Category Archives: Accountability

Designing the People System

“So, you want me to really take a step back and look at the interactions between people?” quizzed Lawrence.

“More than just look, I want you to design the interactions between people.” I stopped to watch Lawrence’s face. There was a question behind his eyes.

Since I had his attention, I continued. “Think about these kinds of questions.

How are team members given work assignments?
How often are they given work assignments?
Do team members depend on work product from other team members?
How do team members hand off work to other team members?
When a team member completes a work assignment, how does their supervisor know?
When they complete a work assignment, how do they know what to work on next?
Does anyone review or inspect their work?
How often is their work reviewed or inspected?
Are they permitted to continue on additional work before their current work has been reviewed?
Do they work on multiple assignments simultaneously?

“The people system is the most important system you work on. This is just the start.” -TF

Moral Dilemma

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Question:

I have been working for my new company for six weeks, as an account manager. I supervise four customer service people, but I am in charge of the customer relationship. My biggest customer (I am the new guy, so it’s not the biggest for the company, but it is for me), has a trade show starting next Thursday. We’re in the printing business and have been designing their new brochure for three weeks. My manager just told me the press is going to bump the production run for a bigger order from another customer. My customer is not going to get their brochures in time.

Here is my dilemma. My manager wants me to lie and say the brochures will make it on time so my customer won’t pull the order. (My customer can re-order a short run of their old brochure from their old printing company.) My manager says the new brochures will make it for the second day of the show and I can just get on my knees and apologize, but at least we will still have the order.

You can see where this is leading. My customer is going to be really pissed. What should I do? I don’t want to lose my job, but I don’t want to lie. -The New Guy

To the Readers of Management Blog:

In life we have to make tough decisions. The New Guy could use some advice and support, and not just from me. I am inviting you to jump in. What would you do? What advice would you have for the New Guy? Post your response below. The best response (I will pick) will receive a copy of the book Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott.

Scaling Mount Everest

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“Look,” I said, “if you want to fire this guy, or just cut him off at the knees, you don’t need this. Do this, only if you want to see him correct the misbehavior. Otherwise, just fire him and get it over with. You don’t need me for that.”

Alice was having a “behavioral issue” with Barry.

“Look, if the solution seems difficult, what is the likelihood that Barry is going to jump in and make everything right?”

“Not much,” Alice replied.

“If you want to raise the probability that Barry will actually change his behavior, he has to truly believe that the solution will be easy for him. You have to break it down to its simplest terms so he can understand that we are not asking him to scale Mount Everest.”

If you want someone to fix a mistake, you have to make it easy. If it appears difficult, they will not fix it. -TF

Real Time

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Three months had passed, each seeming to rocket toward the deadline looming next Friday. Olga was frantic. What seemed like a lifetime to complete the project was now drawing to a fleeting few days. Meetings had occurred, but to her dismay, she could not remember where she seemed to lose control. Promises had been made, questions asked that needed research, but the project was careening south like a Canadian goose in September. In the heat of the meetings, Olga had scratched some sparse notes, but now, they made little sense, showing more disorganization than authoritative clarity.

And that’s why God made laptop computers. Try this for your next project meetings. Invite either a clerical person or an outsider who has no vested agenda in the project, but enough familiarity to spell the names. Hand them a laptop with an e-mail client (like Outlook). Preload the e-mail addresses of all the participants into a blank e-mail and instruct that notes be taken in the body of an e-mail, or at least as an e-mail attachment.

Those notes should include general summaries of items discussed, commitments made, by whom and deadlines. As soon as the meeting adjourns, press the “send” button. In my class, students always ask, “How soon after the meeting should the minutes be published?”

My answer is always: in Real Time. Everyone gets a copy immediately. -TF

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Saving Face

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The tension in the air was growing. The silence lasted longer than Troy’s patience. “Okay, you screwed up. Not the end of the world. And you need to make it up to the team.” But how? How could Henry face his peers? Firewatch had been his responsibility and he took a shortcut. The resulting accident had been scary, there was some property damage but no one was hurt. Three people had been in danger and the re-work would put the team a week behind, still with a hard deadline.

As the Manager, Troy could not afford to have the team blow up. He would need all-hands-on-deck, even Henry’s. Henry had to be humble, not defensive. Henry needed to apologize. Henry needed to demonstrate a new attitude of responsibility. Not just a promise, but a demonstration. For this to work, Henry had to save face. Anything less and the team would find itself short-handed, perhaps at odds against itself.

How do you save face when you are wrong? Admit it immediately and emphatically. Take responsibility, don’t blame circumstances. Don’t blame lack of sleep, fatigue, the fate of an accident. Be strong. You are responsible. -TF

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Who is the Bad Guy Here?

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As the team left the room, Mandy had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. There had been lots of promises, but in her heart, she knew that only 10% of the elements on the project would be complete. It was almost as if Mandy should stand on a chair and scream at the top of her lungs, “I really, really mean it this time. We have to get this stuff done.”

Those of us who have children know the futility of standing on chairs and demanding. It is pretty entertaining for the children, but hardly effective.

In what way could Mandy create an atmosphere that would drive higher performance toward the goals set by the team? If standing on chairs and screaming doesn’t do it, what does? Most Managers are not aware of or do not leverage team accountability. Managers assume the role of the bad guy and essentially let the team off the hook when it comes to holding each other accountable for performance.

Turn the tables. In your next meeting, when a team member reports non-performance or underperformance, stop the agenda. Ask each team member to take a piece of paper and write down how this underperformance is impacting their part of the project. Go around the table and ask each person to make a statement. Then ask the team to create an expectation of how the underperformance should be corrected. Go around the table again. Finally, ask the underperformer to respond to the team and make a public commitment to action.

Team accountability is a very powerful dynamic. -TF

Fernando’s Mistake

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Fernando was in a quandary. His newest team member, Paul, made a major mistake on a batch run that was due for shipping this afternoon. QC had pulled a sample, then more samples, eventually, the whole batch.

It was time for an accountability conversation. Fernando knew that Paul was inexperienced, yet showed great promise with a terrific attitude. The mistake would cost about $3,000 in scrap and another $1000 in re-run time. Paul had a great attitude, but this clearly could not happen again.

How was Fernando to talk to Paul without creating defensiveness? How to make sure that Paul would not repeat the behavior again? A passing comment would not work, light-heartedness would not communicate the seriousness of the situation.

Fernando decided to talk about a mistake that he once made. By talking about his own mistake, he could go really deep; describe the details, the consequences, the corrective action. He could talk about emotions, impact on the team, accepting responsibility. By talking about himself, Fernando could lay it all out, without creating a defensive response from Paul.

If Paul does not get defensive, is there a greater likelihood that he will actually take corrective action, change his behavior? -TF

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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

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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

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Blaming and Whining

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“I’m the manager. I’m in the best position to make the judgment about pace and quality?” Gail stood firm. “I can’t have the fox watching the hen-house.”

“You are correct. Never hire a fox to watch the hen-house. Only problem is, this isn’t a hen-house. This is your team. You have worked with some members of this team for five years. Your newest recruit, you have worked with for three months. You know who they are,” I replied.

“Yes, but I am still the manager. I am responsible for their productivity. No passing the buck here. The last manager in this position had to learn that lesson the hard way,” Gail explained.

“What lesson was that?” I was curious.

“Well, he didn’t hold his team accountable, on one hand, but blamed them for their lack of productivity. In fact, it sounded more like whining than blaming. My boss couldn’t take it anymore, and that was that.”

“So, what are you going to do differently?”