How to Align the Work of the Division

“You’re not going to like the next thing”.   Gareth was the General Manager of the Operations Division.

“Go on” he said.

I pointed to his whiteboard, where across the top was written ‘By Christmas 2018 we will have delivered or be capable of delivering…‘  and underneath were five clear results he intended to deliver by then.

Gareth pointed to the second one down “I see what you mean about real results now.  I originally had written ‘Expanded Production Capacity’ but that means nothing, I can achieve that by approving just one extra hour of overtime.”

“So why does this work better?” I asked, tapping the whiteboard where it said ‘Northern plant constructed, stable, shipping 1.4m units, 20% less cost per unit than current.’

“Because I can do this” Gareth said, and drew a box next to it.  “And if by Christmas 2018 I can’t do this….” and with a flourish ticked the box, “then my Managing Director is not going to be happy.  I have clarity.”

“Great.  So now you need to break this work down into shorter timeframes.”

“But isn’t that the job of my directs?”

“Why would it be their job?” I asked.

“Well that Levels of Work training you gave us made a lot of sense on how work naturally organises, and I thought the shorter timeframes were what my people were accountable for.”

“True in a way.” I replied.  “But tell me this; are any of them accountable for the whole Operations Division landing where it needs to in 3 years?”

“No, that would be me.”

“So who is therefore the person who needs to decide the steps required to land the whole Operations Division there in 3 years?”

“Me” Gareth replied with a nod.

“Exactly.  So…for each of your results you have on your whiteboard, write next to it where it needs to be by 30 June 2017 in order to be on track for Christmas 2018“.

“Why 30 June 2017?”

“Because that’s 18 months away, which puts it right in the middle of….”

Gareth finished the sentence: “…my direct report’s timeframe of accountability”.

“Which means they will be able to….”

“…see how their own 18-month results for their departments are part of the 18-month results of the overall Operations Division”.

Write up 5…planning made simple

“This is a bit tougher than I thought” Gareth said.  He was a General Manager of a large operational area and was putting together his plan.

“How so?” I asked.

“I keep looking at what I’ve written, and all I see are the usual platitudes.  Words like ‘strategic’, ‘develop framework’, ‘review…’.  Those ones that I know drive you nuts!” he said with a smile.

“What about the work?” I enquired.

“The work?”

“You know, the work.  The actual results.  The ‘what-by-when?”

“Well that’s pretty obvious.”

“Good.  Do you need that?” I asked, gesturing to his whiteboard.  He shook his head.  I cleaned off the board and continued…

“It’s now November 2015.  Christmas 2018 is 3 years away, and as a General Manager, that’s in your timeframe of accountability”.

“OK….”

I grabbed a blue marker and wrote on the top of the whiteboard ‘BY CHRISTMAS 2018 WE WILL DELIVER, OR BE CAPABLE OF DELIVERING…..’

Gareth caught the blue marker that was headed toward his chest.

“Your turn.  Write up your top 5.”

What about the business plan template?

Gareth was serious about getting his whole department focussed and delivering.

“OK, so I’ve got the input from my team on the future of the area, so now I need to actually write the plan”.

“Yep” I replied.

“The Strategy area sends us a template each year, should I use that?”

“I’ll ask you this.  When was the last time you got out the most recent plan you wrote using that template?”

Gareth laughed.  “The day I sent it in.  So about 8 months ago.”

“Exactly.  But that’s not the Strategy area’s fault.  We often don’t understand the purpose of that template.  It’s to allow your CEO and anyone else to see all the work occurring in the business in a consistent format.  The Strategy guys help her with this by collating, making sure there’s a similar look and pointing out any inconsistencies.”

“So it’s not for figuring out the actual plan?”

“No.  That’s what whiteboards, walls and post-it notes are for.  The template is what you submit at the end for the purpose of corporate integration.”

“And what about the plan that my people see, what they actually use?”

“Well that needs to be something that they’ll actually see, and that they’ll actually use!”

That’s not a plan….

“That was a good day”.  Gareth was pleased.  We’d just finished a session on the future of his area.

“I’m glad.  What did you get from it?” I asked.

“Well, the team have now all worked on the three themes for the area, and the format you used was great.  Breaking it up into what we’d be providing in the future for who, how we’d do it and what would need to change worked well.  And I liked how we spent time on the obstacles and hassles as well, didn’t back away from them”.

“It’s a useful format.  So what did you get from it?”

Gareth frowned.  “I see what you’re asking.  What did I actually get?”  He stared down, for him always a sign of serious thinking.  After a while he looked up;

“You know what I’ve got?” he said.  “I’ve got a plan!  And it’s from the team itself, so they’ll be on board”.

“Not quite” I replied.

“What do you mean?  Today was great.”

“What we did today was to collect a bunch of input.  Valuable input.  About what the future can look like.  But what we don’t have are the steps required to get there.  The actual work.”

“I see what you mean” said Gareth, nodding.  “So do we need another session?”

“No”  I replied.  “Your people have been great.  They’ve done their part for now.  It’s time for you to do your part.  Its time to write down what results are required to be delivered, by who, to make this future we described today come to fruition.”

“So what you’re saying is….”

“It’s time to actually write your plan.”

Which one do you hold your Senior Managers accountable for?

Danni was General Manager Operations in a 1400-person organisation with about 600 people under her umbrella.   The new Board had made it clear they required a renewed focussed on ‘efficiency and effectiveness’.

“What does that mean” I asked.

“You know, do more with less, headcount, that sort of thing” she answered.

“So what sort of stuff will you be doing”?

“Well everyone is talking the usual suspects.  LEAN, Six Sigma, process maps….I can see a lot of boxes and arrows in my future”.

“That sounds like efficiency to me” I continued.  Where’s the effectiveness?”.

“Well I like the traditional definitions.  Efficiency is doing things right, and effectiveness is doing the right things”.

“So which one do you hold your Senior Managers accountable for?”

How to lift accountability without losing connection

Implementing a Requisite approach has the benefits of clarity of expectations and authority to get work done which in turn liberates people’s natural desire to be useful.  This is generated from the concept that it’s the managerial role that is accountable for the results and behaviour of their directs (regardless of who they may do a particular bit of work ‘for’).  This accountability naturally requires the managerial role to ensure clarity and authority are in place.

So far so good.

But…there is an unwanted side effect we need to avoid – the relationship disconnect.  It’s easy to accidentally adopt an approach of ‘that’s their job to do it, and if they can’t, that’s their problem’.  You might think that you would never take an approach like this, but I’ve seen it happen in well-meaning circumstances in a genuine attempt to provide freedom and autonomy.

The missing (and balancing) element is another Requisite fundamental – the managerial role exists to add value to the work of their directs. Read more…

Next instalment…Cross-functional relationships: Start with one!

Ethan was focussing on the cross-functional relationships of his Quality Engineer. We’d established the role was accountable for engineering standards being met such that all work passes inspection from government regulators and any other external audit functions we may choose to bring in.

“Each role relationship attaches to an accountability” I explained. By setting up a clear role relationship for each accountability, we can give your Quality Engineer the authority they need to get their work done.”

“Wish I’d had that years ago” Ethan smiled. “Let’s do it then. What’s the role relationship?”.

“A couple more questions for you and we’ll be there”. Read more…

The buried leadership fundamental

The volume of stuff out there on leadership has buried a fundamental.  Amongst the personality-based fads and need to become motivational, inspiring (or resilient and courageous as the latest additions), we’ve buried what leadership actually is –  the act of getting of group of people to work collaboratively and effectively together toward achieving a goal.

And in burying this, we’ve buried that the key contribution from anyone in a role that requires leadership (which applies to all managerial roles), is to develop plans that will successfully get the group to where it needs to go.

The military is not to everyone’s taste, but it can be agreed that leadership tends to be a no-nonsense matter in a situation where people can actually be killed.  General DePuy, US Army leadership trainer wrote:

“Concept of operation is the supreme contribution of the commander to their command and to success”.*

Think about that term – concept of operation.  Read more…

The highest returning recognition program I know

Recognition programs.  We make them hard.  And we make excuses.  Meanwhile our people, who are actual human beings, would simply like to be recognised for what they are doing.

So while you’re waiting for the ‘reward and recognition program’ which you know is never going to emerge,  lets get on with it.  Here’s a simple recognition program that simply works; it has the highest rate of return I know:

1. Hand out a block of 50 post-it notes to each manager
2. The  use of them is for their people to unexpectedly find, whenever they have done something that was particularly effective, a post-it  on their screen saying  ‘great work on [INSERT CURRENT INITIATIVE], thank you’.
3. Inform each manager that the block needs to be used over the coming 12 months, and it has to be for actual effective performance.

That’s it!   Read more…

Four fundamental acts of leadership that will instantly help your people

Are you a manager?  Great!  You’ve got the chance to improve the lives of those that work for you by doing these four simple things.

1) Remind everyone of the context they’re working in.

What I’m talking about here is the environment you and your team are dealing with.  You might think this is obvious, but the reason you’re the manager is to make this stuff obvious.  Want an easy spot to start?  Ask your own manager what they’re dealing with.  This creates the wider context in which you and your people work.

Do it now:  Open your calendar and schedule a meeting with all of your direct reports.  Topic: Context.  Read more…