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.

Role of the MOR

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Ralph was amazed when he looked at the overtime. Seventy percent of the employees were working 55 hours a week plus. “We gotta find some more people.”

“So, why don’t you find some more people,” I asked.

“We have tried, but all of our supervisors complain that they don’t have time to read resumes much less conduct interviews. And you should see some of the ragtags they did hire last week. We just don’t know what to do.”

Most companies kick the job of selection and recruiting too low in the org chart. Enter the role of the Manager-Once-Removed (MOR). The MOR is the Manager one level above the supervisor, and is the missing link in most selection processes. Ralph’s complaint about the supervisor is actually the truth. Most supervisors ARE too busy and, for the most part, are not trained to conduct effective interviews.

One level up, the Manager Once Removed (MOR) has more perspective, can make better judgments and is more likely to be trained at interviewing. While the supervisor is cracking the whip on the production floor, the MOR should be planning, forecasting and recruiting. Selection is one of the highest and best uses of time for the Manager Once Removed.

Take a look at your hiring process. Do you have the right people reviewing and selecting talent? -TF

Speed of the Grapevine

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Which is faster in your organization, the monthly newsletter or the company grapevine? I am taking odds.

When something bad happens, it is amazing how quickly news spreads from one work team to the next, one department to the next. If only our company newsletter was half as effective at half the speed. More importantly, we know how well the grapevine works with bad news and gossip. How can we inject positive buzz into that same channel? How can we impact the chatter around the water cooler in a positive way?

Gregg uses a bell. There are certain rules for ringing the bell. It has to be a new contract, success in a collection effort, the closeout on a difficult project. But when the bell rings, no one knows why. They have to ask, “Hey, I heard the bell ring today. What happened?”

“Oh, man, we have been working on the ABC contract for three months. They finally signed.”

That’s the kind of positive buzz I like to hear around the water cooler. What kind of impact do you have on the gossip channel in your organization? -TF

What’s Stopping Us Now?

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Ask these two questions.

1. Where do we want to go?
2. What’s stopping us?

That second step is very interesting. What is stopping us? When you examine the list of what is stopping us, you discover it to be a list of beliefs. They sound like reasons, sometimes excuses, but on closer examination, beliefs.

  • We don’t have enough time.
  • The person doesn’t have the right skill.
  • We don’t trust the person to do it.

Are these reasons, excuses or beliefs? As the list grows longer, it reveals the truth. Most reasons why we don’t take action has to do with the beliefs we hold as managers. To really make headway, we have to look at our beliefs, understand that the reason is ONLY a belief, and that the belief can be changed.

We don’t have time. (You haven’t made this a priority.)
The person doesn’t have the right skill. (They will learn the skill through this delegation.)
We don’t trust the person to do it. (You haven’t set up a feedback system to monitor positive progress.)

It is just a belief. Change it. -TF

No Drill Sergeants in the Jungle

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Drill sergeants yell and scream and get results. Why can’t a manager?

Most of us have either worked underneath or know a manager who behaves like a drill sergeant. The descriptions come easy. He runs a tight ship. He manages like his haircut.

But, it occurred to me, there are no drill sergeants in the jungle. Let’s say a squad is on patrol in hostile territory and one team member falls behind, cannot keep the pace. There is no drill sergeant around to demand 50 pushups. There is no yelling in the jungle. Communication may be whispered or signaled, but there is no “I can’t hear yooouuu!”

Drill sergeants work in an artificial environment called training. Their purpose is to instill discipline to exact trained behaviors. Managers work in the jungle. It’s real in the jungle. Production is real. Quality is real. Customer satisfaction is real.

As a manager, the next time you have an urge to yell like a drill sergeant, you might find a whisper more effective. -TF

Game Breaker Machine

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It had taken six months to make the decision to spend $65,000 on a new machine. It was replacing another older machine that was finally being retired. There had been a committee conducting research on the new on-board technology. Access all the excitement effortlessly with www.UFABET.com ลิ้งเข้าระบบ24 เข้าอย่างง่ายๆ. Another team of two had been shopping between leasing arrangements and term equipment loans. The transition team was hard at work to determine how work-in-process would be diverted during the installation and burn-in period. The training department was coordinating a technician training program with the manufacturer. This equipment purchase was going to be a real game breaker.

What I was most interested in was the last Project Manager that had been hired into the company. The salary was about the same, $65,000. Three people had been involved in the interview process, but when I looked at the documentation from those interviews, it was mostly subjective statements:

I think he has a good personality and will fit in well with our culture.
In the next five years, he wants to excel in project management. That’s what we need him for.
Demonstrated a great attitude the during the interview.

The job description was a photocopy of a similar position with some notes scratched on the bottom. The training program consisted of shadowing another project manager for two days. So there is no wonder that the new Project Manager was not going to be a real game breaker.

Perhaps we should create a process that takes recruiting as serious as buying a piece of equipment. We would do well to treat our people as well as we do our machines. -TF

Take That Beer Keg Somewhere Else

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I suggest two hours of uninterrupted time, each day. The pushback from the class is strong.
The discussion is about time management. I am encouraging the use of uninterrupted time.

I start by suggesting one hour of uninterrupted time per week. The group softens up. I suggest two hours uninterrupted time per week. The class is still with me, but there are raised eyebrows. I know the next suggestion of uninterrupted time each and every day will be hard to swallow. I say it anyway. I can tell Juan, sitting in the back of the class, thinks I am nuts, totally out of touch with reality.

“How many of you, in school, had a final exam to take, you remember, report to the cafeteria at 7:00am with two number 2 sharpened pencils?” Everyone raises their hand. “How many of you began studying for this exam the Monday before?” There are snickers in the classroom. I smile, because I know that nobody studied for that exam until about 8:00pm Thursday, the night before.

But then, that very night, you engaged in tactics you can employ today to get uninterrupted time at work. You unplugged the phone, turned off the tv, closed your door, went to the library, communicated with those around you to take the beer keg down to the other end of the hallway, because you had to study.

At work, you can close your door, put your phone on DND, communicate with those around you that you are in a meeting (with yourself), reposition to another office (where no one would think to look). What kind of impact could you have on your Key Result Areas if you could get just one hour of uninterrupted time every week? Two hours? Two hours a day? -TF

Into the Abyss

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They just could not see it. Plain as day to Michelle, the team was having difficulty. She had pointed to the mountain top, but the team was having trouble seeing through the clouds. Hell, they weren’t even looking up. They were looking straight down at the cliff before their feet, straight down into certain failure.

“No, no!!! Look up. Don’t you see it?” cried Michelle.

“No, Michelle, look down. You want us to step off this cliff into the dark abyss. Other Managers have tried this on us before and it always turned out bad. Go ahead, look up at the mountain, but the reality is much worse down here, before we even get to the foothills of that mountain you are looking at.”

Of course, the top of the mountain looks great to the Manager. The Manager can see past all the near term trouble it will take to get there. The Manager can see the long term reward in climbing to the top. The team, however, has a shorter time horizon. They cannot see that far into the future, all they see is that near term trouble. They know they will fail and get blamed for the failure.

That’s why we have to front load rewards on long term projects. Sometimes, those front load incentives seem out of whack with the minimal progress in the first few moments, but it may take that, to gain compliance from the team. They have to suffer through operational changes, learning new skills, short term failure. It stinks. So, front load the incentives to get through it. They will eventually get to the top and understand the longer term reward.

Then, you can point to the next mountain. -TF

End of the World

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It seemed like the end of the world to Raymond’s team. The beta tests were clean, but this was the first customer run with the prototype. As hard as the team had pushed, this project was still going south. As bad as the product was being punished, the thing suffering the most was team morale.

Raymond’s company was not in a mission critical industry. When his product broke, no one died. It was certainly inconvenient, but not the end of the world. It just seemed like it. Looking around the room, he could see the dejection on everyone’s face. They had worked hard, but this project wasn’t budging.

“What is the worst thing that could happen?” he asked. There was silence forever, but forever only lasted thirty seconds.

“Our reputation will be ruined. – The customers will sue us. – We will have to lay off people in our department. – It will probably bankrupt the company. – And our families, too.”

“Okay,” Raymond replied, “anyone else?” Gazing around the table, it was a sad lot. “Look, we have a long history with the two customers who have this product. They know this is the first round out of beta-testing. They have not staked the future of their company on this project. They are not going to sue us. The worst that could happen is that we would have to refund all the money, including the deposits and extend a sincere apology. That’s it. Refunding the money will not bankrupt the company and no one is going to lose their job. Okay? Now, if that is the worst that can happen, how can we improve on that position?”

The purpose of the speech was not to solve the problem, that would come later. The purpose was to move the morale of a beaten team to a position where they could dig in and move forward. When things look grim, determine the worst thing that could happen and improve on that position. -TF

The Name on the Locker

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“They get their name on their locker.”

I was working with a team of branch managers and I had posed the question, “What’s the difference between the home team and the visiting team?” We were discussing impact on performance. Why do teams statistically perform better at home than on the road? Why do teams covet Home Field Advantage in the playoffs?

For Managers looking for superior performance, this is more than an analogy. And someone said, “They get their name on their locker.”

When the visiting team arrives in their locker room, it is adequate for storing equipment and changing into uniforms, but it is anonymous. There are no names on the lockers, no posters on the wall. When the visiting team member opens that locker, it is empty.

What kind of locker room does your team have? In some cases, it is a truck or a cubicle farm. Do your team members have their name on their locker? When you open their locker, is it empty? This is no small thing for a Manager looking for superior performance. -TF

Drama of Ideas

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The scissors and glue were stacked on top of the poster board, the furtive glances around the table showed an attitude of disbelief. Sitting in coats and ties, proper business attire, the assignment seemed curiously odd.

“Working in teams of three, you have two months to prepare a visual display and make a five minute presentation of what this company will look like in the marketplace five years from now. You are encouraged to lift articles from magazines, the internet, draw diagrams, take pictures, and create graphs. Those who use music in their presentation will be eligible for extra credit.”

During the past two annual planning meetings, we had struggled to extend our discussions beyond a 12 month time frame. There had always been lip service to the future, but no grit to the conversation.

Two months later, three stand-up poster board presentations were made that explored the probabilities of the industry, trends occurring with competitors and the influence of world economies. This was just the start of the dialogue, but we had managed over the hump of time travel and truly made it into the future. The leverage point was dramatizing the ideas.

Does your team get stuck in their own logic, unable to break out? Dramatize your ideas. It may be the turning point. -TF

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