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.

Attaboys

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Is anyone here getting too much appreciation?

What stops a Manager from giving appreciation to team members? It’s funny here in America. We don’t know how to receive appreciation and we don’t know how to give appreciation.

Here is what I hear:
I would give appreciation more often, but it sometimes seems shallow. I don’t know if it will sound sincere.

Sincerity has to do with “real.” Appreciation is sincere when it is real. Making appreciation real is simple. First, tell the person what you liked, admired or found interesting. Then tell the person WHY. Most managers leave out the WHY. Attaboys sound like Attaboys because they never tell you WHY.

“Thanks for a great job,” is an Attaboy.

“Thanks for a great job. The reason I say that is, I knew you were scheduled to leave early yesterday. Most would have thrown something together and left. You stayed and finished the details that made this a great job.” Now we have the WHY. Now we have sincere appreciation because it is real.

The way to receive appreciation is to simply say, “Thank you.” -TF

Out of the Fall Line

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In the sport of snow skiing, control is achieved by counter-intuitive thinking. As speed increases, and the skier becomes “out of control,” conventional thinking causes the skier to lean backwards. This disastrous response moves the front edges of the skis off of the snow creating less control and increasing speed. The counter-intuitive response is to shift the body-weight forward, creating leverage on the front edges of the skis, giving the skier the ability to turn out of the fall line, resulting in skier control and a decrease of speed.

I see many managers attempting to gain “control” of their teams using force, command and control, threat of firing. Those of us with children know the futility of these efforts. The counter intuitive response is to ask questions instead of telling, to ask for commitment instead of demanding. It takes more time, requires more patience and has a longer lasting impact. Sometimes it even works with children. -TF

P.S. Join Executive Management Online. Orientation now open, Session One opens in 3 days.

Public Commitment

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The meeting was almost over. I could see butts in chairs beginning to shift toward the door.

“Take this 3×5 index card and write your name on it. Below that, write down the one thing you are going to do in the next week based on what we talked about, today.” The puzzled faces gave way to ideas for action and the writing began. Forty-five seconds later, we started around the table, each in turn, in front of the group, making a public commitment.

At the end of each meeting, there is an anabolic window that most managers never take advantage of. This window is a short period of time in which growth occurs. Ten minutes later, the window is gone.

Public commitment to action. You have had your team engaged for the past twenty minutes in a meeting about improving the work-flow process. At the end of the meeting, you could adjourn and lose the window, or you could stop and ask for a public commitment to action. It could be the most powerful three minutes of the meeting.

Oh, bring your 3×5 card to the meeting next Monday. We want to know how you did. -TF

P.S. Join Executive Management Online. Orientation now open, Session One opens in 4 days.

How Are We Doing?

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Henry took the pushpins out of yesterday’s report and tacked today’s report in its place. This was a new initiative to provide statistical feedback to the floor. On the report were numbers indicating percentage of capacity, scrap overages and mean time to complete. Next to today’s number were the accumulated numbers for the month and the year. Each section of the report had a snappy little graph in color.

When Henry told me about his idea to provide daily feedback to his production floor, I was quite interested. When I saw the posting, I had more questions. I asked Henry to identify his three weakest links on the floor. That was easy, Henry pointed them out immediately.

I asked Henry to take the posting and get some feedback from his three chosen technicians. “How are we doing?” Individually, the three studied the sheet, then slowly shook their heads. “I don’t know, I guess we’re doing okay, my supervisor isn’t yelling at me.”

Henry was disappointed. He had worked hard on his charts. I asked him, “In what way could you present something that everyone will understand, quickly and easily?”

Henry finally settled on one number, today’s units produced. If the number was better than target, it was green. If it was below target, it was red. Next to it, in black, was tomorrow’s target. One week later, everybody understood. Henry’s feedback system was a success. -TF

P.S. Join Executive Management Online. Orientation now open, Session One starts in 5 days.

Walker Up

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The paceline was moving north, into a headwind, still pulling 20mph. “Walker up!” The shout came from the lead cyclist on the nose. He pulled his right hand off the handlebars, arm straight out, pointing to the pedestrian in the bike lane. One second later, his right hand pats his butt and he moves left into the active traffic lane. Though they may not have been able to see the walker, each cyclist in the line knew about the hazard and knew to follow the lead bike into the active traffic lane to avoid it.

Intentional, agreed-upon communication. It was simple, efficient and effective. As the paceline continued north, there were other hazards to avoid, potholes, a tree branch in the road, narrowing traffic lanes, overtaking cars. Through a series of hand signals and audible shouts, the group made its way safely through urban traffic.

How does your team communicate in its daily routines? Do they have simple, efficient protocols to warn of impending hazards, delays, material shortages? Do they agreed-upon signals to provide each other with feedback?

Chances are good that prior to a delay, prior to a material shortage, prior to a change in schedule, somebody knew. Someone could have warned the group and the group could have acted according to an agreed-upon protocol.

Get your team together and play the “what if” game. Find out what problems occur often and how they are best solved. Then create the “signal.”

“Walker up!” -TF

P.S. Join Executive Management Online. Orientation starts in 1 day. Session One starts in 8 days.

I Saw Something Today

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Esteban was disturbed. His last conversation with the lead tech on the floor clearly indicated the line workers had no clue how their product was being installed or how it worked once in operation. They had been having quality problems, it seemed forever. Just this past month, they had added a third QC person to staff the last shift to catch the errors quicker.

“Everybody on the bus. We’re going to make a visit to one of our best customer locations to see how our manufactured equipment works in the field.” There was a sudden excitement on the floor, a conversational buzz. Esteban was sure it was because everyone was getting paid and didn’t have to produce any product while they were on the bus. It was like a vacation.

Once on the bus, but before they pulled away from the shop, Esteban distributed a dozen drugstore cardboard cameras and some pre-printed 3×5 index cards. On the card was printed, “I saw something today.” Esteban explained they were to look for specific examples of quality issues that had an impact on the way things worked in the field. It could be about the way something fit together. It could be about the speed of the units and the volume of production at the customer’s location.

I Saw Something Today became the central piece of their quality initiative. The team built a quality book complete with photographs of things that worked well and not so well.

What would your quality book look like if your team put one together? No typing allowed, just 3×5 index cards complete with pictures. -TF

P.S. Join Executive Management Online, Orientation starts in 2 days. Session One starts in 9 days.

Is Anybody in this Meeting?

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Seven minutes have passed since this meeting began, yet of the six people in the room, only three are talking with each other. Randy is fiddling with his new Blackberry e-mail device, Sharon is sorting some papers for an outside project, and Lisa is looking at her calendar for next month. Only half the people are engaged, the other half disengaged.

The meeting started with the Manager announcing that the VIP Project had come to a screeching halt last week and the customer was mighty upset. The current discussion was to determine who’s fault it was.

Try an alternative approach to opening the meeting. Distribute six 3×5 cards, one to each team member. Ask the following question, “At the end of this meeting, what do you hope to have accomplished? You have 45 seconds to write your response.”

Forty five seconds later, go around the table and have each person contribute their intention for the meeting. Write their responses on a flip chart. Now you have a good start for your meeting. Everyone is engaged, all six of them, focused on how they can solve the problem with the VIP Project.

PS. Make Randy check his Blackberry at the door. If you don’t, he will continue to be distracted by his new addiction. -TF

P.S. Join Executive Management Online, Orientation starts in 3 days.

Big Dog Meeting Agendas

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Big Dog calls a meeting. You and five other managers show up while Big Dog holds court. The meeting is poorly planned, no agenda, you hate it, you hate meetings in general. Can’t we get back to something more productive?

I am adamant about agendas. Agendas make thinking more efficient and focused. Agendas help leverage time. But Big Dog is already leveraging time. He has five managers in the room, he only has to explain himself once. That’s (1:5) time-leverage.

Where’s the time-leverage for the Manager in a meeting with Big Dog Boss? There isn’t any!! That is why the Manager, who is now working (1:1), one hour’s work for one hour’s productivity, has more vested interest than Big Dog Boss to make sure there is an agenda.

Interesting, isn’t it? The person in the room who has the least chance of gaining time-leverage from the meeting should be the one screaming for the agenda. Do you insist on agendas in your meetings? Both the meetings you run and the meetings you attend? -TF

P.S. Join Executive Management Online, class forming now for January 22, 2005.

Leverage in Meetings

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Question:
You talk about time-leverage. You talk about working one hour to gain two hours productivity. How does that work?

Response:
No manager can afford to work very long at a time ratio of 1:1. Working one hour to gain one hour’s productivity is a shell game for amateurs. Even working managers have to devote a significant focus to time-leveraged activities. How do you work for one hour and gain two hour’s productivity, or work one hour and gain five hours productivity?

The central element of leverage comes from delegation. Let’s say you have a project that would take you five hours to complete. Rather than do the work yourself, you call a 20-minute meeting with three of your team members. In the meeting, you describe your vision for project completion and the performance standards for project completion (including quality and time frame). The rest of the twenty minutes is a discussion of the action steps and who will be responsible for what. The three team members each take a portion of the project, two 10-minute follow-up meetings are scheduled and off we go. As the manager, you will end up with approximately one-hour of meetings, while your team members will work the five hours of the project. You work for one hour, you get five hours of productivity. (1:5)

Here’s is the challenge, what does (1:10) look like? I consistently work with executives whose goal is (1:100), that is one hour’s work to produce one-hundred hours of productivity. How about you, what is your ratio? -TF

P.S. Join Executive Management Online, class forming now for January 22, 2005.

Traction

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It was a late weekend morning. I was headed south on A-1-A, returning from a solo bike run to Boynton inlet. The headwind was light, but enough to knock the speed to an even 19mph. Three hours into the ride, I was in no position to hammer the wind, yet impatient to keep the speed up.

“On your left,” was a friendly heads-up as an unknown rider with fresh legs slipped in front. I downshifted and picked up the reps to catch his wheel. I settled into the quiet space of his draft at 21mph. Seconds later, I sensed a third rider on my tail. Now we were three.

For thirty minutes, we snaked down the road, changing leads, holding 21, taking turns on the nose. I was struck with the purity of teamwork between three people who had never met before, with only three words between them.

A team will never gain traction without a common purpose.

This was a team with nothing, except a common purpose, executing skillful manuvers, supporting each other, communicating precisely with each other. There was no orientation, no “get to know you session,” just a purity of purpose.

When your team works together, how clear is the purpose? What is the commitment level of each team member to that purpose? You don’t need much else. -TF