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.

Waste of Meeting

Leave a reply

Our mail server is back up. Actually it’s a new mail server. If you missed any posts over the past couple of days, they are all available on our website www.managementblog.org.
__
Our next Management program begins April 30, in Fort Lauderdale. If you would like to register someone, please visit www.workingleadership.com.
__
“It was a waste of time,” Sheila complained. “Some of us had to travel to get here, we lost two days of productivity back at the office. All for this BIG meeting. They’re rolling out this new program, but for my time, they could have told us all about it in an email.”

“What did you learn?” I asked.

“Well, I learned how not to run a meeting,” she replied.

“So, when you run your own meetings, with your department, you now know what NOT to do?”

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t need two lost days to learn a lesson like that.”

“Is it possible, that after all the expenses, all the planning and all the effort that went into the meeting, that your company failed to accomplish what it set out to accomplish?”

Sheila started to chuckle. “You’re right, they probably didn’t intend to have a bad meeting. I am sure they had some goals for the two days, they just didn’t share that with us.”

“Tell me, Sheila. What could they have done differently, to have the impact they were looking for?” -TF

My Fault

2 Replies

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

My last meeting was a one day-seminar working a live case with creative breakout sessions. A warm-up on the beach, 3 coffee breaks and a large lunch break. Instead of 15 minute breaks, the team takes 30 minutes. Instead of 30 minutes for lunch, the team takes 45 minutes. So they found creative techniques to mess with the timetable, and the content of their solutions was not that great.

With this particular group, this happens a lot. I asked for their expectations up front, but that doesn’t work. Normally when I make agreements for a session like this, with other groups, we have no problems.

Response:

So, what is different about this team? The answer to your predicament is not some technique on how to handle a group in a meeting. The answer is in what’s different about this group.

I work with groups all over North America. While I have very consistent program material, I have learned that every group I work with is different. And my first job, as a facilitator, or your job, as a manager, is to discover that difference.

If I fail to discover that difference, the level of engagement suffers. When the group is not engaged, they will do something else to fill the time. It appears as misbehavior, taking long breaks, falling asleep or playing with Blackberries under the tablecloth.

Is it the group’s fault? Or is it my fault?

It’s my fault. I failed to engage. I was too impatient, I didn’t listen, I rushed into the content without drawing in the group.

So, over the next few days, we will explore how to do that. -TF

Enough is Now

Leave a reply

In response to yesterday’s Ask Tom, if a new team member is still struggling after five months, it’s time for graduation. Excellent comments were posted by Michelle Malay Carter, Varun Malhotra and Chris Young. Read the comments here.

My turn.

You have two things working against. Both need to be fixed, though it’s too late for this person.

First, you have difficulty making the termination decision because the performance standards for the role have not been set. Everyone knows this person is underperforming, but without a standard, we are all left with only our opinions. Tough to terminate someone based on an opinion without a standard.

So, take this opportunity to create a standard. Heck, create a certification process. Get your team involved to create a performance protocol. All new hires should be considered to be on probation until they meet the standard. Set a time limit and move on.

Second, you don’t have anyone waiting in the wings. If you had too many people vying for that chair, the decision would be much easier to make. For this position, you need to be trading up. -TF

When is Enough, Enough?

4 Replies

Greetings from Toronto.
From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I was recently promoted to supervisor. It’s been a challenge, but I definitely think I can grow into the role and learn to handle it successfully.

Before I was promoted, a new technician was hired. It has been almost 5 months since, yet he is still in training. That’s 5 times longer than any other new hire we’ve had. Other technicians who are working with and “shadowing” him in training continue to report that they do not trust his ability to proficiently handle his duties. With my own firsthand observation, I feel the same way. Had I been promoted earlier, I would have strongly objected to his hiring.

It’s always the same story: the job required a stronger technical background than he thought so it’ll take him longer, and he will continue to do his best to learn the ropes and gain the trust of the other employees. He cannot provide a timeframe when he thinks he would be ready.

If it were strictly up to me, I’d get rid of him. Keeping him diverts technicians and resources from other projects, costs the company his hourly wage, and most likely lowers our customer satisfaction ratings as many of our callers quickly pick up on the fact that he is “new” and unsure of himself. My manager, however, would prefer not to take that route, for fear of the consequences that can follow termination. Yet, I feel like he’s pressuring me when he says things like “He STILL isn’t ready yet? He’s been here for 5 months! Why is it taking so long?”

What should I do? Would I be justified in setting a deadline by which he must become proficient? When should I say “enough is enough?”

Response:

Actually, I am curious about how others see this. Please add a comment below. -TF

Over Your Head

1 Reply

Greetings from Toronto.

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

What happens when you realize you were given a promotion and not able to live up to the capabilities? Do you admit it to your superiors? Do you keep it to yourself and risk failure?

Response:

There are many ways to survive in a position that’s over your head, but in the end, it’s only survival. Not a way to live.

I often ask managers, “How do you know, what behavior do you observe when a person is in over their head? Where the Time Span for the position is longer than the Time Span of the person?”

The descriptions come back.

  • They feel overwhelmed.
  • They cover things up.
  • They cut off communication.
  • Their projects are always late.
  • I can’t ever find them.
  • They always blame someone else.
  • They have all the excuses.
  • They never accept responsibility.

So, the short answer is yes. When you realize you are in over your head, go back to your boss. Explain the difficulties you are having. Ask for help. If it is a matter of capability (Time Span), no amount of training, no amount of hand holding will help. It is possible that you may grow into the position, but it’s more likely a matter of years, not weeks that allows for the required maturity (increase in Time Span).

This doesn’t make you a bad person, it just means you were placed in a position where you cannot be effective. Yet! -TF

One Purpose Serves the Other

Leave a reply

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

This question from Jan was in response to a post about Delegation from March 30, 2007 (seems a lot of people are reading the archives.)

Question:

Hi! I’m a bit puzzled with delegation as the most powerful time management tool. It could well be the most powerful learning and development tool, but the former I need some thoughts on this.

Response:

Delegation serves both purposes. As a Time Management tool, anytime someone else is performing tasks on our behalf, it frees our time up to do something else. And if that is our purpose, then we can free up a couple of hours every day.

But the real power for Time Management only comes when your purpose for Delegation is People Development. When you develop someone, you may be able to move significant tasks (that take a lot of time) off your plate. Instead of freeing up one or two hours, you may free up 50 or 100 hours.

Working with managers, I always ask, “How can you work for one hour and gain two hours productivity?”

But the real question is, “How can you work for one hour and gain 50 hours of productivity?” Only when your purpose for Delegation is People Development. -TF

Leverage

Leave a reply

This continues our conversation with Dr. Lisa Lang on Theory of Constraints.

TF: If we do a good job of placing our constraint in our highest cost, most scarce resource, what is the next most difficult thing to do?

Dr. Lisa: Leverage it. Leverage is a great word but we are not taught how to do this or what we are taught is simply wrong.

The book The Goal describes leverage as exploiting the constraint and subordinating everything else based on the point where you have placed the constraint.

Exploit means not wasting any of what you have. Subordinating is often the harder one because it requires the non-constraint silos to fall in line by supporting the exploitation of the constraint. This is difficult because each silo is usually measured and rewarded on its individual results.
__
Dr. Lisa Lang has many resources on her website www.scienceofbusiness.com. She has made this offer to our readers. If you would like to receive her three hour audio and workbook (usually $199) for $99, please drop her an email at drlisa@scienceofbusiness.com.

Hard to Get

Leave a reply

This continues our conversation with Dr. Lisa Lang on Theory of Constraints.

TF: If the idea is to strategically select your bottleneck (constraint), what are the characteristics you look for in a strategic constraint?

Dr. Lisa: A strategic constraint should be relatively hard to get more of, compared to a non-constraint. Hard to get more of, means that it’s expensive, hard to find, hard to train or something like that.

Non-constraints, on the other hand, are generally less expensive and easier to get. And a starting rule of thumb is to have 25% excess capacity at your non-constraints.

So we are leveraging our very expensive hard to get resource (constraint) and we have excess capacity at our easier to acquire (non-constraint) resources.
__
Dr. Lisa Lang has many resources on her website www.scienceofbusiness.com. She has made this offer to our readers. If you would like to receive her three hour audio and workbook (usually $199) for $99, please drop her an email at drlisa@scienceofbusiness.com.

We will continue our conversation tomorrow.

Don’t Chase It

Leave a reply

This is a continuing conversation with Dr. Lisa Lang about Theory of Constraints.

TF: You talk about bottlenecks in systems. Conventional wisdom says bottlenecks are bad and that it is management’s job to get rid of them.

Dr. Lisa: Bottlenecks are what determine how much money you can make. I don’t think of them as bad. They just are. And by definition you will always have one. The question is, where is it? But, unless you have unlimited profits, you have a bottleneck, somewhere.

If you think bottlenecks or constraints are bad (like we were taught), then you will strive to get rid of them. But, as soon as you get rid of one bottleneck, another pops up, somewhere else. Essentially, we are taught to chase them around. Find them and get rid of them. It’s like being trapped in that arcade game – Whack-A-Mole.

If, by definition, you always have a weakest link or bottleneck, instead of chasing it around, my recommendation is to strategically place it. You decide where you want this control point to be. By doing that, you can get very good leveraging it and knowing how to control and grow your business with this control point.

So bottlenecks are not bad. Management’s job is to control them so that we can meet our commitments and grow. And more importantly to LEVERAGE them so that profits can be maximized.
__
Dr. Lisa Lang has many resources on her website www.scienceofbusiness.com. She has made this offer to our readers. If you would like to receive her three hour audio and workbook (usually $199) for $99, please drop her an email at drlisa@scienceofbusiness.com.

We will continue our conversation tomorrow.

Maximize the System

Leave a reply

This continues our conversation with Dr. Lisa Lang on Theory of Constraints.

TF: Intuitively, we try to maximize efficiency (profitability) of the entire company by working in each functional area to maximize its efficiency. We are thinking if every area is absolutely efficient, then by default, the entire company will be profitable. You disagree.

Dr. Lisa: Take an extreme case where a company may break itself into separate P&Ls. The logic is that if we maximize each P&L then we will maximize the P&L of the company as a whole. (And of course it’s much easier to hold each manager accountable only for their own P&L.)

I have a client, a not for profit, who collects donations that they sell in 14 retail stores. Each store has its own P&L and each store manager is measured and rewarded accordingly. The average selling price of an item is $2.25.

Imagine you are one of the underperforming stores in this company. To improve your profit, you need to sell a lot of volume at $2.25.

There are, however, some donated items that fetch $100 or more and sell very quickly. All the store managers love these items. Yet, there is one item that sells for $100 in 13 of the 14 stores, yet, sells for $200 in one of the stores, because of its location. It’s a cowboy item and this store is located near cowboys.

If I hold this item up in front of the group of 14 store managers, which store manager wants it for THEIR store? Of course, they all want the item, but, who should get the item to sell? The cowboy store can sell it for double.

So, if one of the other stores (not the cowboy store) gets a walk-in donation of one of these cowboy items, what should that store manager do?

Most store managers would keep quiet and sell the item quickly for $100 to improve their own P&L. This maximizes their own silo, but steals valuable profit from the company as a whole. This story illustrates how maximizing each silo does not necessarily benefit the system as a whole.

When management teams attack a problem, most often they try to fix a small segment of the company without even seeing the larger system problem.
__
Dr. Lisa Lang has many resources on her website www.scienceofbusiness.com. She has made this offer to our readers. If you would like to receive her three hour audio and workbook (usually $199) for $99, please drop her an email at drlisa@scienceofbusiness.com.

We will continue our conversation tomorrow.