“I don’t understand,” puzzled Calvin. “It was only a two week project. Why do you think we need a plan, now? All we have to do is get the labels on the product boxes.” Calvin and I were working on the implementation segment of a barcode project.

“You tell me,” I said. “How well did the project turn out?”

“Well, we’re still working on it. It’s a lot of boxes, and we missed some as we were going through the inventory.”

“How did you find that out?”

“Oh, my boss showed up late in the afternoon and started looking around. It’s amazing how he can always find the stuff we missed. It’s almost like he went straight to it. Boom. In five minutes he found 36 product bins that we missed completely. Now he is making us go back through and check every single item.”

“What is that doing to your completion schedule?” Calvin, just looked at me. No answer. “So, there wasn’t enough time to plan this thing up front? There wasn’t enough time to do it right, but there is enough time, now, to do it twice?

“Calvin, I know it seems you are really behind the 8-ball, but I want you to stop. Right now. Stop, and get your team around. I want you to draw out each of the steps with your team on a big piece of butcher paper. I want you to plan how you are going to get all the labels on and then plan how you are going to check for accuracy. You should be able to get that done in a half an hour. That half hour will end up saving you eight hours on the back end, and you shouldn’t have to do it a third time.

“Remember, doing it a third time is always an option.” -TF

Hurricane Wilma disappeared from national media attention a couple of weeks ago, yet South Florida is still deep in the digging out phase. Power has yet to be restored to more than 100,000 businesses and residences. Fifteen days after the storm, watching the face of someone just receiving power is very uplifting.

Post hurricane debriefings are a staple of company life these past few days with some significant learnings. There is a distinct phase of preparedness that is emerging, seldom considered before.

Most companies in South Florida had some sort of pre-hurricane preparedness plan. It included storm preparations to safeguard lives and property. It is a testament to that preparedness that only ten people died during the storm.

Emerging is a new phase of preparedness where most companies were caught short. Post storm recovery had been limited to taking down shutters and piling up a little debris. Hurricane Wilma taught us the lesson of extended loss of power and staple provisions well beyond a three day period.

Here is a question or two? What was the biggest lesson your company learned? Based on that lesson, what would you recommend in the future? Please post your responses here. -TF

I was watching a football game over the weekend. As the quarterback left the huddle, he saw the defense shift formations. As his offense took their stance, ready for the snap, the quarterback called out a change in the play, an audible.

Back in the huddle, they had used 15 precious seconds agreeing on the play, yet right before execution, in a split second, the play changed.

“Did you see that?” the announcer exclaimed. “Boy, that team can think on their feet.”

But, as I watched the play, it was not a sequence of improvisational moves in response to a shift in defensive formations. It was a highly practiced, well executed play that had been audibly called at the line of scrimmage.

How many times have I seen an immaculate business plan go awry because of a shift in the marketplace, a shift from a competitor? And in response, I see a sequence of poorly executed improvised motions that do little more than create a bunch of noise on the shop floor.

Much more effective in the planning stage would be a series of plays designed to be responsive to contingencies in the marketplace. Calling an audible should not be a cue to improvised chaos, but a distinct call to a different, yet well-rehearsed, thought-out course of action. -TF

The team looked dejected. They had worked hard for six weeks and now it appeared they would miss their deadline. They were missing one critical element that was being supplied by a vendor. That vendor had just called to say the shipment would be delayed by 24 hours. The customer wanted to start on Monday and could move on with another team if we couldn’t deliver.

“Check it out,” I said. “You all look depressed. Snap out of it. You are making assumptions based on a number of unknown factors. Check it out. Get on the phone and see what could be done.”

Twenty minutes later, the team was back in full swing. The vendor was able to break the shipment and overnight enough material to meet the deadline. The customer had reviewed the proposal with the partial shipment and approved the plan.

When things look bad, check out the facts, don’t rely on assumptions. Your assumptions could be incorrect. Relying on the unknown conjures up self doubt, hesitation and inaction. Working with facts moves you to positive action based on reality. Check out the facts. -TF

“I already explained it to you,” said Teresa, a bit exasperated with me.

“I know, but it sounds so complicated,” I replied. “Look, you are frustrated with Carl because he seems to never meet his deadlines. When you ask for reasons, he leads you off on a series of rabbit trails that are very difficult to follow. Accountability becomes almost impossible. Do you know why Carl makes things so complicated?”

Teresa bit her bottom lip, then finally said, “No.”

“Sometimes, people make things complicated because they can. Maybe the project is not challenging, so Carl makes it more complicated just to keep it interesting. Have him take a piece of paper and draw a simple flowchart of the project, but limit him to only six circles and six arrows. If he wants to draw more than that, tell him he has to combine things.

“The point of this exercise is not to ignore the details, but to understand the project flow in simpler terms. If you can understand the project flow, you will find the important milestones that you need for follow-up.” -TF

“And when you finish the project, how will that make you feel?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” responded Mitchell. “The project will be over, I don’t know how I will feel.”

“Well, Mitchell, if you did know how you would feel, what would it be like?”

Mitchell struggled a moment. “I guess I would feel relieved that the project was over. I would feel a sense of accomplishment. I would feel more confident that I could do another project like that and be successful.”

“Good.” I said, watching Mitchell’s eyes. He was glad that I finally stopped pressing. “Here is the payoff. When you are painting a picture of that project in the future, don’t forget about the emotions that you will feel. Don’t forget about the emotions that the team will feel. Those emotions are the support you will need when the project goes through its tough times. Talk about it with your team now. Include those emotions in your picture of the future.” -TF

Jeremy followed the advice, broke his team into four smaller teams who each worked on a small piece of the project picture. Sixty days in the future, the project would be finished. One way or the other, it would be finished.

Jeremy had set goals before, but building this picture of the future was a bit odd as a first step in the planning process. “Why,” he asked. “Why is this picture so important?”

“Jeremy, in the past, during your planning, you set milestones, or goals. Tell me, how excited did your team get when you published the milestone list?” Jeremy looked at me sideways.

“Exactly,” I said. “Teams don’t get excited by goals. Goals are simply measurements. They help us evaluate success, but that’s about it.

“It’s the picture, the picture of the project completed. It’s the vision that builds enthusiasm. It may be the only tool you have as a manager to create excitement, to build energy in the team. That’s why I want to see detail in your picture. Color. Smells. Movement. Bring that project picture alive so your team can truly see it. That’s why the picture is so important.” -TF

“Oh, that was the easy part. I got that down in two sentences. It’s the rest of the plan that I am having trouble with,” said Jeremy. He was stuck putting a plan together. I had asked him to describe the picture of the project when it was complete, about 60 days in the future.

“Two sentences?” I queried. “How much detail can you fit into two sentences?”

“Well, since we just started the project, I don’t know how things will turn out,” stammered Jeremy. He knew where I was fishing.

“Exactly! If you cannot imagine how things will turn out, you will have difficulty influencing or controlling the results. The key is imagination. The initial visual picture that you create is the most important first step of any plan. It drives everything else in the plan. And here is the secret. The power of picture is in its detail.

“So, Jeremy, go back to drawing board and write me two pages about this project as if it is already finished. I want all the details. Use your imagination.” -TF