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.

Eric’s Feelings

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“Breaking the large group into smaller groups seems like a good idea,” said Rosa. We were talking about getting her department engaged in team problem solving. “I can see how that makes the contributions more anonymous.”

“It makes a huge difference. It allows the team to do something that it could never do before,” I said. Rosa’s eyes grew larger.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Well, you know, Eric, your team’s eager beaver? When Eric has an idea, he is a little sensitive to the group’s response. Let’s say that one part of Eric’s idea has a creative spark, but the rest of the idea needs to be discarded. As long as it is Eric’s idea, the team has to tap-dance around, be politically correct and tactful. But if the ideas are flip charted from a small group, somewhat anonymous, whose ideas are they now?”

“Well, now they are the group’s ideas,” responded Rosa.

“So, if the ideas belong to the team, the team can now rip out that little creative spark, junk the rest of the idea, bolt the spark onto the back end of another idea, reverse engineer the logic and no one’s feelings get hurt.

“When it was Eric’s idea, the team couldn’t do that.” -TF

Priming the Pump

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“I really feel awkward standing up in front of the group. I ask them a question and often, they just stare at me, like no one has a clue. I want them to participate, but they just don’t respond,” said Rosa. As the manager in her department, she had been trying to get more participation through team problem solving.

“Why don’t you think they speak up?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Rosa continued. “I suppose they might be embarrassed or afraid someone will think their idea is stupid.”

“I think you are right. Fear can be very powerful. It can keep people from risking their ideas in front of a group. So, how can you reduce the fear?”

Rosa pondered the question, and then responded. “I guess I have to create a safe place, so no idea comes across as a stupid idea.”

I smiled and jumped in. “Here is something I often use. Before I ask people to respond in front of a group, I always ask them to write their ideas on paper. I call it, priming the pump. And if the group is a large group, I always bust it up into smaller teams. People are more willing to share their ideas in a small group than in a large group. Once everyone has shared their ideas in a small team, only then do I ask each team to report to the larger group. By then, most of the ideas are anonymous and the risk of embarrassment has virtually disappeared.

“When you engage your team in problem solving, an important job for the leader is to drive fear out of the room.” -TF

First Assignment

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From the Ask Tom mailbag.

Question

I have just joined a new company as a project manager and have been assigned to report to another project manager. While this person has been with the company for a while, he is not that far ahead of me technically, though he knows some of the ins and outs of our clients. My problem is that I have been here for a week and a half and, though I have approached him several times about assignments, he continues to keep everything to himself. I am getting tired of staring at my computer screen. I don’t want to go around him, but I don’t know what I can do.

Response

Your manager is obviously more interested in task oriented work rather than management oriented work. You may even be his first direct report, so he may not even know what to do or how to manage you.

Whatever his reasons are, it really doesn’t matter. The first obstacle you have to overcome is trust. You have to get to know him. And I am not talking about warm and fuzzy stuff, this can be brilliantly professional. Grab him at a coffee break, before or after work and try these questions:

Where did you go to school?
How did that prepare you for your career as a project manager?
What attracted you to project management?
What is the most interesting project you have ever completed?
What part of your job do you find the most satisfying? (Hint, he is likely to also tell you the part he finds the least satisfying…which may be your entry into an assignment for some productive work).

Ask him what the most appropriate first assignment might be. Would it be a small project on your own, a segment of a larger project, or simply a small task in a larger segment?

Each day, ask him if there is some small thing that you could do for him that would be truly helpful. It doesn’t have to be a huge assignment, yet something you can successfully complete that begins to build the trust. It might even be an administrative task like collecting all the projects in a list and tagging the status of each project, who is working on it, etc. (This will be helpful to you, because you will know about projects in-house). Good luck, keep us updated on your progress. -TF

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