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 Next Tool

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Phillip was all ears. We had been talking about the core skills for a Project Manager. During the past four years, Phillip had been involved in hiring this level of project supervisor. In his mind, the most important skills were the technical construction skills.

He slowly understood that the role of Project Management was different. While the role of the crew member was to do the work, the role of the supervisor was to make sure the work got done. It required a completely different set of skills. It had nothing to do with hammers, saws or heavy equipment. It had to do with scheduling people and materials. It had to do with making sure the work was complete and finished on time.

“You said we need to teach our PMs how to put a schedule together?” Phillip asked.

“Yes, and a schedule is only one of the tools of the supervisor. Another important tool is a checklist.”

“You mean, like the punch list we use at the end of the job to wrap up all the unfinished details?”

“You got it,” I prompted. “Why use a checklist only at the end of the job. Checklists can be very useful through the entire project. There are a hundred things that need follow-up and no one can keep all that in their head. In fact, after a few jobs, a master checklist can be created for different parts of the project, like a template that can be used over and over.”

“And we should teach this to our supervisors?” Phillip was slowly getting on board.

“Yep. I know it comes second nature to you, but not to your junior Project Managers.” I stopped. Phillip had enough for today. “Tomorrow, I will come by and we can pick up the next Project Management tool.” -TF

What Does the Schedule Say?

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Phillip stared at me. His blood pressure was up, though he appeared calm, but not like a deer in the headlights.

“So, we should teach our Project Managers to schedule?” he asked, knowing the answer was yes.

“Look. Phillip. Think about this. What is the most frequent problem a Project Manager has to deal with?”

Phillip didn’t hesitate. “The contractor calls up and wants to know how come something on the job site isn’t happening the way he expected it to.”

“And what happens then?”

“Well, the PM starts scrambling. He jumps on his radio to find out what happened to the crew or the materials or the equipment. It can get a little chaotic.”

“Why doesn’t the PM immediately go to his schedule to find out what is happening?”

“His schedule?” Phillip almost started laughing. “His schedule won’t tell him anything.”

I stopped, waited for ten long seconds. “And why won’t his schedule tell him what he needs to know.”

It was Phillip’s turn to wait. He was trying to craft a response, but the only thing that came out was the truth. “I guess we don’t take schedules seriously enough to train our PMs on how to create them and use them.”

“So, Phillip. Yes, you need to train them on how to put a schedule together.” Phillip nodded slowly in agreement. “And that’s not all. There’s more.” -TF

It’s a Different Skill Set

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As Phillip simmered, he finally blurted out, “But they should know how to schedule. How hard is that?”

“I don’t know, Phillip. How complicated are your scheduling logistics?” I asked. We had been talking about his Project Managers. Though technically proficient, they seemed to have difficulty creating and maintaining current schedules.

“It’s just getting the materials and the people scheduled. It’s not that difficult.” Phillip was firm.

“What is the biggest problem they face in scheduling?”

Phillip thought for a minute, hoping to tell me there were never problems, but he knew better. “I guess the biggest problem is coordinating with the other subs on the job, to make sure their work is finished and the project is ready for the work we do. Since the subs don’t work for us, coordinating with them is sometimes difficult.”

“So, how do you train your PMs to deal with that?”

“Train ’em. They’re just supposed to know that they have to go check.” It was not a good answer and Phillip was beginning to backpedal.

I pressed. “On the job, do materials ever get backordered? Does a crew member ever call in sick or a whole crew get reassigned to an emergency? Does the contractor ever change something without a change order? Does a piece of heavy equipment get delayed on another project and not show up? Does a dumpster load sometimes not get switched out in time. Does a code inspector sometimes not show up?

“Tell me, Phillip. How do you train your Project Managers to create and maintain schedules?”

Phillip hesitated. He knew any response would just sound like an excuse.

“Phillip, here is the critical factor. Actually doing the work is completely different from making sure the work gets done. It’s a different role in the company. It has its own skill set. You don’t hire for it, you don’t train for it, but right now, it’s killing you.” -TF

Didn’t Interview for That

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Phillip was perplexed. “I explained it to them three times. They still don’t get it.” His emotion was a mixture of anger and bewilderment. This discussion was about his Project Managers.

“What do you think the problem is?” I asked.

“I don’t think they have the capability to understand. They all have 4 or 5 years in the business. They know how to do the work. They just can’t seem to be able to get other people to perform, at least not on time and most of the time, not on budget.” As Phillip was talking, he was calming down.

“Technically, they understand what needs to be done?” I confirm.

“Yes, but the technical skills almost seem unimportant, now.” Phillip was shaking his head.

“If it’s not technical skills, what are the skills?”

“It’s like, they can’t even fill out a schedule. Ryan is one of my PMs. I asked to see his weekly schedule. He was so proud, he had it right in his clipboard. It was dated three months ago, all scribbled up. Three guys on the schedule don’t even work for us anymore.”

“So, one of the skills is the ability to put together a weekly schedule contemplating the project workload, targets, people, materials and equipment?”

Phillip had a look on his face somewhere between an epiphany and a nervous breakdown. I continued, “So, when you interview for new project managers, do you interview for their ability to schedule?”

He shook his face from side to side, “No, we usually interview for technical skills.”

“Do you think you might start interviewing for scheduling skills?” -TF

Next Steps and Follow-up

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“That was the missing link,” said Jeremy. He was explaining his meeting with Sylvia. As suggested he had gone back to outline the list of next steps for the project he had assigned to her.

“Even Sylvia was relieved,” Jeremy explained. “She agreed. The reason she had not started the project was that she was never clear on what to do first, so she always procrastinated. This simple process to clarify the next steps made all the difference.”

“And how many steps in this project?” I asked.

“Five simple little steps. But until we laid them out, the project was going to sit until it was too late.”

“When will you follow-up on the five steps?”

“Friday, at 3:00pm. At least I learned that lesson, to calendar my follow-up meetings. We will see how she does.”

All in all, it was a good week. -TF

Power of the Next Step

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Jeremy was not as excited as I expected after his first project follow-up meeting.

“Why the long face?” I asked.

“Well, I thought by scheduling follow-up meetings, the project would just start happening and show some progress. I just finished the first follow-up meeting and find out the project hasn’t even been started yet. I am still in the same boat as last week.”

“What do you think the problem is?”

Jeremy’s mind was searching for a directional clue. “I don’t know. Sylvia just said she was having trouble getting started, but was sure that by Friday, we would see some progress.”

“What does progress mean?” I continued to probe.

Jeremy was puzzled by the question. “Well, you know, she will have started.”

“What is her first step to getting started?”

Jeremy hesitated. His response was only going to be a guess. I stopped him.

“Jeremy, don’t feel bad. This is very typical of projects that haven’t been laid out clearly. She hasn’t started the project because she doesn’t know what the next step is. Heck, you don’t know what the next step is.

“Have you ever had a project that you found difficult to get started. But once you got rolling everything was fine. What caused you to stutter is that you had not defined the next step. Understanding the power of the next step will give you a clue on how to get projects rolling. We will talk more about that, but for now, you need to have an interim emergency meeting with Sylvia to lay out the next steps in this project. And remember, since she will be doing the work, she needs to participate heavily in the design of these next steps.” -TF

As Simple as Scheduling

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Jeremy was already standing when I got to the courtyard. “I think I got it figured out,” he said. “You were right. I can tell you exactly when that unfinished report will hit my desk. Next Tuesday, because it is due next Wednesday.”

“And so, sometime on Tuesday, your teammate will realize it can’t get done, go ask your boss what he should do and your boss will say what?” I smiled.

“My boss will say, give it back to Jeremy and he will get it done.” Now, it was Jeremy’s turn to smile.

“Why are smiling? You were pretty upset last week when it happened to you.”

Jeremy almost cracked up. “I know. It’s weird. When you know it is going to happen, it’s funny, like watching America’s Funniest Home Videos. You know the guy is going to smash into the wall and it’s funny.”

“So, what are you going to do differently, because next Tuesday, this will not be so funny?” I asked.

“Well, first I am going to set up two follow-up meetings this week to make sure the project is kicked off and underway. Then next Monday, I will have a final follow-up meeting to get the last revision so I can review it on Tuesday. If we have a final touch-up, that will be okay. I guess it’s all in getting ahead of the curve.”

“You have learned a valuable lesson about follow-up. It is the one place that most managers drop the ball and it is as simple as scheduling on your calendar.” -TF

The Next Unfinished Project

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Jeremy pulled me aside as I walked down the hall. “I have the same situation,” he said.

“What situation?” I asked.

“My boss hands all the stuff to me to make sure it gets done, but he has never made it clear that I will be dishing out most of the work to the other team members. Worse still, he doesn’t support me when I get pushback on some of the assignments. He lets these people off the hook as soon as there is a whimper. I was here until 10:00p last night working on a project that I assigned to Sylvia two weeks ago. I found it on the corner of my desk yesterday with a note.

I didn’t have time to get this done. It is due tomorrow. I talked to the boss and he said just give it back to you. He said you would take care of it.

“I am not the manager, but the boss expects me to make sure everything gets done.” Jeremy was clear eyed, but you could tell he felt pretty beat up.

“Sounds to me like the boss expects you to take care of it. Tell me, how do you like working until 10:00?”

“I don’t. I was so mad, I could have strangled Sylvia.” Jeremy was fidgeting.

“So, what are you going to do differently next time?” I asked. “Because this will happen again unless you do something different.”

“What else could I do?” Jeremy sat straight in his chair. “I saw the package at 4:30 and there was five hours of work that had to get done. I had to stay.”

“That wasn’t the question. The question is how are you going to prevent that from happening next time?” Jeremy was stymied. “Let’s take a break,” I continued. “Let’s get some fresh air. I will meet you out in the company courtyard in about ten minutes. I have to check on something. Then we can talk some more. Until then, here is a clue about where I want to focus. What day next week is the next unfinished report going to land on your desk?” -TF

A copy of Creating Competitive Advantage by Jaynie Smith goes to Karen D’Abate for her follow-up comment on yesterday’s post. Many thanks to all who contributed. Some good thinking going on out there.

Biggest Change is You

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From the Ask Tom mailbag.

Question

I’m in a situation where I manage three different groups; however, I am not really the manager but actually in the same job category as the people I “supposedly” manage. The problem is my boss has given me the responsibility of all of these jobs, however, I do not have the authority to delegate to any of the people I manage. They all go crying to my boss. My tendency then is to try to “do it all”. I’ve spoken to my boss about the way I feel, “responsibility but no authority” and he does not know what I mean. He says just give it to him and he’ll find someone to do it. I feel unrespected, overworked and my self-respect is rapidly diminishing. What approach would be my effective for me to take?

Response

There are a number of dynamics going on here that are working against you. First there is the resistance from your co-workers to “assignments” for which they feel no accountability. Second is your boss, who wants to get things done, but is not willing to spend the time you need to work through this resistance. The third dynamic is you.

We could spend all kinds of time working on some technique or trick to subtly coerce your fellow team members into compliance or we could beat our head against the wall whining about how your boss just doesn’t understand. Or…

Or we can start with you. The biggest change that has to occur is not an approach. The biggest change that has to occur is with you.

I am going to throw this open to our readers for response. Here is the question.

What has to change in the mindset and the self-talk that will begin the slow development process of what being a manager is all about?

I have a fresh out-of-the-box copy of Jaynie Smith’s new book, Creating Competitive Advantage for the most insightful comment. -TF

Who is Responsible for the Problem?

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One by one, each team member volunteered some specific action where they had contributed to an overall slowdown in throughput on the floor. Julia listened well. Ed wrote the ideas on the board.

The group had come full circle to Ralph, the remaining hold-out. “Well, I still don’t think I contributed to the problem. But if I did contribute, the only thing I can think of, is that, about a year and a half ago, I stopped filling out the weekly production schedule. Things had become so routine, I didn’t think we needed it. I am not sure that we need it now, but, anyway, that’s my idea.”

“Thank you, Ralph,” Julia said softly. “Ed, write that up on the board.” She looked around the room. They had added eleven more ideas to the original sixteen. But these were different.

“I want to thank you all for taking this first step. We have 27 things we need to look at, but more importantly, you, as a team, are now in position to make something happen. Until this morning, you all thought the problem was with a machine or a batch of bad materials. Only in the past few minutes, you each talked about how you, individually, were responsible for the way we work.

“It is only when you understand that you are responsible for the problem, that you can take responsibility to fixing the problem. I can’t fix it, only you can fix it. As a team, we are ready to take the next steps. Let’s take a break. See you back here in ten minutes.”