at the meeting. He sees all the elements we see, he just cannot connect them together.”

“And?”

“We have developed a very thorough system that identifies the constraints and keeps them productive. The metrics are easy to follow and the system makes our throughput very predictable. But Edmund fights the system, ignores the system and almost weekly causes a production snafu that could have been prevented.”

“How does he explain the snafu?”

“Usually he manages to jump in and pull the project out of the fire, but not without some overtime and not without putting the project in jeopardy. It’s almost like he is proud of the chaos and being the hero.”

Resistant

1 Reply

“He resists everything,” Ruben explained. “We cover the same solutions to the same problems. At the time, Edmund finally agrees, but I sense, he agrees only because he can’t argue the logic. He goes along with the solution, but two weeks later, the same problem pops up and we start all over again.”

“So, you have to step in and it takes up your time?” I asked.

“Worse than that. It’s almost underhanded. Behind the scenes, it’s like he wants the solution to fail. He doesn’t openly sabotage the new method, and I haven’t caught him bad-mouthing the process. Sometimes, it’s just the way he rolls his eyes in the meeting.”

Give Thanks

Leave a reply

“And what do you say, to those who remain?”

“Be kind,” Lydia replied. “For those who remain, be kind. Be kind to those who have to leave. Be kind to those around you.

“Be grateful,” she continued. “Give thanks.”
__
Tomorrow, the US celebrates the holiday of Thanksgiving. The holiday commemorates a meal of the harvest. Its origin may have been a meal in 1565 in St. Augustine Florida, or another in 1621, Plymouth Plantation. It is a time when families and friends come together to celebrate and give thanks for the world we live in.

Management Skills Blog will return next Monday, December 1, 2008.

Respect

Leave a reply

“It still feels bad,” Lydia explained. “We spent the past ten years building this team, and now, we have to take it apart. I feel bad when I have to tell people they have lost their jobs. I feel bad for the organization. All of our hard work, our capacity, our competence, our place in the market, we have to dismantle.”

“And?” I asked.

“And we have to keep on. At the end of the day, life goes on,” Lydia admitted.

“What do say to those, you have to disconnect?”

“There is nothing to say. There are no words. I can only give them respect. They have a difficult journey ahead, and they face it alone.”

“And what do you say, to those who remain?”

Never When You Need It

1 Reply

Lydia remembered a year ago. “We brought in our Balance Sheets,” she described. “I used to spend time poring over my Income Statement, so understanding the Balance Sheet, I mean, really paying attention to the Balance Sheet, was new to me.”

“Why did we do that?” I asked.

“You said that we could still make a profit and go out of business. That, making a profit was important, but elements on the Balance Sheet could be fatal.”

“So, what did we focus on?”

“Liquidity. Liquidity. Liquidity,” Lydia recited. “Cash, cash flow, accounts receivable, credit.”

“And why did we start working on this two years ago?” I reminded her.

“You said if we got to where we are, now, and needed a Line of Credit, the bank would not give us one. Because banks never give you credit when you need it, they only give you credit when you don’t need it.”

Preparation is Over

Leave a reply

“How will you decide?” I asked. “How will you select the person who has to go?”

Lydia shook her head. “I need them all. I put a hiring freeze in January, and we’ve had some normal attrition. But at this point, if another has to go, we lose capacity. If things continue, we lose functionality.”

“How will you decide?” I repeated. “How will you continue? And here is a challenge. How will you work with a smaller team and not lose capacity?”

Lydia smiled, “Have my cake and eat it, too?”

“Face it, Lydia. This is going to be a long contraction in the business landscape. We have been preparing for two years, and now, it’s here,” I reminded her.

“You are right. This is not a bump in the road,” she admitted. “I know we have to be prepared for an extended downturn.”

“What did we work on first?” I asked.

Off the Island

1 Reply

“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

Leave a reply

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

1 Reply

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

2 Replies

“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.”