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

I don’t watch much television, but it is difficult to escape the media’s focus on the Gulf Coast. The past few days have been filled with mud slinging about which government leader should have done what. Is there a lesson for us, as Managers, about our role in planning for our own organizations?

I thought about the distinct differences between South Florida’s (where I live) response to hurricanes and what we are seeing in New Orleans. There is no doubt that had Katrina come ashore here as a Category 4, we would have seen similar destruction, but I wonder if we would have seen the ensuing chaos.

When Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in 1992, we learned a lot. We learned a lot about building codes and we learned a lot about preparedness. Almost every organization I work with has a detailed Hurricane Plan in writing. The path and the storm intensity trigger automatic response to take specific action based on the plan.

The plan takes the emotion out of the decision. So many Managers make their decisions based on emotion rather than strict adherence to a plan. Plans are created in the calm of foresight, to help us take action in the face of circumstances that may be chaotic or difficult to interpret.

Unfortunately, it often takes a bit of hindsight, and sometimes a devastating event to teach us the lessons of planning for the worst. -TF

PS. Please pass along the link to our “I’m-OK” message boards in the search for people displaced in Hurricane Katrina. You can read more about our site in yesterday’s post. The link is www.im-ok.org

Chase left our conversation abruptly. Across the plant floor, he had spotted a problem and rushed to make a correction. He was apologetic on his return. “Sorry, but that is why I called you today. I feel like a two armed octopus. There are eight things that need to happen, but I can only work on two problems at a time. Things get out of control about fifteen minutes into the day. And they never stop. At the end of the day, I look at my boss’ list of projects and the important things never seem to get worked on. There is always a crisis.”

“Not really,” I said. “To me, your system is working exactly the way it was designed to work.”

Chase was puzzled. “What do you mean? It’s not working at all.”

“No, it is working exactly the way it is designed to work. The design of your day’s work is to drink coffee for the first fifteen minutes, then run around the floor solving urgent problems. At the end of each day, you check the list to make sure you didn’t do anything important.”

I paused. “Not a bad design. How’s that working for you?” Chase didn’t like what he was hearing.

“If you want to change your day, you have to change your design for the day. I see about four major design changes you might want to consider, but let’s start with just one. Don’t let anyone work during the first fifteen minutes of the day. Instead have a huddle meeting around the boss’ list of important projects. That one design change will be a good start.”

How is your day designed? -TF