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.

The Size of the Job?

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“How do you measure the size of the job?” Eduardo whispered, talking to himself, but making sure I knew he was thinking.

“We have to make a judgment call here,” I said. “We have to decide if Ron is big enough for the job. But to do that, we have to decide how big the job is.”

Eduardo had never thought about work this way. Measuring the size of a job was a little off-the-wall for him, but I could see in his face that it made sense.

“I am thinking, and your question seems logical, but I don’t have a clue how to really measure something like the size of a job.” Eduardo was still with me, but he was out of ideas.

“Think about when Ron was successful, when he was supervising the work to be done. What was the longest task that he had to accomplish, in terms of time?”

Eduardo was thinking. “Do you mean, that he had to hit his daily production targets?”

“In a sense, but I am guessing, if he was supervising, he was working toward a goal with a longer Time Span than daily production.”

“Well, yeah, I mean Ron was in charge of daily production, but some days were up and some days were off and some days, we shut down production for preventive maintenance. We looked at production on a monthly basis.”

“So every month, he had to hit the same number?”

“Well, no. Some months were up and some months were down. Ron had to work to the sales forecast. There was some seasonality to it, and some of the production orders took more than a month to cycle through. We really looked at things on a quarterly basis.”

“So, the Time Span for Ron’s role as a Supervisor was around three months?”

A light bulb went off in Eduardo’s head. “Time Span? Is Time Span the measure of how big the job is?”

Measuring How Big?

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“I don’t know,” replied Eduardo. “I just hope he snaps out of it. Ron was our poster boy.”

“Is it a matter of skill, something he can learn, or is it a matter of capability?” I repeated. “You can hope all you want, but if it is a matter of capability, you may not be able to wait.”

“What do you mean?” Eduardo had a new sense of curiosity. “Ron has to snap out of it fast.”

“Tell me again, what has changed with Ron’s role?”

“Well, a year ago, he was supervising a couple of people, making sure the work got done. Now, he has to manage other people who are supervising that work.”

“Is the job bigger, now?” I asked.

Eduardo looked at me, puzzled. “Well, yeah. He has more people, I guess it is more complicated.”

“So the job is bigger now. How do you measure, how much bigger the job is?”

“Measure?” Eduardo had never been asked to measure the size of a job before. “I don’t know,” he continued. “It’s just more complicated, I guess.”

“So, how do you measure the complexity of Ron’s new job?” -TF

Skill or Capability?

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Eduardo was hanging up the phone when I arrived. I could tell he was puzzled.

“It’s funny,” he said. “This is the third time I have explained things to my Ron, but it just doesn’t seem to sink in. I don’t know what the problem is. For two years, he was doing great, but now, he seems to be in a fog.”

“Ron reports to you?” I asked. Eduardo shook his head.

“Yes, in fact, he was a good hire. We started him in a little office with only two people. He grew it to six, now he is at twelve. Somewhere along the line, he lost it.”

“Alcohol, or drugs?”

“No, I don’t think so. He is too conscientious for that,” Eduardo observed.

“But he seems to be in a fog? Tell me what has changed in the past year, going from six people to twelve people.”

Eduardo looked up at the far corner of the room, picturing the changes before he described them to me. “It’s like Ron was supervising the work pretty well, but now he is one step removed. He is now managing a couple of supervisors. Maybe that’s the problem. He is too far away from the what he knows how to do?”

“Is it a matter of skill, something he can learn, or is it a matter of capability?” -TF

The Work is Not Work

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From the Ask Tom mailbag, Kurt writes:

Question:

Job protection is often a reason not to delegate. Lot’s of managers use job protection as a means to make themselves needed by the company. Knowing things, that others don’t, equals some power in their position. But in the long term, they loose flexibility and get frustrated. How should we manage those employees?

Response:

It is critical that we understand the elements we hold managers accountable for. Often, we hold managers accountable for getting work done, when we should hold managers accountable for the performance of their team. It is this nuance that most don’t get.

The work of management is not “doing work.” The work of management is building the performance level of their team. And delegation is the most powerful tool the manager has. -TF

Failing to Follow-up

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Glen was working late. “What’s happening?” I asked.

He was staring at a project book. I realized he was not in a jovial mood. He took in a long breath and a measured exhale. I could see the blood boiling behind his eyes, betraying his exterior composure.

Finally he spoke, “I thought this project would be done by now, but it’s not. It is due at the client tomorrow morning at 8:00, and it is only half finished. My team let me down.”

“Who was the project leader?”

“Andre,” he replied.

“And what did Andre say?”

“It’s the funniest thing. He said he knew the deadline was tomorrow, but since I never came around to check on the project, he didn’t think it was important anymore, so he didn’t start on it.”

“So, where is he now?”

“He is actually finishing a different project from another Project Manager, in Kansas City. So it looks like I will be here until midnight.”

“So, tell me, Glen. What happens to the importance of any project when the manager fails to follow its progress?”

“I know. At first I was mad at Andre, but it’s my own fault. I had set some follow-up meetings and just blew them off. Now I have to pay.”

“And next time?”

“Next time, I will make the follow-up meetings, instead of having to finish the project on my own.”

Flawless Execution

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“And that concludes my report. A well-thought out plan, perfectly executed.” Martin smiled. I knew he was lying. His plan may have been well-thought out, but life is never that perfect.

Carla was next up. She was nervous. Her plan was solid, but her team had hit some rocky patches. “I guess things didn’t go the way we thought,” she reported. “We had to make several adjustments as we went along. Our project required three additional meetings. In the end, we made the deadline and came in under budget, but it was tough. I will try to do better next time.”

Carla got a quiet golf clap from the room for her efforts. I moved up to confront the class.

“Carla thinks her project didn’t go so well. Carla thinks she should have had a better report for class tonight, but here is why her report is so important.

“You read these management magazines out there, about CEOs with well-thought out plans, perfectly executed. Some reporter shows up to write about every target flawlessly achieved. No pimples, no bumps, no bruises. Whenever I hear that, I know I have to get the guy drunk to get the truth.

“But, look at Carla’s report. Her team started out toward their first objective, they got off course.” I drew a line across the page with an abrupt turn. “It took an extra meeting to figure out where they went wrong, to get back on track.

“They met their first target, but immediately things went south again. Another meeting, another adjustment.” My line on the flipchart meandered across the page with another hard turn back to target number two.

“And it happened again, before the project was finished.” The flipchart now showed huge jagged lines criss-crossing the page. “And this is where the real story is. Not the neatly wrapped perfect execution. The real story is out here, where the team cobbled together a solution to an unanticipated event to get back on track. And over here where the client threw them a curve ball.

“And that’s why Carla’s story is so important. And that is where the real learning is.” -TF

Fixing Accountability

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“Who creates the Action Plan?” I asked.

“Well, I do! I’m the Manager. I know what needs to be done. I create the Action Plan,” Ellen shouted from the back of the room.

We were talking about delegation.

“So, you are working with Brian. You describe the Vision, the Goals for the project and the Guidelines?” Now I was looking straight at Ellen.

“Yes!” she replied.

“Then, you tell Brian, here are the steps, 1-2-3-4-5?”

“Yes!” she repeated.

“And Brian goes out and he completes steps 1-2-3-4-5. And the project fails.” I stopped and peered over at Ellen. She was a little surprised. She didn’t like the idea that her project could fail.

“So, Brian completes steps 1-2-3-4-5, the project fails. Who is accountable for the failure? After all, he followed your Action Plan step by step.”

All eyes turned to Ellen. “Yeah, but.” Then she stopped. “I guess if it was my plan, Brian is going to say it was my fault.”

“Yes, he will. The accountability will fall to you. And where do you want the accountability?”

“Well, I want Brian to be accountable.”

“So, who creates the Action Plan? You describe the Vision, the Goals and the Guidelines, but who creates the Action Plan?”

“I guess, Brian,” Ellen said quietly.

“Exactly, if you want to fix accountability on Brian, then Brian has to create the Action Plan.” -TF

Can’t Be Promoted Until

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“But I was here until 10:00 last night. I am working myself to the bone and my company seems to want more. I can’t work any harder.” Victoria was tired. I could see it in her eyes, the hint of a glaze.

“What is it that your company wants more of?” I asked.

“I just don’t know. I have all the stuff I was doing before I was promoted and now I have new stuff.”

“Why are you still doing the old stuff?”

“Well, who is going to do it?” she snapped.

I paused, “As you left your old position, weren’t you supposed to train someone to take over those tasks?”

“Well, yes, I was supposed to, but there was just never any time to do that,” she said, calming down a bit.

“So, now you are in double trouble. You didn’t take the time to train someone else to do the work, so now you have even more work and less time.”

Victoria silently nodded.

“You have proved me wrong,” I said. “I always tell managers that they can never be promoted until they train someone else to take over their old job. But here, you have managed to do exactly what I said could not be done.”

Victoria started laughing. “No, I did not prove you wrong. You are still right. I have not managed this very well at all.”

“So, when should you have started training someone to take over?” I inquired.

“The very first day on the job, of my old job. In fact, I should already be looking at my new tasks to figure out who I should be training right now.”

How Big Is the Job?

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I have been reading the section of your website on Time Span and I am curious. How do you measure objectives in terms of Time Span?

Response:

Time Span is a concept I have been working with since 2001. It is based on the research of Elliott Jaques (1917-2003). Time Span is most useful as a measuring stick to determine the complexity of any task. The longer the Time Span of the task, the more complex the task is likely to be.

Attaching a Time Span to an objective is extremely helpful in understanding the breadth and scope of the objective. For example:

Objective – As the department manager, hire a person to fill the vacant position on the team.

In the short term, if the Time Span is described as two weeks, then you can imagine that the tasks involved would include posting an ad, reviewing resumes, conducting some interviews and making a selection.

However, if the Time Span is described as six months, you might imagine a much broader scope for this project. The tasks would extend to bringing that person on board, moving them through the training process and evaluating their initial skill level. This might be followed by supervising additional training and re-evaluating their skill level. Once on the production floor, the manager would select appropriate assignments for this new recruit, then advance them to more complex tasks as time passes. After six months, it might be expected that this new person now possesses the skills and competence to fill the position as a productive member of the team.

Taking this one step further, if the Time Span is described as 12 months, you would imagine an even broader scope. The tasks would extend to evaluating proper staffing levels to determine, if indeed, this vacant position needs filling in the first place.

Time Span, as a unit of measure, helps us understand the breadth and scope of the task, and ultimately the scope of the role. -TF

Necessity

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Ted was biting his lower lip. “I am ready,” he proclaimed. “Right now, being a manager is not much fun. If I was better at this, if I knew what to do, things would be easier. I want to make this happen.”

“Wanting is not enough,” I said. “You have to make it necessary.”

Ted got a quizzical look on his face. “What do you mean, make it necessary?”

“You may think that high levels of performance are driven out of desire, team spirit and rah, rah. But that all sputters out eventually. When you don’t feel well, your desire gets weak. When your team has an off day, the rah, rah disappears. All of that will impact your performance.

“The only way that high performance can be sustained is if that high performance becomes a necessity. It will only be sustained if there is no other way. Necessity. Necessity drives high performance.”

“I am still not sure I understand,” Ted said. “What makes something necessary?”

“Something is necessary only when there is no other way. Look, Ted, you think you want to be a better manager. That will only sustain you when you feel like it. Unless becoming a better manager is a necessity, you will ultimately fail. But if there is no alternative, if becoming a better manager is a necessity, then you cannot fail.

“It must become a necessity.” -TF