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.

Detail in the Vision

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Jeremy followed the advice, broke his team into four smaller teams who each worked on a small piece of the project picture. Sixty days in the future, the project would be finished. One way or the other, it would be finished.

Jeremy had set goals before, but building this picture of the future was a bit odd as a first step in the planning process. “Why,” he asked. “Why is this picture so important?”

“Jeremy, in the past, during your planning, you set milestones, or goals. Tell me, how excited did your team get when you published the milestone list?” Jeremy looked at me sideways.

“Exactly,” I said. “Teams don’t get excited by goals. Goals are simply measurements. They help us evaluate success, but that’s about it.

“It’s the picture, the picture of the project completed. It’s the vision that builds enthusiasm. It may be the only tool you have as a manager to create excitement, to build energy in the team. That’s why I want to see detail in your picture. Color. Smells. Movement. Bring that project picture alive so your team can truly see it. That’s why the picture is so important.” -TF

Delegate Part of the Planning

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“I know you wanted two pages of detail, but I could only get part way down one page. Maybe I am stuck.” Jeremy pulled himself closer to the table. We had been working on his project plan, a short range project due in 60 days. As a first step I had asked him to paint a picture of the project, as if it were already complete.

I studied what he had written. It was a good start, but needed some fleshing out. “Tell me, Jeremy, are you working by yourself on this plan? Or do you have some team members helping you?”

Jeremy shook his head. He was thinking of an excuse, but didn’t know which way to go.

“Look, Jeremy, one of the biggest reasons managers fail is they think they have to do everything themselves. But you don’t. Let your team in on this project. They will help you. You have four main ideas in this page. Take your team, split them into four small groups. Give each group one of the ideas and tell them they have five minutes to present their thoughts in a meeting next Monday. At the end of a half hour meeting, you should have more than enough detail.” -TF

The Secret in the Picture

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“Oh, that was the easy part. I got that down in two sentences. It’s the rest of the plan that I am having trouble with,” said Jeremy. He was stuck putting a plan together. I had asked him to describe the picture of the project when it was complete, about 60 days in the future.

“Two sentences?” I queried. “How much detail can you fit into two sentences?”

“Well, since we just started the project, I don’t know how things will turn out,” stammered Jeremy. He knew where I was fishing.

“Exactly! If you cannot imagine how things will turn out, you will have difficulty influencing or controlling the results. The key is imagination. The initial visual picture that you create is the most important first step of any plan. It drives everything else in the plan. And here is the secret. The power of picture is in its detail.

“So, Jeremy, go back to drawing board and write me two pages about this project as if it is already finished. I want all the details. Use your imagination.” -TF

The Offer

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Jean was upset. After two weeks of interviewing, the committee had finally made an offer to a candidate for an open position. “I called her up and she laughed, said she took another position last week. So, we went to our second candidate, same thing. Our third candidate was missing two essential qualifications, but the committee didn’t want to start the process over. I just made the offer, but I am skeptical. I just hope it works out.”

“Well, hope is a strategy,” I replied. “Why did it take so long to make a decision on your first two candidates? You interviewed them almost two weeks ago.”

“Well, whenever the committee got together, we would argue about what was important for the position. Our meetings were more confusing than helpful.”

“The job description, wasn’t that helpful?”

“It’s funny, we didn’t actually write one until over this past weekend. It was only when we did, that the committee was able to agree on the qualifications and make a decision. It was just too late.”

Jean stared at the table, shook his head and smiled. “That’s where we should have started.” -TF

The Check-In

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Carly met me in the conference room that overlooked the plant floor. She was a new supervisor running a parallel line to another crew. On the job for three weeks, she had been having difficulty with her crew’s productivity next to the other crew.

“It’s amazing to me,” she said. “We start ten minutes earlier than the other line. In fact, they just stand around talking for the first ten minutes of their shift. But, within half an hour, they catch up and then hammer us the rest of the day.”

“Interesting,” I said. “Let’s get Jarrod up here and find out what he is doing differently.”

As Jarrod joined us, he talked about a number of things, but he saved the best for last. “One thing, I know you have overlooked, is our team huddle at the beginning of the shift. It is our team check-in. I have found the most important obstacle to productivity on a line like this is a personal stuff that’s going on. It has nothing to do with work, but has a bigger impact than anything else. It makes a difference in hustle, covering someone’s back, taking an extra measure for safety. That daily check-in helps my team to work together. It’s only five minutes, but makes all the difference.” -TF

Sweep Them into Action

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“Sometimes, I feel like I am fighting an uphill battle. I call a meeting and explain what I want done. We go over all the details, but it just gives some the chance to rain on the parade.” Camella had a new process she was trying to install out on the floor. “They talk it down in the meeting so it has no chance when it makes it to manufacturing. I know I want to do the right thing and get buy in before we get started, but I feel like I am stalemated.”

“Have you ever reversed the process?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” said Camella, gaining curiosity.

“Sometimes, when I know the explanation is going to draw fire, I just don’t explain. Sometimes, I just sweep people into action. Before anyone has a chance to protest or complain that something won’t work, we have demonstrated that it will work. We don’t have to go through the whole process, just enough to warm the team up to the idea. Then we debrief and go for buy-in, after they have proved to themselves that it will work.” -TF

Integrity with Yourself

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“Everyone says they have integrity, but I have to tell you, when Roger was talking about how he managed to skip out on the maintenance fee in that contract, I got a queasy feeling.” Alice was having difficulty even talking about this. “I know it was only a $130, but he was so proud that he was able to beat the vendor out of his money, I don’t know, it was just weird.”

Every agreement you make with other people, you are ultimately making with yourself. When you cheat other people, you ultimately cheat yourself. When you break a promise to yourself, you teach your brain to distrust your intentions and your behavior. You begin to sow the seeds of self doubt. You undermine your strength and integrity.

Every agreement you make with other people, you are ultimately making with yourself. When you keep your agreements with other people, you teach your brain to trust your intentions and behavior. Agreements you keep with yourself, that are invisible to others, are the most powerful because they are pure. They sow the seeds of self confidence. You build on your strengths with a foundation of integrity. -TF

Let Go the Outside World

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I looked around the meeting room. Raul was still on his cell phone. Barry and Jim were hiding their Blackberrys under the table, thumbs furiously pounding. George was reading the business section of the newspaper and Theresa was finishing some paperwork. They were a hard working bunch, but their minds were not in this room. And this was an important meeting.

I made enough noise to get the electronic units shutdown, the newspaper folded and the paperwork stuck in a briefcase, but I could see the minds were still charging about the world.

“Take a 3×5 index card and write down two sentences responding to the following question. What do I need to say to myself and to this group to let go the outside world for the next 45 minutes to be fully present here and now?”

There was silence. The 3×5 cards I had placed on the table remained blank. The pens were poised, but not moving. Seconds ticked off and the first response was put on paper. Then another. Soon, the ink was flowing and the pens finished their work.

As we circled around the table, each team member lost their grasp on events outside the room and began to focus on each other. Four minutes had passed and we were finally ready to work. -TF

Big Moves

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A friend of mine named Dan Wertenberg threatened to follow me around one day to evaluate my effectiveness. It was interesting. He said, as I went through my day, only 20% of the things I did would have real lasting impact on my business, my organization, my effectiveness. And I got to thinking about that.

As I look back on the last three years, what were the four or five strategic decisions that I made that had a lasting impact on the direction of my business? It was the opening of a new office, a key hire, the creation of a new business direction. The rest was just noise, busy work to make me believe that I was doing important adult stuff.

What was more interesting was the next question. In the next three years, what will be the important decisions that I make that will have a lasting impact?

In the next three years, what will be the important decisions that you make that will have a lasting impact on your career, your team, your department, your organization? -TF

Moving to a Real Time in the Future

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“Let’s hear the self-talk,” I said.

Lucy began to describe her vision of the project as it would be completed. Her words were tentative. “When we finish the project, the new territory should be ours. The competitors will think twice about ignoring our expertise. The client should have a new-found respect for us.”

“Not bad, for starters,” I said. “I want you to try something different. I want you to pretend the project is already finished. Close your eyes and visualize that we are one day beyond the closing date. Now open your eyes and describe it again.”

It took Lucy a moment for it to sink in. I could see her eyes blink hard as she moved her mind into the future. “We have finished the project and the new territory is ours. The competitors cannot ignore our expertise in this marketplace. The client has a new-found respect for us.”

“Lucy, it is more than just confidence. What else is different when you talk like that?”

“When I transport myself into the future, all of the problems that get in the way and slow us down are gone. All of the hurdles have vanished.”

The power of visualization, to a real time in the future, works to conquer more than problems. It conquers the fear and hesitation of moving forward. -TF