Category Archives: Organization Structure

Maybe It Should Have Stayed a Hobby

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Why I Wrote Outbound Air –

Before I tell you why, here is what I see. An organization bands together to accomplish something noble. In the beginning, everyone is organized around that noble idea. It is all about that noble product or service. Find a customer to buy it. Simple. So simple that most startups go out of business in the first five years.

Yet some survive. Those that did not die, make enough sales to prove market potential. I said market potential, not market success. In fact, those initial sales did not have to be profitable sales, because this startup put all its expenses on a line of credit or a credit card, whatever it took to emerge from this infant stage.

This noble product or service, this entrepreneurial idea was in some cases a hobby. In some cases, it should have stayed a hobby. But, the entrepreneur cannot help this feeling, this cause, to bring this idea to market. All odds are stacked, yet if enough early adopters buy enough product or service, create enough market demand, the organization just might survive to the next level.

If there is enough market demand to outstrip the organization’s capacity to produce (it is all about production), then the organization has the potential to grow. To grow requires change. To produce more volume requires more resources, more people. Headcount increases along with chaos. Ichak Adizes calls this Go-Go.

In the beginning, everyone did a little bit of everything, that was all that was required. With more headcount, that strategy, everyone doing everything, creates organizational noise and friction. To reduce the noise, individual roles are created with defined accountability and authority. This transition signals the first emergence of structure.

This is the beginning of WHY I wrote Outbound Air. Tomorrow I will write about what comes after Go-Go.

Outlast the Panic

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From Outbound Air –

“So, what did you think?” Jim asked.

Kevin DuPont stared into the corner of the room, not making eye contact with Jim. “I am not sure. That was a pretty awkward meeting. Before it started, I agreed with you. I mean, all we did was change the name of the meeting. But I can put two and two together. I didn’t like the reaction of the team.”

“What did you expect?” Jim asked.

“I don’t know. What did you expect?” Kevin replied.

“Exactly what we got. Panic. Except for Javier. He was the only calm head in the room. Of course, you cut the meeting short.”

“Well, yes. Couldn’t you feel the tension? Tough enough that morale is bad, now we have, what did you say, panic?”

Jim chuckled. “You young guys just don’t have the patience. Didn’t you know that all you had to do was outlast the panic?”

The Manager Lives and Dies by the Decision

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From Outbound Air –

“I have an issue where I could use your help,” Jim explained to the group. “And I think your understanding will have impact all the way to the top of this organization.

“As a manager, you each have a team,” he continued. “And you defined a manager as that person held accountable for the output of the team. So, if there is a decision to be made, related to the objective for that team, who is accountable for the consequences of that decision? Is it the manager, or the team?”

“Are you kidding me?” Johnny replied. “It’s the manager. If it turns out to be a wrong decision, we don’t fire the whole team, the manager is accountable.”

“Then, whose decision is it to make?” Jim floated the question, the same question that frustrated Kevin DuPont. “Whose decision is it?”

“It’s the manager’s decision,” Johnny responded. “The manager is accountable, the manager lives and dies by the decision.”

“But what if the manager doesn’t have all the facts to make an informed decision,” Jim protested, “and needs the team to participate. Needs the team to gather the facts, analyze the facts. Then, whose decision is it?”

Doesn’t This Look Like a Hierarchy?

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From Outbound Air –

“You know, this is beginning to look like a hierarchy,” Johnny said. “Do you remember Preston Pratney? If there is one thing he railed about, it’s that hierarchy is bad. It goes against all the tenants of Tribal Leadership. Having layers inside the company makes it too bureaucratic, too much red tape. If there is a decision to be made, why should someone have to check with their manager?”

Mary stepped in. “You’re talking about Preston Pratney? The problem with Preston is that he read too many books on leadership. He never understood the purpose of hierarchy. He got it confused with command and control. Hierarchy is necessary, to create this value stream for decision making and problem solving.”

Who Appointed You to Make That Decision?

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From Outbound Air –

“It’s not their role to make a decision like that?” Javier replied.

“Says who?” Catherine baited.

An awkward twenty seconds ticked by on the clock. “Says me,” Javier finally relented. “That is not a decision that my shift supervisors are capable of making.”

“And, who appointed you to make that decision?” Catherine continued to press.

“You did,” Javier replied without hesitation. “My shift supervisors are perfectly capable of handling the day to day uncertainty of running an airline, but the problem of an unprofitable route likely has nothing to do with operations. It could be a marketing problem, a pricing problem. It could be a new competitor. It could be a spike in fuel costs. It could be the discovery of a new oil field in North Dakota, or government throttling of fracking activity. All of those issues could impact passenger load factors and are beyond the level of work of my shift supervisors.”

What Do We Need a Manager For?

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From Outbound Air –

“Right then, if your teams can carry on the same way tomorrow, then what do I need you for?” Catherine stared sternly in the eyes of her executive team.

Peter looked around to see if someone else might fill the void of silence. It was Mary’s turn. “You are absolutely right. My team can carry on the same way, day after day. And they can make decisions and they can solve problems, as long as those decisions and problems are the same as yesterday. But, here’s the rub. Something is going to change. It might be a weather system, a mechanical delay, or a broken flight connection. Something is going to change and that’s when they will need me.”

“Exactly,” Catherine beamed. “As long as nothing changes, your teams do not need you. They can handle all the routine decisions and problems. But, you know that something will change, something always changes.
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Back to the central question, how do we define the word -manager? What is the role of a manager?

How Big is Job? How Big is the Person?

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“I don’t know,” replied Eduardo. “I just hope he snaps out of it. Ron was our poster boy. For the past couple of weeks, he has seemed distant, removed from his crew, removed from the work.”

“You ruled out alcohol or drugs. Is it a matter of skill, something he can learn, or is it a matter of capability?” I repeated. “You can hope this will fix itself. How much patience do you have?”

“What do you mean?” Eduardo had a new sense of curiosity. “Ron has to snap out of it fast.”

“Tell me again, what has changed with Ron’s role?”

“Well, a year ago, he was supervising a couple of people, making sure the work got done. Now, he has to manage other people who are supervising that work.”

“Is the job bigger, now?” I asked.

Eduardo looked at me, puzzled. “Well, yeah. He has more people, I guess it is more complicated.”

“So the job is bigger now. How do you measure, how much bigger the job is?”

“Measure?” Eduardo had never been asked to measure the size of a job before. “I don’t know,” he continued. “It’s just more complicated, I guess.”

“So, how do you measure the complexity of Ron’s new job?”

Outbound Air – Levels of Work in Organizational Structure now available on Amazon.

Outbound Air

Onward Thru the Fog

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Eduardo was hanging up the phone when I arrived. I could tell he was puzzled.

“It’s funny,” he said. “This is the third time I have explained things to my Ron, but it just doesn’t sink in. For two years, he was doing great, but now, he seems to be in a fog.”

“You are Ron’s manager?” I asked. Eduardo shook his head.

“Yes, in fact, he was a good hire. We started him in a little office with only two people. He grew it to six, now he is at twelve. Somewhere along the line, he lost it.”

“Alcohol, or drugs?”

“No, I don’t think so. He is too conscientious for that,” Eduardo observed.

“But he seems to be in a fog? Tell me what has changed in the past year, going from six people to twelve people.”

Eduardo looked to the far corner of the room, picturing the changes before he described them. “It’s like Ron was supervising the work pretty well, but now he is one step removed. He is now managing a couple of supervisors. Maybe that’s the problem. He is too far away from the what he knows how to do?”

“Is it a matter of skill, something he can learn, or is it a matter of capability?”

Outbound Air, Levels of Work in Organizational Structure, by Tom Foster, is now available for Kindle, soon to be released in softcover.

Outbound Air

The Go-Go Stage

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“That which does not kill you, makes you stronger,” Jim Dunbar grinned. “Our momentum told us we were not likely to die, at least not in that fiscal year,” he said. “We were invincible. So, I signed a lease on the second plane.

“Passenger loads picked up, and I had to hire more people. And that led to a predictable stumble. There was no rhyme or reason for the way we did things. We survived on our tenacity, but our tenacity began to fail us. My wife described our behavior as improvisation. Invincibility and improvisation make for a toxic cocktail. We over-promised, extended our thin resources.

“I remember our first overbooking. We had more passengers than seats. I looked at my schedule, figured we could make the run to Denver, flip the aircraft around and come back for the other group. For some reason, we thought the stranded passengers would wait the four hours. But, a weather system moved in. In spite of our promises, we never made it back, and missed another flight leg with a scheduled full plane.

“To say we flew by the seat of our pants was an understatement. But, at the time, I figured that my team practiced for months. We successfully flew one plane, how difficult could it be with two planes?

Excerpt from Outbound Air, Levels of Work in Organizational Structure, by Tom Foster, now available on Kindle, soon to be released in softcover.

Outbound Air

Who Should This Person Report To?

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“I think we have these roles sorted out,” Peter proclaimed. “I like the picture. It makes sense. But how do these roles relate to each other? I mean, who decides who is whose manager?”

Johnny jumped in. “It’s true. Whenever someone new joins the company, that’s always the first question. Who will this new person report to?”

Jim Dunbar knocked gently on the door. “Hope I’m not disturbing. How are things going?”

“We have a problem,” Johnny declared. “Who decides who reports to whom? Whenever we have a new employee, we all sit around the table and that’s the question. Who will this new person report to?”

Mary looked out the window, but suddenly turned and came back into the conversation. “Usually, we unload the new guy on the manager or supervisor who is the least busy.”

Excerpt from Outbound Air, Levels of Work in Organizational Structure, by Tom Foster, now available on Kindle, soon to be released in softcover.

Outbound Air