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.

Enthusiasm and Discretionary Effort

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From the Ask Tom Mailbox

Question:

How can I, as a co-worker, get more attention to detail and productive effort from this new person in my department. She doesn’t report to me, but I request a number of projects from her each day.

Response:

This is a follow-up to the last couple of days. Tuesday, we talked about authority and power. Yesterday, we talked about authority and its inability to influence things like energy, enthusiasm and discretionary effort.

Repeated desired behavior only comes from positive reinforcement. You have the power (notice I said power, not authority) to create those conditions of positive reinforcement. However, here is the important insight. This positive reinforcement must be meaningful. My guess is, no manager has taken the time to find out what is important to this new team member. No manager has ever sat down to discover her interests, hobbies, passions or pursuits. It is only when those connections get made, that progress toward discretionary efforts will occur.

So, what to do? If you want to see productive effort, you have to discover these things. I suggest a Mineral Rights conversation . Take this person to lunch and find out what makes her tick. It is only with this information that you will be able to create a meaningful environment to gain that discretionary effort. -TF

Your Company May Have It Right

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More from the Ask Tom mailbag.

This story continues from yesterday’s question where a team member with no supervisory authority is left to request production from another team member. We focused on the difference between authority and power, acknowledging that, while a manager may have the authority to direct a project, the team member ultimately has the power to control the speed and quality of the execution.

Response

“But your company may have it right. The fact that your team mate reports to another manager may be perfectly appropriate. Though you depend on this person, the relationship is not one of accountability, but one of interdependence. This interdependence is very real.

“The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter whether the relationship is one of accountability or one of interdependence, the team member still has the power to control the speed and quality of the execution.

“The accountability authority you seek has little to do with influencing enthusiasm, energy and discretionary effort. Discretionary effort comes from a positive decision on the part of your co-worker. You do not need authority to create the conditions for this positive decision.

Tomorrow, we will tackle how to create those conditions and what to do first. -TF

Vegetables and Power

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Question:

We have a new person in our department. As the project manager, I request many work elements from her each day, however, she reports to another manager in the department. I feel there is a lack of accountability and attention to detail in much of her work, which requires me to follow-up and complete many of these work elements. Her manager seems too busy to notice how low the productivity is from our new team member. I think it would have been better to have this person report to me, but that is not the way she was assigned. Any suggestions?

Response:
You are in a classic dilemma, where you are dependent on the production and work of another person yet have no authority to hold this person accountable for performance. There are two things to consider, both of which land you in the same place. We will talk about one angle today and another tomorrow.

Organizations often have reporting alignment mismatched. You depend on this person, yet have no authority to hold this person accountable. Even in this misalignment, you may need to understand the difference between authority and power. Even if you did have the authority to hold this person accountable, this person still has the power to decide whether the work will be completed and to determine its quality.

It is like a parent who has the authority to issue a policy about vegetables that will be served for dinner, however the child has the power to determine whether broccoli will indeed be eaten.

So, even if you did have the authority, this person still has the power. More tomorrow. -TF

Expensive Lesson

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The personnel file was on the desk. Sandra looked despondent. “She has worked for us for two years. We thought she was ready, so we promoted her into the position. It is obvious now that it’s not going to work out. I don’t want to fire her, but if we demote her, she is going to quit. Either way I lose.”

“What’s the lesson learned,” I asked.

“To know whether a person is ready for a position before you promote them, but how do you know?” asked Sandra.

“Exactly,” I responded. “How do you know? How can you find out?”

Sandra thought, but the answer came quickly. “I know what all the responsibilities are. I could have given her bits and pieces over time to see how she did. If I had done that, I would have known that she had difficulty with three of the core elements of the position.”

“And so you could have continued to work with her, now it looks like she is on her way out. How much did this lesson cost you?” I prodded.

“A lot. It costs a lot to recruit someone at that level, plus my time to interview and the time to get someone up to speed.”

“Sometimes, lessons are expensive.” -TF

Smile

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“Positive reinforcement isn’t money. Don’t think that they only element you have as a manager is to give someone a bonus, or a spiff, or a raise. Don’t get me wrong, money is important, but it is not the only touch you have, nor is it the most powerful.”

Travis and I had been talking about shaping behavior using positive reinforcement. Shaping behavior, as in training, as in getting team members to follow a process or sequence.

“See that production line over there,” I asked, pointing toward three lone workers alongside a bank of automated machine presses. Travis looked; he was familiar with that work area.

“Did you ever wonder why those three workstations still exist?” Travis knew that seven other stations in the line had been replaced with the automated presses.

“Yeah, sometimes, it’s like why do we still have people doing that?”

“Initially, that’s what we thought, but when we benchmarked the automated production with the manual production, we found one worker not only kept up, but exceeded the output of the automated machine. We started asking questions. How could this be?

“Turns out the workstation on the end, Rochelle’s station, is right by her supervisor’s office. Every time the supervisor comes out, he stops, looks at Rochelle’s production and smiles at her. It’s the only station he stops at. He never says a word to Rochelle, yet she has the highest production rate.

“Do you think she has the highest production rate because she thinks she is going to get a bonus? I don’t think so.” -TF

The Next Level

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“So, Travis, we have been talking about our on-the-job training program and how we use colored shirts as a reinforcement tool. Why did we go to all this trouble? I mean, it’s just a loading dock.”

Travis was bright and learning fast. “It’s not just this loading dock, and it’s not just this shift. And it’s not just the other four branch locations we have. This next year, our company has a pretty aggressive goal to open six more branches. If we have any hope for consistency in our operations, we have to have some sort of system, even in our loading procedures.”

“And when we build in this kind of consistency, what happens to our capabilities in opening more branch locations?”

“Well, now we can move people around with more confidence that everyone is doing things the same way. New branches won’t have to go through trial-and-error. They can get efficient faster. Just fewer headaches.” -TF

Visibility

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“Why do you think we spent the time and money on the t-shirt program, using different colors and all?” Travis was beginning to understand the underlying dynamics. “I mean, we could have just made notes in the personnel file, or instituted some incentive bonus program and spiffed the supervisors.”

Travis was stumped. He had always believed that money was the prime motivator for employees, especially for entry level jobs.

“Travis, when you look out across the floor, do you see the colors? Can you tell who is who and where they are in their on-the-job training?”

“Well, sure. We have three new guys, two forklift certifications, two people certified to close out loading tickets and two guys who can handle shift meetings.”

“This whole program is designed to reinforce desirable behaviors in a way that is visible to everyone. The visibility helps to sustain the positive reinforcement even when the buddy or the supervisor isn’t around.

“And right now, even you or I could walk out on the dock and make a meaningful positive comment about their progression, based on the design of the system.” -TF

Blue Shirts

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“But the game goes deeper.” Travis and I continued to discuss the colored t-shirt program on the loading dock.

“For this program to really be effective, we have to think upline. We have to get the supervisor involved as well. Think about the colored shirts. For a supervisor, what’s the goal?”

It didn’t take Travis long. “To get all of his guys into blue shirts. That’s five levels of certifications for the guys on the dock.”

“And what is life like for the supervisor who has an entire crew in blue shirts?” I asked.

“Life must be great. They are all experienced, cross trained, able to handle complicated truck loads and tie downs, without a lot of supervision.”

“Take it one step further,” I prompted.

“Now, the supervisor has to figure out a way to keep the crew together.”

“And, we call that retention.” -TF

The Buddy System

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“Oh, it’s more than just a simple game with colored t-shirts,” I said. Travis was just beginning to understand the depth of the game. This was a system designed to positively reinforce desired behavior.

“Each new person on the loading dock gets teamed up with a buddy. What color shirt do you have to have before you can be assigned a buddy?”

Travis was remembering the meeting a couple of weeks before. “Before you get a buddy, you have to earn the blue shirt with the black trim. And whenever your buddy gets forklift certified, you get a ball cap with a patch on it. For every guy you get into a green shirt, you get another patch. Five patches and you get a dinner for two at Outback. Oh, and your wife gets a dozen red roses.”

“So, tell me, Travis, how hard is it get these guys on the loading dock to volunteer to train the newbies?” Travis smiled and nodded. -TF

Most Important First Behavior

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“So, how does that work around here?” Travis asked. Using the analogy of video games and expert levels made the reinforcement process understandable, but we were running a loading dock, not playing a video game.

“Travis, the guys loading the trucks, have you noticed the different colored t-shirts they wear, the ones with the company logo on the front?”

“Yeah, I noticed. We started that about three weeks ago. The new guys get a white t-shirt to start. We had a meeting about it.”

“And when does the new guy get his white t-shirt?”

“The first day,” Travis smiled.

“No, the first day he punches the timeclock reporting for work on-time,” I clarified. “What is the most important first behavior?”

“Showing up for work on time,” Travis said.

“And when does he get his second white t-shirt?”

Travis was catching on. “The second day he punches in for work on time.”

“And when does he get a yellow shirt?” I continued.

“Five days on time, consecutive days on time.”

“And when does he get a green shirt?”

“When he passes forklift training.” Travis stopped. “I think I get it.” -TF