Category Archives: Competence

Inner Dragon

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“It’s impossible,” Cheri shook her head. “I don’t see how it can be done?”

“Lots of impossible things have been done in the past. We even went to the moon,” I suggested.

“Yes, but this project has all kinds of traps built inside. I can feel it,” she said.

“Are those traps real, or imagined?” I asked. “I mean, there are real hazards. We don’t have to jump off a cliff to understand that we cannot fly. But many trepidations are only in our imaginations. We see them as fire-breathing dragons.”

“And, now you are going to tell me that dragons don’t exist?” Cheri was skeptical.

“Oh, no. They exist alright and are very real to you. An inner dragon is the most fierce. And, the one dragon you must slay before you can move forward.”

Nature of Necessity

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“How does necessity work?” Erica wanted to know.

“Think of something in your life that is necessary, nothing complicated, but something you do that is necessary,” I replied.

“Okay, I brush my teeth, not because my mother told me, though that is how I started, but because I believe it is necessary.”

“So, in the beginning, your mother told you, and you followed, not because it was necessary, but because you knew you she would continue to remind you until you complied.”

“And, now,” Erica picked up, “I do it because I believe it is necessary.”

“Now, think about your team. You want them to do something, perform at a pace, and in a way that meets a quality spec, because you believe it is necessary?”

“Yes,” Erica nodded.

“But is your team doing it because you believe it is necessary or because they believe it is necessary?” I prompted.

Erica shrugged. “No, they are only doing it because I told them to do it.”

“And, they will continue to do it as long as you are around to remind them to pick up the pace and pay attention to quality. But, the instant you are gone, they will only do what they believe is necessary. Necessity is not what you believe, it’s what they believe.”

Of Competence

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“Where do I start?” Melanie asked. “I have things that I will ask my team to do. Each thing has a performance standard that is necessary. If you say the only measure of performance is performance, where do I start?”

“Before you put performance to the test, you must assess, take an inventory of your team. What are the things we examine when we look at performance?” I asked.

“First is competence,” Melanie replied. “If the team, and its members, are not competent, they will fall short.”

“And what is competence?” I pressed.

“Competence is a combination of capability and skill,” she nodded. “Capability is the cognitive ability to see the goal at some time in the future, organize the activity to get there and accommodate all the obstacles that may or not get in the way.”

“And skill?” I said.

“Skill is made of two things,” Melanie thought out loud. “There is always some technical knowledge that must be accounted for, but then practiced performance, over and over until the action is smooth, without friction.”

“So, competence is where you must start,” my turn to nod. “Is your team competent to accomplish the goal you have in mind, as the manager?”

The Measure of Performance

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“I don’t know what happened,” Bella said out loud. “We met, we planned, everyone had their role, we all committed with the best of intentions.”

“And?” I asked.

“And, the project failed,” she replied. “I mean, I have to give the team an A for effort, but at the end of the day, the project fell short, the customer was disappointed and we lost the rest of the contract.”

“So, you learned a valuable lesson,” I nodded.

“Yeah, what’s that?” Bella pushed back.

“That, of all the things we do, all of our planning, all of our training, all of our meetings, the only thing that matters is performance,” I said. “The best measure of performance is not a spectacular plan, or lofty intentions. The only measure of performance is performance.”

Learning From Mistakes

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“We got it,” Roland said. “This was very painful, to examine the sequence of events that caused our last project to fail. It cost us a lot of money, wasted energy and almost got us sued. But, I think we know how it happened. Expensive lesson.”

“So, you are trying to learn from your mistakes?” I replied with a question.

Roland nodded in agreement. “I think it is important, part of our debrief, a post-mortem.”

“It’s valuable to look at your mistakes,” my nod matched Roland’s nod. “What did you miss?”

“It’s a very tough client. They had an unreasonable timeline, very demanding, put us under a lot of pressure,” he replied, as if his team had been tortured.

“I assume you knew this client?” I stared. “I assume you looked at the project schedule, and agreed to it. You knew what the stakes were. These are NOT things you missed. What did you miss?”

“I was just trying to tell you why it was such a difficult project for us,” Roland pushed back. “Final analysis, I don’t think we missed anything.”

“People always tell me they learn from their mistakes. Mistakes are rarely that instructive. The reason we don’t learn from our mistakes is that we fail to examine our own contribution to the problem. You are going to have difficult customers, with unreasonable demands inside a high pressure project with tight deadlines. All of that was known before you signed the contract. What you missed, your failure in the project was not due to the project. The failure was your assessment of your internal capability, or lack of capability. Your contribution was that you ran out of talent.”

Management Panacea

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“I have a new team,” Alex announced. “We had a tough week. I think I may have thrown them into the deep end of the pool and just expected them to swim.”

“How so?” I asked.

“I know it was a complicated project, but it was the next project on the schedule, had to be done,” he described. “Lots of moving parts, a bit of coordination. Problem is, this new team didn’t even have the basic fundamentals down, much less the ability to sequence each step of the process.”

“And, your game plan?” I wanted to know.

“I was thinking about one of those team building programs, you know, get everybody to know each other. I hear good reviews for that type of activity.”

“Do you really think that’s the problem?” I shook my head. “You have a new team, no skills, no understanding, practically incompetent. No little program, no matter now popular, is a substitute for incompetence. That team building exercise may be useful down the road, but what would be a more important first step?”

Can’t or Won’t

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“My team seems to think there are some problems they face that will never be fixed,” Kari explained. “It’s always, here we go again. Same problem, different customer.”

“Do you think they can’t fix the problem or won’t fix the problem?” I asked.

“Can’t fix or won’t fix, what’s the difference? The problem still ends up on my desk, again,” Kari flatly stated.

“Often, people prefer a problem they can’t fix to a solution they don’t like.” **

Kari thought for a moment. “You’re right. To fix the problem, they have to stop production and figure out what’s going wrong. Instead, they would rather flare a few tempers and call for help.”

“This is where you have to decide if this is a matter of can’t or won’t. Often, someone who won’t solve a problem, or even try to solve the problem, feels like they don’t have the capability to solve the problem. They feel incompetent and give up. Your job, as a manager is not to solve a solveable problem, but to build the competence of the team to solve the problem.”
—
**Shades of Lee Thayer, Competent Organization

Be Prepared

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“My boss tells me I need to have a plan for next year,” Joseph complained. “I don’t know why he thinks it is so important. All the plans we have ever published are out of date within 60 days. Maybe some targets are still in place to mark progress, but the rest of it gets chucked.”

“You are correct,” I replied. “And so is your boss. The plan is just a work product of a process. And, it’s the process that is critical, not the work product.”

“So, we sit down and imagine what things we could tackle, what problems might come up,” he said. “In the course of events, some things come true and some don’t. What’s the point? When they happen, if they happen, we will just deal with it.”

“What if you are not prepared to deal with it?” I nodded. “One characteristic of competence is the ability to constructively imagine into the future, anticipate those opportunities that could be leveraged, identify things that could go wrong, the forces that might work against you. And, be prepared. The competent housepainter carries extra paint brushes. The competent plumber carries extra tools and common supplies, even it’s not on the work order. The competent teacher steps into the classroom with a lesson plan. The competent driver starts out with a full tank of gas, even if the trip is only 100 miles. The competent manager builds a team with capacity and cross training.”

“When I was a kid in the Boy Scouts, our motto was Be Prepared. Do you mean like that?” Joseph asked.

“It is one of the first things I look for in an individual, related to competence.”

Who Owns the Problem

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“Ownership thinking, that’s what I want to focus on,” Joel said. “Too many problems bubble up to my level. I want my team to own the problems that come their way.”

“Explain to me,” I replied, “how problems bubble up to you?”

“Pretty simple,” he started. “The team encounters a problem they can’t solve, so they bring it to me, deposit it on my desk and leave. It’s now on my desk, so I end up owning the problem. I want that to change.”

“Why do you think they can’t solve the problem?”

“You’re right. Sometimes, I think my team is totally incompetent. They can’t solve the problem because they are incompetent.”

“So, is there a connection between competency and owning the problem?” I wanted to know. “Is it possible that if you are not competent, you cannot own the problem?”

Joel thought for a minute. “Are you suggesting a shift in my focus?”

I nodded. “You can focus on who owns the problem, or you can focus on competence, meaning increasing competence. Do you think that team members, competent to solve the problem, hesitate to own the problem?”

Simply Necessary

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“It sounds like you understand, or have an accurate sense of your own competence, but your team, faced with a challenge, avoids, denies, or tries to negotiate back to the old way?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s almost like a way of thinking,” Naomi replied. “There are things I know I am not good at, but those things do not scare me. Some on my team seem genuinely afraid of trying something new.”

“But, if you have made it necessary, how do you proceed without a brawl or deliberate retreat?” I smiled.

“I think it is a matter of attitude. A mental state. The circumstances of reality do not change, they are what they are. It’s a matter of how a person sees the challenge of something new. If my team enters with a framework of failure, that it is going to be hard, it is going to suck and they will get yelled at for the failure, then it’s going to be a long day. Somehow, I need to change the framework.”

“But, the difficulty in the process will still be the same?”

“Yes, but it’s quite another thing if the team can see this is new, this is difficult, they will struggle, they will make mistakes, but they will continue. Things will get better and they will have small breakthroughs. Then, there will be a setback. They will have to re-focus. But, they will not get yelled at, they will be encouraged to try again. How long does it take to teach a child to walk? It is simply necessary.”