Category Archives: Accountability

When Does It Start?

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“What’s the timespan of this task?” Reggie wanted to know.

“It depends,” I replied. “When does it start and when does it end?”

“It depends,” he smiled. “Depends on who you ask.”

“I’m asking you, you’re the manager. Timespan is a manager’s judgement. When does it start and when does it end?”

“Depends on the role I am thinking about.”

“Exactly, different roles at different levels of work see the timespan of the task differently, indeed, they see the starting point and the ending point at different places. The starting point and the ending point create the timespan of discretion, the point in the project where they have the authority to make decisions and solve problems. On the same project, we have different roles with different timespans of discretion.”

“So, right now, in my department, we have three projects under three different project managers,” Reggie mused out loud. “I have three project managers who have the authority to make decisions only within the scope of their one project. They are concerned about resources available to them, the project schedule they agreed to, the contingencies within that project when things goes sideways. They have a very sharp focus and don’t spend any time thinking about the other two projects assigned to other project managers. The project starts when the contract is signed and ends when the punch list is complete and accepted by the customer.”

“And you? When does the project start with you as the Senior Project Manager?” I pressed.

Reggie nodded. “For me, it starts way before the contract is signed. I have to work with our sales department to see what we have in our pipeline and what is likely to close. Based on our closing ratio, I have to decide if we have enough project managers with the capacity to handle all the projects that are likely to come under contract. I have to continuously monitor that pipeline to make sure we have enough work to keep everyone busy as project managers cycle off completed projects. I have to figure out what they are going to do next. So, the project timespan for me, over multiple projects, begins long before the contract is signed and I am accountable for the workforce long after specific projects are complete. It’s a different level of work.”

A Manager’s Goal

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“I thought I was very clear,” Marianne grimaced. “It was important for the team to understand and take ownership. This is a very important team goal.”

“Describe what you see?” I asked.

“Their words are supportive, but their actions are passive. There is no skip in their step, no sense of urgency, no critical eye for detail. It’s as if they are just going through the daily motions.”

“You described the project, what you are trying to accomplish. Whose goal is it?” I wanted to know.

“Well, it’s a team goal,” Marianne explained, sounding like I should have figured that out on my own. “I need the team to work together, support each other, cooperate. That’s why it’s a team goal.”

“Have you ever heard that if it’s everyone’s accountability, it’s no one’s accountability?”

That was a stumper to Marianne. A slow burn in her brain. “So, I have to single one of them out?”

“If it’s not the team’s goal, whose goal is it?” I repeated.

Marianne did not like the realization. “If it’s not the team’s goal, it must be my goal,” she flatly stated.

“And, if that’s the case, what changes?”

Written vs Verbal

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Reggie was adamant. “I believe that using a written memo is the best approach to communicate my vision of the project, because it ensures consistency and allows everyone to refer back to the information whenever they need it. I feel that face-to-face communication might lead to misinterpretation or forgetting important details.”

“Written memos are useful,” I replied. “Tell me more?”

Reggie was quick to continue. “Sometimes I feel like the message gets lost or diluted when I communicate verbally. There have been instances where team members seemed distracted or didn’t grasp the complete vision during our face-to-face discussions. That’s why I thought a written memo would provide a clearer message.”

“Maybe that’s the downside of a verbal conversation. What about the upside?” I pressed.

There was a pause. Lasted forever, but silence often does the heavy lifting. “A verbal discussion, in a meeting, allows for immediate feedback on the project, understanding its purpose, its scope, its sequence. It may also surface questions that everyone has, but most are too timid to ask about. It might also create a sense of connection and trust in the team.”

“In what way could you combine both the clarity and consistency of a memo, a written description, with the improvisational value of a robust discussion?”

Out of Sequence

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“I’m having a tough time with my team, struggling to meet the project expectations I set for them,” Sheila explained. “It seems they have different interpretations of the project deliverables, a bit of confusion, making it difficult to nail down accountability.”

“So, tell me what you told them?” I said.

“We had a team meeting about the project, making the message consistent to everyone on the team, so, I’m not sure how people got off track. I’m not even sure how what they are thinking, I just know each of them has a different take.”

“How so?” I pressed.

“It looks like everyone started at a different place in the sequence. This is a linear project with specific steps, one after the other. But, one person is starting on step three and another on step eight. They told me they were trying to think ahead, so when we got to that step, it would already be done.”

I wasn’t skeptical, but wanted to more detail. “And, the problem is?”

“Step three depends on the outcome of steps one and two, it’s a dependent step. We might even be able to skip step three depending on how steps one and two turn out.”

“And, I am sure you clearly described this?” I smiled.

“No, I just assumed the team would figure that out,” she explained.

“So, if you had to do the meeting over again, what would you, as the manager, do differently?”

Gauge the Risk

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Aaron was in a pickle. He was a firm believer that, as a manager, delegation was his most powerful people development tool, but he was uncomfortable with the possible outcome. If this delegation failed, it could be disastrous. His dilemma was “who?” Who should he pick to head this project?

His top gun was reliable, but always overloaded with work. Aaron wanted to spread the responsibility to a young, up and comer, but this would be a stretch, with the distinct possibility of failure.

Selecting the right team member is the absolute toughest step in delegation. The manager can do everything else correctly, but if the wrong person is chosen, success may be fleeting.

Selecting the right person is a process of risk management. If the purpose of delegation is people development, and understanding that people learn the most from their mistakes, risk management becomes the rule of thumb to determine who gets the nod.

If you work in a nuclear power plant, you have to pick your top gun every time. If you run an ice cream shop, you can afford the occasional misstep. Gauge the risk, then pick the person.

Drill a Hole in the Wall

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I was walking the floor. The drone of the saws was dampened by my ear protection. The conversation with Lloyd could barely be heard above the din.

“What’s with all the green shirts?” I yelled.

Lloyd looked around. “It’s green shirt day.”

I nodded as we ducked around a corner where the noise wasn’t so bad. I popped out my earplugs. “What’s green shirt day?”

Lloyd smiled. “It’s like the difference between a light bulb and a laser light. 100 watts from a light bulb will light up a room, but with all the light beams focused together, a 100 watts of laser light will drill a hole in the wall. Same thing works with my team.”

What Could Go Wrong?

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Lonnie was working hard to change the way his team responded to problems on the manufacturing floor.

“I keep telling them that we need to be proactive,” he said. Lonnie wasn’t defensive, but you could tell he wasn’t having any fun.

“So, tell me what happens?” I asked.

Lonnie shook his head. “It’s just day after day. The problems jump up. You know, it’s not like we don’t have a clue. We know what problems customers are going to have. Heck, we even know which customers are going to call us. We just don’t ever get ahead of the curve.”

“Lonnie, being reactive is easy. It doesn’t require any advance thinking, or planning, or anticipating. Being reactive just happens. Being proactive, however, requires an enormous amount of conscious thinking. It doesn’t just happen. You have to make it happen. You have to make it happen by design. At the beginning of the day, I want you to gather your team together. Show them a list of the work you are doing for the day and for which customers. Then ask these two questions.

  • What could go wrong today?
  • What can we do to prevent that from going wrong?

Lonnie smiled. “That’s it?” he asked.

“That’s it.”

Focus

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You will never ever get what you want!!! You will only get what you focus on.

At first I am disappointed, because I really want what I want. It makes me feel bad to understand that I will never get what I want.

If I really want it, I have to focus on it.

If you tell me – “It is really hard to find good people these days. We just never seem to hire the kind of people we really want.” My response – You will never get what you want! You will only get what you focus on.

It’s not that you can’t find good people out there. You just have not focused your concentration and energy to find good people. So, what does focus look like? Think about finding good people, talk about finding good people, have meetings about finding good people, plan a campaign to find good people. Roll out an action plan to find good people.

You will never get what you want. You will only get what you focus on.

Translator Role

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The planning session was almost over. The team energy was pumped up. Well, all except for Audrey. Her expression was only remarkable in contrast to the upbeat tempo of the rest of the team.

“Audrey, what do you think?” I asked. She was startled, the question was unexpected.

“What do you mean?” she said.

“You are a senior member of this team. You have been around. We have been working on this plan for a couple of hours, what are we missing?”

Though Audrey had been thinking, she had not prepared herself to share these thoughts.

“You are right. I think we are missing a big step here,” she finally said. “I have seen plans like this fail before. Here. In this company. The plan sounds good. It is a worthy target, but we have to get there. We can get all excited, give stump speeches to all of our work groups, but until we translate.” She stopped. “Yes, that’s the word. Translate. We have to translate this plan into the things we do every day to make this happen. If we don’t figure that out, time will go by and we won’t see the progress we expect. We have to connect our everyday disciplines to this larger plan. If we don’t the plan will fail.”

Mind the Gap (Analysis)

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The meeting took a sudden turn for the worse when Emil stood up, walked over in front of Sharon and slammed down the report. Up to then, things had been ambling along with the usual finger pointing, back biting and general nastiness. Now, there was real confrontation.

The GPS Project had been off track for several weeks and the whipping post of every department meeting in the past 14 days. As I listened, it occurred to me that, what had been said, was true. The problem was in the structure of the conversation, or the lack of it, that prevented the team from making progress.

“What did we expect?” I asked the group.

Susan pulled out a project plan with a summarized list of milestones. “This,” she said. “This is what we expected.”

“And, what did we get?” I wanted to know.

Roberto shuffled some paper. “This is a report of the actual costs to date and the percent of completion. We spend 60 percent of our budget, but we are only 25 percent complete. I want to know whose fault it is.”

“Okay, look around the room. We are all here. Instead of looking for fault, let’s look for accountability. No single person, or one department accounts for the shortfall in productivity. Right now, we have two things to examine. We know what we want and we know what we got. In what way can we get from here to there. That is what we are going to talk about today.”