Category Archives: Performance

Don’t Set Them Up to Sink

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“I just don’t know if he can do the job,” lamented Morgan. “It always seems to be a throw of the dice.”

“Why should it be a gamble?” I asked. “Why shouldn’t you be absolutely certain if Randy can do the job? He has worked here for two years.”

“Yes, but he has never been a supervisor before. And if we promote him and he can’t do the job, we will be stuck. We will either have to demote him or fire him. And demotion doesn’t work very well.”

“How can you be sure that he can perform all the tasks of a supervisor before you give him a promotion?” I probed. Morgan had a blank stare for a moment, and then he realized it was a leading question.

“You mean I should give him the tasks of a supervisor before I promote him?” Morgan was smiling now.

“Yes, not all at once. If you test him with all the tasks of a supervisor over a six week period and he is successful, you promote him. If he fails, you just stop giving him supervisor stuff.

“A promotion should not be sink or swim in the deep end of the pool. A promotion should be earned during a tightly controlled period of testing.” -TF

The Next Level

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“So, Travis, we have been talking about our on-the-job training program and how we use colored shirts as a reinforcement tool. Why did we go to all this trouble? I mean, it’s just a loading dock.”

Travis was bright and learning fast. “It’s not just this loading dock, and it’s not just this shift. And it’s not just the other four branch locations we have. This next year, our company has a pretty aggressive goal to open six more branches. If we have any hope for consistency in our operations, we have to have some sort of system, even in our loading procedures.”

“And when we build in this kind of consistency, what happens to our capabilities in opening more branch locations?”

“Well, now we can move people around with more confidence that everyone is doing things the same way. New branches won’t have to go through trial-and-error. They can get efficient faster. Just fewer headaches.” -TF

Most Important First Behavior

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“So, how does that work around here?” Travis asked. Using the analogy of video games and expert levels made the reinforcement process understandable, but we were running a loading dock, not playing a video game.

“Travis, the guys loading the trucks, have you noticed the different colored t-shirts they wear, the ones with the company logo on the front?”

“Yeah, I noticed. We started that about three weeks ago. The new guys get a white t-shirt to start. We had a meeting about it.”

“And when does the new guy get his white t-shirt?”

“The first day,” Travis smiled.

“No, the first day he punches the timeclock reporting for work on-time,” I clarified. “What is the most important first behavior?”

“Showing up for work on time,” Travis said.

“And when does he get his second white t-shirt?”

Travis was catching on. “The second day he punches in for work on time.”

“And when does he get a yellow shirt?” I continued.

“Five days on time, consecutive days on time.”

“And when does he get a green shirt?”

“When he passes forklift training.” Travis stopped. “I think I get it.” -TF

Don’t Fall Down Like That

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“Somewhere along the way, we lose our natural instincts in the training process.” I was talking with Travis, a lengthy discussion about positive reinforcement in training. “Last year’s training didn’t work and the reason has to do with practice. But a very special kind of practice.”

Travis was listening.

“Have you ever watched a parent teach their child to walk?” I asked.

“Yeah. I have a niece that is learning to walk. Her parents go goo-gah regularly, but still it’s a wobbly process.”

“Does a parent ever say, ‘No, that’s not the way to do it, let me show you. Don’t fall down like that.’?”

“Well, no. They just get all excited, clap their hands and gurgle baby talk.”

“Somewhere along the way, we lose our natural instincts in the training process. Behavior that is reinforced gets repeated. The two elements that were missing from your training last year were practice and immediate positive reinforcement.

“Initial attempts at a new skill or new behavior are usually terrible, but that’s not the point. Your job as a manager is to get all excited, clap your hands and gurgle.

“Look, Travis. When do parents give up encouraging their child to walk?”

Travis was still mentally drawing lines in the analogy. “They never stop, I guess. Maybe only when the kid learns to walk.” -TF

Erratic or Predictable?

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“But, I give them feedback,” protested Tyler. “They know how to do it right. Why won’t they just do it the way they are supposed to?”

“You want your team members to work the line in a specific sequence in a specific way? You are looking for very specific behaviors?” Tyler nodded his head in agreement.

“When they do it wrong, do you pay attention to them?” I asked.

“Of course. I am usually right on it,” Tyler replied.

“And when they do it right, are you right on it?”

“Well, when they do it right, they just do it right. When they do it right, I don’t yell at them.”

“Tyler, to get desired behaviors, you have to reinforce those behaviors in a positive way. Yelling at people for doing something wrong doesn’t teach them to do it right. Yelling just creates avoidance from doing it wrong. That avoidance behavior can by very erratic and unpredictable. They don’t know whether to scream or eat a banana.

“On the other hand, if you positively reinforce desired behavior, it becomes repeated and predictable.

“So, Tyler, you tell me. What has more value, erratic avoidance behavior or positively reinforced predictable behavior?” -TF

Still Have to Have the Conversation

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“I just don’t understand,” said Harry, “Four weeks ago, we introduced an incentive program for efficiency on the shop floor, and so far, I haven’t seen any improvement at all. What are we doing wrong?”

“In the past four weeks, since you introduced this incentive program, how many meetings have you held to talk about efficiency?” I asked.

“Meetings? That is why we started the incentive program, so we wouldn’t have to have meetings, so we wouldn’t have to spend time talking about it. With the money we put out there, they should be able to figure some things out, shouldn’t they?”

“Just because you have put up some money to achieve a specific result, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to talk about it. Some behaviors will help efficiency, some behaviors may not, some behaviors may even work against efficiencies. You have an incentive program, but you still have to have the conversation.

“I want you to think about this. Even if you did not have an incentive program, wouldn’t the conversation still be critical? Wouldn’t it be valuable to talk about positive behaviors that work for us and other behaviors that work against us?” -TF

Feedback Loops

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From the Ask Tom Mailbag. By following the link to the right, you can email a question directly to me. I got this question last week.

“We are trying to develop a feedback loop to identify production problems. Developing the data collection and designing the reports is not the problem. The challenge is to create a sustainable structure of accountability, so that when defects are detected, someone takes corrective action and then reports the improvements. We suggested a monthly meeting, but we are getting pushback from those who need to be involved. What would you suggest?”

Meetings are one of my favorite accountability platforms because the group dynamic can bring about appropriate pressure for results. However, it seems you are experiencing a predictable resistance to a special meeting.

My first inclination would be to piggyback as an agenda item in an existing meeting that occurs with the desired frequency and is attended by a good number of the interested parties. Promise an efficient report that lasts no more than three minutes and contains only the critical information. If everything is on-track, there should be little discussion. If things are off-track, the group can decide how best to address the underperformance.

Second strategy would be a method of public reporting or posting of results (for all to see). This might be a tracking whiteboard in a conference room or an updated chart that gets posted in a special gathering place. The location might be best where those responsible for the results can see how their progress is being tracked.

Do you have a creative suggestion on accountability? -TF

No Pizza

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Nicole’s team beat yesterday’s numbers. “Nicole, I want to add another element to your day. I want you to add three 5-minute huddles with your team. One in the morning, one after the mid-morning break and one at the afternoon break.

“In this meeting, I want you to go over the numbers from yesterday. If we beat yesterday, I want you to give your team a complimentary remark. No pizza. No days off. Just a little appreciation.

“Use these meetings to focus your team on the goal.” -TF

Improvement Over Yesterday

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Nicole had the numbers posted. She was still working side by side, helping on the line, but at least the numbers were posted.

“But, we didn’t make our goal numbers. That’s why I was afraid to write them on the white board,” Nicole defended.

I ignored her body language. “Nicole, I want you to add another number to your white board. I want you to post yesterday’s numbers next to the goal numbers. For right now, I just want you to focus your team on improvement over yesterday.”

“Well, that should be easy,” snorted Nicole.

“That’s the point. Make improvement easy. Then focus on it.” -TF

Don’t Know How to Run the Press

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Cindy’s assignment was simple. As a successful supervisor in another division, she had been transferred to a line unit that was having trouble keeping up. After her first meeting, she wasn’t so sure she was up to the task.

From the back of the room, “So, tell us about your background. Have you ever run one of these presses before?”

She admitted that she had not. “So, how do you expect to be our supervisor when you don’t know the first thing about how we do the job?” She had never been challenged so directly. Worse, it was a perfectly valid question.

Now Cindy was in my office. “Here is the central issue,” I asked. “How can you bring value to their thinking and their work?”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know how to run the press, but does that really matter? How do you bring value to their thinking and their work? How do they know when they are doing a good job? How do they know when they are doing a poor job?”

“Funny, I know the ops manager was complaining that they did not meet the production quota last month. But those numbers were never broken down on a daily basis so the line never had a clue whether they were ahead or behind. The last two days of the month, somebody came out and yelled at them to pick up the pace, but it was too little, too late.”

“So, you can bring value to the work by giving the floor feedback on daily production runs, perhaps accelerating things a bit, but avoiding a hysterical crunch at the end of the month.”

One month later, Cindy’s crew was ahead by 150 units, yet had worked no overtime, even taken the press down for a half day of preventive maintenance. Every morning, Cindy had a two minute huddle meeting and posted the day’s production goal. At ten and two she posted updates with a final count at 3:30 when the line shut down. Though she had never touched the press, she was bringing value to the thinking and work of her production crew. The skills to be a successful supervisor are quite different than the technical skills of the crew. -TF