“It’s a contract,” I explained. “When your team gets behind, it is up to them to pick up the pace. That is why your feedback loop has to let them know how many units produced versus the target.”

“So, if they are only a couple of units behind, they can probably make that up. You see, usually, I don’t find out they are behind until it’s too late,” Gail described.

“Of course not. They don’t want to get yelled at. But you don’t have time to monitor the production rate, so when you find out, that’s why it’s too late. Your team, on the other hand, is always monitoring production rate. They are in the best position to know when they are behind, or ahead.”

“So, I strike a deal with them. Every time they get a certain number of units behind, and five units is the right number, that’s when things get out of hand. Every time they get five units behind, they have to find me.”

“That’s the contract. Now, what are you going to do when they find and tell you they are five units behind?” I asked.

I could tell Gail was uncomfortable.

“Do you trust your team?” I asked.

“Of course, I do,” Gail snapped without blinking.

“Then why don’t you turn your control system into a feedback loop so your team can see the production pace through the day?”

“But what if they really get behind and I don’t know about it,” she pushed back. “There will be hell to pay with my boss if something goes wrong and I don’t know about it.”

“Do you trust your team?” I asked again.

Gail was slower to respond this time. “Well, yes,” she nodded.

“Then strike an agreement with your team,” I replied. “You figure out the threshold of the pace, so if they get ten units behind or five units behind, whatever you are comfortable with, that your team is required to pull you in to make a decision.”

“And so if they are only four units behind?”

“Then, it is within the discretionary judgment of the team, to adjust their own pace to make up the four units. But if it slips to five units, they call you.”

The color was coming back into Gail’s face.

“I am in the best position to judge the pace and quality from our production team,” Gail explained. “My control system collects the data and I get that report.”

“And when you get that report, if the pace is behind, what can you do about it?” I asked.

“I can call a production meeting and stress how important it is that we stay on track.” Gail stopped. “It seems I have those meetings every couple of days.”

“Why don’t you stop? Stop the meetings?”

“I can’t do that,” she gasped. “All hell would break loose and the team would never know how behind they are.”

“I thought you said you had a control system that monitored production output? Why don’t you let your team monitor the control system, and not every couple of days, let them monitor it in real time?”

Gail was almost trembling. In her mind, she was losing control.

“Gail, who is in the best position to take immediate corrective action if we are behind schedule? The only thing you can do is call a meeting.”

Just landed in Newark, up here for three days, working with Dick Shorten’s Vistage groups on the research of Elliott Jaques.

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“I hope that worked,” Gail blurted.

“How so?” I asked.

“I know I am supposed to hold my team accountable,” she replied. “Sometimes, I feel like a babysitter.”

“If you didn’t feel like a babysitter, what would be different?” I pushed.

“If I don’t come down hard, let my team know I really mean business, it seems like they consistently underperform. But if I am in their face, they actually step up and get the job done.”

“How much of your energy does that take?”

“It’s not just energy,” Gail lamented, “Is this what management is all about, because it’s not really that much fun.”

“So, what would be different, if you could find a better way?”

“I don’t know. Instead of me, is there any way they could hold themselves accountable?”

‘What do you mean?” Ronnie asked.

“Describe, again, your control system,” I replied.

“We distribute the task assignments for the day, for the week,” Ronnie began. “The team does the work. The control system counts the output. The output is compiled and delivered to the manager at the end of the week. The manager looks at the output and meets with the team to talk about their performance.”

“You mean, where the team screwed up?”

“Well, yeah. If they screw up, it’s up to the manager to address the situation,” Ronnie defended.

“I see.”

“I knew it,” Ronnie complained. “We set up a control system to hold people more accountable and now somebody has sandbagged the control system.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Look, we have a tight production budget. We cannot afford screw-ups, on either the pace or the quality of the output. Sometimes, production gets behind and we don’t find out about it until it’s too late. So, our QC people put in a control system that counts production every five minutes. The data is collected, compiled on a report and automatically emailed to the manager every Friday. He can see trends in pace, shift productivity and work station productivity.”

“What does the manager do with the report?”

“Every Monday, he meets with the production team to talk about the report. The team can really see where they screwed up,” Ronnie smiled.

“So, what’s the problem?”

“The control system count was off. We had to bring in another QC inspector to do an independent audit of the finished inventory. At first, the count between the control system and the inventory was pretty close, but after a couple of weeks, the numbers went whacky. Turns out, the production team has been messing with the control system counter. They were swiping finished goods through the counter multiple times one day and skipping the counter on other days. The control system was always wrong.”

“Imagine that?” I said.

Miguel looked at me. I looked at him. A stare-down.

Miguel spoke first, “You are adding a swing shift, so our production will run 18 hours a day. As a manager I am working 12 hours a day, as it is. And you want me to be responsible for the production of this additional shift?”

“And I want you to cut your hours here at the office from 12 hours to 10 hours per day. Nine hours per day would be better. What changes will you have to make to accomplish that?” I asked.

“Quality is going to suffer,” Miguel protested.

“No, our quality standards remain the same.”

Miguel took a step back. His head went down. He disappeared from the conversation momentarily. “I cannot do it alone,” he finally responded. “I will need to pick a couple of people to help me out, one to head up each shift.”

“And what if one of them gets sick or has to take a personal day?”

“Then, I am back to working 18 hours that day.”

“Not allowed,” I responded.

“Then, I will have to pick four people. Two people to supervise and two people as backups.”

I looked at Miguel and smiled. “Come and see me when you have made your selection. We will talk about your next steps.”
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No one person accomplishes anything of significance, by themselves. While we may single out, give accolades and awards to a person for accomplishment, without a team around them, they would be nothing. What does that mean for every manager?

“I am already working 12-13 hours a day,” Miguel pushed back. “And you are going to expand the swing shift to run 18 hours a day. How do you expect me to manage? I can’t do it.”

“You can’t do it the way you are doing things, now. What has to change?” I asked.

“Look, I can only be responsible for production about 12 hours a day!” Miguel’s face began to redden.

“No, I want you to be responsible for production 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s why you get paid by the month, not the hour.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little unrealistic?”

“Not at all. You can’t do things the way you have in the past. What has to change?”

“Well, I can’t be here 24 hours a day. I’m pushing it the way it is, now.”

“Actually, I don’t expect you to be here more than 9-10 hours a day. How can you be responsible 24 hours a day when you are only here for 9-10?”