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.

Calm in the Control Center

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Day Five after Hurricane Wilma.

Infrastructure. Things are moving forward because of infrastructure. Look at the systems created by each organization in this cleanup and watch them work. A dispatcher sits at a counter with a permanent line to emergency officials. He rolls out trucks and reassigns crews as work is completed.

There is calm in this control center. It is calm because its systems are working. The planning may be hour by hour, sometimes minute by minute, but it is supported by an infrastructure created a long time ago.

I was talking with Bernard Paul-Hus, president of Hypower Inc. His role at this point is to stand back and let his systems and people work. His type-A personality pushes him to find something active and essential to do in the moment, but his real work in response to Hurricane Wilma was done months ago.

Think about your organization. What kind of infrastructure do you have? Have you built it to be responsive to changing conditions? It doesn’t have to be a natural disaster. You are faced with changing market conditions, new competitors and shifting technologies.

Management lessons become visible from time to time. What can you learn from Wilma that will help your company face its trials in the future? -TF

Like a Music Festival without the Music

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Thursday is Day Four without power. Management lessons become visible. Media lessons become visible.

Watching television is a strange way to pass the time. Local tv stations are doing their level best to whip up controversy. There are some people who have already exhausted their personal supplies, and indeed, they are standing in line. It’s like a music festival without the music. But if you get away from the television, you can see a different picture.

Crews are mobilizing to help get power restored. Entrepreneurs are roaming the streets with chainsaws and pressure washers. Citizens are moving STFO and SSIH in manageable piles so municipal crews can remove it with large mechanical jaws. (STFO – Stuff that fell off. SSIH – Stuff snapped in half.)

I attended a meeting at a local college this morning, its administrative staff and faculty in the foyer organizing how to get classrooms fired back up by next Monday. At another location, response teams are rolling trucks to restock gear and refuel power generators. A barbeque grill churns out hamburgers as each driver packs some food before they disappear for another run.

I think we will survive this. -TF

Culture and Citizens with Chain Saws

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The mornings are eerie after Wilma. The cold snap freshened the atmosphere. As I lay in bed, there seemed not a whisper of wind. In the background, the drone of personal generators reminded me that this part of the world is in temporary survival mode. My battery-powered black and white television showed scenes of collapsed roofs and reports of widespread power outages. For anyone dealing with similar damage, it’s crucial to get repairs promptly. If you’re in need of assistance, click here now for gutter and roofing repairs to ensure your home is protected and restored.

But outside, the mood is upbeat; people begin to appear, drinking coffee boiled on their barbeque pits. Soon, the sound of chain saws fills the air and the piling of debris is in full force.

We sneak across the bridge to the beach to watch city crews with large machines dig several feet of sand from the road. The place looks like a war zone, but less than 24 hours after the storm, everyone is digging out. The owner of Bob’s Pizza reports that all of his employees showed up for work today. If they had power, we would be eating pizza.

Another email today, “We are up and at ’em. Everyone is here because we have a mission! Culture is right! Everyone is out in force cleaning up. No cry babies!”

Culture. My friend, Red Scott, says, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Every time. -TF

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The techology gods were good to us today, the power inverter from my car is still working with my dial-up connection through the window. More tomorrow. -TF

Wilma’s Management Lesson

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The wind is gusting 105mph over my house as I write this. We lost power several hours ago, so I am depending on batteries and a dial-up connection.

As I watch this storm pass over, I think about the differences in preparations for the last three major hurricanes. Someone sent me an email contrasting the different responses from the populations involved between Katrina, Rita and Wilma. The differences centered on the personal responsibility taken by the citizens of each affected area. Taking responsibility for one’s own safety, from personal emergency supplies to taking shelter seems to make a big difference in the outcome of the aftermath.

And I think about what really makes the difference. Is it leadership? Is it some specific action taken by this local official or that state official? And I thought, NO. It has less to do with specific action than it does with the accountability culture of the community. Where the culture of the community commands personal responsibility, the outcome is much different.

Community leaders can make grand media pronouncements, or call in the National Guard, but ultimately, what happens has more to do with the accountability culture of the community.

What kind of accountability culture does your company have? What impact does that have on your company’s success in the marketplace?

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Postscript. I am now using a power converter in the front seat of my car. We still have a dial-up connection in the house. We will work hard to keep this blog churning in the aftermath of Wilma. Stay safe. -TF

Buffing and Polishing

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I spent some time with a group of firefighters. Their life is often described as periods of serenity interrupted by frenetic chaos.

But, during the serene time, I observed a great deal of activity spent in buffing and polishing their equipment and vehicles. It seemed more than mere maintenance and it peaked my curiosity.

“Why the extreme attention to detailing and cleaning, almost overboard, at times?” I asked.

One of the young guys on the crew spoke up, “What appears to you as extreme, for us is simply discipline. You can visit any firehouse, and the way they keep their equipment is the same way they fight fires. If they are sloppy in their maintenance, they will be sloppy fighting a fire. They will make poor decisions and will ultimately cost property, even lives. A team always plays the game the same way it practices.”

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As Hurricane Wilma passes overhead today, everyone be safe. -TF

An Audible is Not Improvised Chaos

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I was watching a football game over the weekend. As the quarterback left the huddle, he saw the defense shift formations. As his offense took their stance, ready for the snap, the quarterback called out a change in the play, an audible.

Back in the huddle, they had used 15 precious seconds agreeing on the play, yet right before execution, in a split second, the play changed.

“Did you see that?” the announcer exclaimed. “Boy, that team can think on their feet.”

But, as I watched the play, it was not a sequence of improvisational moves in response to a shift in defensive formations. It was a highly practiced, well executed play that had been audibly called at the line of scrimmage.

How many times have I seen an immaculate business plan go awry because of a shift in the marketplace, a shift from a competitor? And in response, I see a sequence of poorly executed improvised motions that do little more than create a bunch of noise on the shop floor.

Much more effective in the planning stage would be a series of plays designed to be responsive to contingencies in the marketplace. Calling an audible should not be a cue to improvised chaos, but a distinct call to a different, yet well-rehearsed, thought-out course of action. -TF

Check out the Facts

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The team looked dejected. They had worked hard for six weeks and now it appeared they would miss their deadline. They were missing one critical element that was being supplied by a vendor. That vendor had just called to say the shipment would be delayed by 24 hours. The customer wanted to start on Monday and could move on with another team if we couldn’t deliver.

“Check it out,” I said. “You all look depressed. Snap out of it. You are making assumptions based on a number of unknown factors. Check it out. Get on the phone and see what could be done.”

Twenty minutes later, the team was back in full swing. The vendor was able to break the shipment and overnight enough material to meet the deadline. The customer had reviewed the proposal with the partial shipment and approved the plan.

When things look bad, check out the facts, don’t rely on assumptions. Your assumptions could be incorrect. Relying on the unknown conjures up self doubt, hesitation and inaction. Working with facts moves you to positive action based on reality. Check out the facts. -TF

The Voice of Negative Feedback

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“I don’t understand,” complained Christopher. “I keep telling them what they are doing wrong and they just keep doing it.”

“Christopher, would you describe that feedback as positive feedback or negative feedback?” I queried.

“Well, it’s hardly positive, so it must be negative,” he replied.

“So, if they won’t listen to negative feedback from you, who, in their life, will they accept it from?”

Chris thought for a minute. “I don’t know, their mother?”

“Unfortunately, they won’t even listen to their mother. There is only one person who can get through to them, only one person who can voice negative feedback that they will listen to.” I stopped to see that I finally had Chris’ undivided attention. “The only voice they will listen to is their own voice.”

“What do you mean? How can I get them to say negative things about themselves?”

“It’s a very simple question. To get a better result, what could you do differently? Then wait. The next words out of their mouth will state the negative feedback they need to hear from the only person they will listen to.” -TF

Power of Simplicity

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“I already explained it to you,” said Teresa, a bit exasperated with me.

“I know, but it sounds so complicated,” I replied. “Look, you are frustrated with Carl because he seems to never meet his deadlines. When you ask for reasons, he leads you off on a series of rabbit trails that are very difficult to follow. Accountability becomes almost impossible. Do you know why Carl makes things so complicated?”

Teresa bit her bottom lip, then finally said, “No.”

“Sometimes, people make things complicated because they can. Maybe the project is not challenging, so Carl makes it more complicated just to keep it interesting. Have him take a piece of paper and draw a simple flowchart of the project, but limit him to only six circles and six arrows. If he wants to draw more than that, tell him he has to combine things.

“The point of this exercise is not to ignore the details, but to understand the project flow in simpler terms. If you can understand the project flow, you will find the important milestones that you need for follow-up.” -TF

Too Busy Celebrating

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“Do people learn more from success or from a mistake?” I asked.

Rory looked up. “I suppose they learn more from mistakes.”

“I wonder why that is?”

“I don’t know. I never thought about it.”

“The reason people learn more from mistakes is because they sit and try to figure out what went wrong. When people are successful, they are too busy celebrating to stop and figure out what went right.

“Next time a project goes well, stop and ask yourself, what were the factors that caused things to turn out right. Learning from success can be very powerful and it feels a lot better than learning from mistakes.” -TF