Bull Feather Chronicles:
Conversations with an Intuitive Manager
By
Dr. Woody Sears
PUBLISHED BY
Woodrow H. Sears at Smashwords.
Editorial/Design Support by
PleasantValleyPress.net
BULL Feather Chronicles:
Conversations with an Intuitive Manager
Copyright © 2011 Woodrow Sears
License Notes
This free ebook is a collection of articles that first appeared in Expert Access, the business journal published during 2010 and 2011 by Cincom, the pioneering creator and distributor of business software. It is made available by permission of the publisher. You are free to reprint this book, share it with friends, or quote from it, but please provide attribution as follows: “Dr. Woody Sears, writing in Cincom's Expert Access Business Journal.” Thank you for respecting the author's work and the publisher's ownership.
Table of Contents
Bull Feather Chronicles:
#1: Management Theory is Useless!
#2: Motivation? Not for People who are Appreciated
#3: Coaching? Just Begin with Telling the Truth
#5: Team Building is a Waste of Time and Money
#6: Outstanding Customer Service Requires Intelligent Delegation
#7: Don’t Monkey About with Morale
#8: If You Want to Hear God Laugh…
#9: Planning is Easy, but Scheduling is an Art Form
#10: Project Management is Easy—It’s the Clerical Discipline That’s Difficult!
#11: Managing Change—It’s an Everyday Requirement Now!
#12: Ouch! Ethics!
About the Bull Feathers Chronicles Participants
Author’s Note
These conversations with my friend, Andy Graves, took place over several years during his posting at U.S. Embassies in Vilnius, Lithuania; Oslo, Norway; and Tallinn, Estonia. We talked while he was cooking, tending turkeys on the Weber, over dinners, in bars, and walking through the forests near his Vilnius and Tallinn homes. Accordingly, these conversations are reconstructions of fragments of discussions, assembled with the certain knowledge that they accurately represent the attitudes and practices of one of the finest managers I've met in 40 years as a consultant and management educator.
At root, Andy is an expediter. He knows how to get things done. He knows from his head and heart how to work with people, and his people respond to him with appreciation and affection. I was a guest at a reunion with a staff from eight years past, and it was like a family reunion. In truth, how often do you imagine people show up on their own time to celebrate the visit of a boss from eight years back? That is the measure of a special individual.
Now, Andy is using his skills and talent as an Embassy management officer, the individual who is in charge of all the non-political, non-diplomatic activities and operations within the Embassy. His current staff has been recognized for its achievements when measured against other locally-engaged staff worldwide.
It is also important that you know that Andy spent 22 years in the U.S. Air Force and won numerous performance awards. Most readers will not have experienced military service, but for those with the will to learn and lead, the military offers training and opportunities to prove their capabilities. Andy Graves is an outstanding example of the kinds of leaders that system produces. He is embarrassed by my persistence in writing about him, insisting that he is just doing what he’s paid to do. But trust me, better than the average bear! I am pleased to introduce you to the headwork of a truly intuitive manager
I also want to acknowledge the support of Steve Kayser, the award-winning editor of Expert Access who chose to include these conversations in his exciting and valuable journal. If you haven’t yet discovered this great free resource, please check it out at: cincom.expertaccess.com.
~~~~~
You know about Intel’s Andy Grove – but do you know Andy Graves?
Probably not. This Andy is a retired USAF master sergeant, a natural leader, and a born (intuitive) manager who currently works for the U.S. Department of State. This is a record of a recent conversation.
Bull Feather Chronicles #1:
Management Theory is Useless!
Woody: What do you mean? You can't say categorically that management theory is useless. For the last 100 years…
Andy: No, that's exactly what I mean! For the last 100 years, we've been capturing people and putting them in work groups they didn't choose. As often as not with people they don't like and wouldn't choose to be with. What managers and wanna-be managers need to know is how to mix with those people and help them find the common points of interest that will let them work together effectively. And challenging their ability to hang onto their salaries is a good place to start getting their attention.
Woody: I thought goals, objectives, and targets and team building did that kind of thing.
Andy: I love that story about Frederick Taylor designing a new coal scoop 100 years ago—you know, when scientific management was born? As far as working people think, management's been redesigning the coal scoop ever since, trying to find new ways to make them work harder, faster, cheaper. Most people believe in program goals like they believe in bull feathers.
Woody: So how would you train managers?
Andy: That woman you quoted in your book* said it—but no guy ever would—that you have to love your people enough to listen to them. People who can't do that can't be managers—just people pushers. When managers don't listen, they send a clear signal that they don't care about their people. Even so, they think their people are dumb enough to do extra work for them, to make them look good in front of their bosses. Man, I don't think so!
Woody: People pushers? I like that term. Never heard it before.
Andy: That's the alternative to having your people working with you. If a manager can't get in with his or her staff and lead them to see the points of common interest among them, then the only choice is to threaten, push, and behave in ways that are basically abusive and push people further away. Those are the nasty guys everyone knows and hates.
Woody: Yeah, I've known a lot of those guys, and some women too. But back to the question—what do you recommend for manager training? Or, better, the great theorist Douglas McGregor—the Theories X and Y guy—said that every managerial act begins with a theory. What's your theory of management, the ideas that guide you?
Andy: Empowerment! Responsibility! Collaboration! These words don't have meaning outside the context of a specific group doing specific tasks in a specific place and time. Otherwise, those words are just more bull feathers. I guess I push too hard sometimes, but I want people to make decisions, to act as if the work was their own, to make sure it gets done to support the mission. But for that to work, everyone has to be held accountable and be responsible for doing professional work that meets the expectations of others whose work must be integrated into a service or product.
Woody: Does everyone “get it?” Do they appreciate your approach?
Andy: I wish it, but no. There are always some hardheads who've got their egos and heads up their a---s. But the majority get used to me and find that they are doing more work independently, slipping into leadership roles, and taking initiatives they never imagined before. You have to remember that most of the people I work with are locally-employed staff, and in this part of the world (Eastern Europe), their culture tells them not to stand out, not to be noticed, not to outperform their colleagues. But this tends to chill down when the rewards and recognition starts coming—not only from me, but from the Ambassador, the Deputy Chief of Mission, and from Washington and regional bureaus. As for the hardheads, they are a benchmark for how far we've come.
Woody: So there really is a theory behind management success?
Andy: If it's a personal theory. But real people at work don't want theory. They want to know in specific terms how to be successful. They want to perform well, they want to please their managers, and they want to be appreciated when they make extra effort. Anything else is just pure bull feathers. I've been sent to a lot of so-called management training, and it's at least 50 percent bull feathers and has no connection to working with untrained staff on tight deadlines and inadequate budgets That's where the “can do spirit” kicks in, and I think you have to live it, at least once, to know it.
Woody: I wish I knew how to bottle what you know. We could change the world.
------
*See Manager's Front Line Guide to Communicating with Employees, HRD Press, 2007.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #2:
Motivation? Not for People Who are Appreciated!
Woody: Some of us see the work place as a combat zone in which managers use the emotional technology and bribery of motivational theory, trying to get more productivity out of unwilling workers. For their part, workers are likely to cut through the chatter to say, “Do they think we're stupid?”
Andy: I agree 100 percent! If people love the work they do and admire and respect their co-workers, you don't need to add more grease. In fact, if you try to “motivate” them, it makes them suspicious.
Woody: The problem I see is that if you want highly-effective groups, it has to start during recruiting and screening—like at Southwest Airlines where they put more weight on the attitudes candidates display at the interview than their degrees and other work experience.
Andy: Where I work, there's so much emphasis on academics that it lets people slip through the Human Resource screen who are long on smarts but short on common sense. When they've got 10 years in the system and have been promoted several times, you still have to give them heads-up recommendations on how to work with people, especially with the locally-engaged staff.
Woody: That's not pretty. Are these people just insensitive or insecure and need to throw their weight around?
Andy: It doesn't matter. The fact is, those order-givers don't really understand teamwork and don't realize that they can't be effective without the support of the locals. And that lack of understanding makes those at the bottom of the ladder feel bad about themselves and their jobs.
Woody: Probably most people at work don't love their jobs, but they have to work somewhere. Can you turn them into effective, committed workers?
Andy: Absolutely! Usually, it's not only that they don't like their jobs, they don't like their bosses or the people they have to support. Organizations can't control the expectations of the people they hire, but they can definitely influence the quality of the supervision and success-support they get. When people do their work well, that needs to be celebrated, appreciated, and they need to be recognized among their co-workers.
Woody: But what happens when the same people keep getting the rewards?
Andy: Then you look for the lazy supervisors who spend time in their offices instead of getting out on the work floor and seeing their people in action. There's always someone or something to praise, and when people know that their work is being observed, they tend to work better and earn some praise for themselves.
Woody: Still, isn't there a problem of just a few people being recognized as star performers, and demotivating the others?
Andy: No, no, no! That's the bull feathers excuse managers use when they're too lazy to work the system to get rewards for their people! If you want to know who the star performers are, just ask the workers themselves. They know! And most of them aren't jealous. They know some people work better than others, and that some are just natural performers. And usually, they are the informal leaders in the group. At least that's my experience. The people who get the rewards and recognition usually are leaders who sort of pull the others to perform in an outstanding manner. Besides, there are so many ways for a manager to show appreciation that there's no reason to leave anyone out of the winner's circle.
Woody: Is it really that simple—just paying attention to performance and rewarding it?
Andy: Yes and no. Rewards are necessary. But they are the icing on the cake. The manager's real work is in knowing his or her people, talking to them individually, encouraging and appreciating them one-on-one. That's how you get to know who your people are, what kinds of skill-building they need, and what kinds of off-the-job burdens they're carrying. See, they work for you, not for the company or the organization, and managers have to create that connection with individuals.
Woody: What you're saying is that if the manager doesn't create those interpersonal connections, the workers will create their own! Those connections don't always include the manager and can compromise the performance of the entire group.
Andy: Oh yeah! One of the most useful things I've heard you say, quoting Frederick Herzberg, is that if you don't piss-off your people, they'll probably give you 10- or 15-percent more performance, for free! That makes sense, because the worst thing that can happen to a worker is to have a selfish, me-first boss who ignores the people who do the work.
Woody: If we could burn that thought into the brains of all managers, we could change the world!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles, #3:
Coaching? Just Begin with Telling the Truth!
Andy: The strangest thing I found on this trip was a woman, sitting maybe 10 feet from her boss, and they've been communicating by e-mail because they don't like each other.
Woody: That's bizarre! Are they locally-engaged staff? [Note: Some work our Embassies do must be performed by Americans, but most work can be delegated to locally-employed staff.]
Andy: Yeah, but what makes it so bad is that her boss is the local HR guy! So naturally I said we've got to talk, and I sat down with the two of them. She thinks he's unfair, he wants to fire her, and this has been going on for more than a year! And they don't talk to each other!
Woody: That can happen in these cultures. Some of these folks are not great at confronting problems or each other.
Andy: Well, apparently there had been a lot of confrontations, but this guy had no records, no documentation covering what she failed to do, what he advised her to do, and what follow-up actions he took, so of course he can't fire her. He's been sent to training, he knows how to do that stuff, he just doesn't like to do it. So I reminded him of the requirement to document malfeasance and hammered on him about having to keep a record of what he did to help her succeed on the job. It was like he never heard it before!
Woody: And what about her?
Andy: She said she didn't know what she didn't do well, because he never told her. All she could say was that he didn't like her! And since I don't know the background, I have to think maybe she doesn't perform adequately. But she says she doesn't know what she does wrong, and there's no evidence that he ever told her!
Woody: That doesn't leave you a lot of maneuver room, especially given the short trip.
Andy: No it didn't. I even told the Deputy Chief of Mission that they might have to end up firing her. But then something kind of magic happened.
Woody: She resigned?
Andy: No! That would have been too easy. What happened was I sat down with her on Friday, and all she could talk about was how badly she had been treated three months ago, six months ago, nine months ago. And as I listened and looked at her, it was clear that she was a total mess—hair, dress, complexion, emotionally. In fact, she looked like s**t!
Woody: This isn't sounding very politically correct.
Andy: Don't worry! I'm not going there! What I said was that as long as she was focused on things that happened months ago, all that could happen was that she would create the same situations again. And that instead, she should look at today, tomorrow, and start thinking forward instead of backward.
Woody: And about her appearance?
Andy: I just told her the truth, namely that I'm not big on dressing up and avoid wearing suits and ties and usually show up with an open neck shirt and a sweater, as I was dressed then. And I said that compared to the other women in the building, it didn't look to me like she as paying much attention to her appearance, and maybe that was somehow connected to how she was looking at her job and maybe…
Woody: Then what happened?
Andy: She admitted that was something to think about and thanked me! But then, on Monday, she shows up looking like a different person! She had a new haircut and style, some make-up, and was wearing a really sharp outfit. I damn near didn't recognize her!
Woody: How did her boss respond?
Andy: I think he was as blown away as I was.
Woody: Will she still get fired?
Andy: That could happen. But the signal she sent loud and clear on Monday morning was that she wanted to keep her job and get out of the rut she'd been in for so long. For certain, she came to work with a different attitude, and that in itself might be enough to turn things around.
Woody: That's beautiful, Andy. But why did no one else talk to her, at least the other women?
Andy: You know that women don't always help each other, and guys are so afraid of getting hit with a charge of sexual harassment or some other bull feathers reason for not getting involved… Seems like most people are just afraid to be human anymore, to reach out to tell each other the kinds of truth that will bump them off bottom-dead-center, that will help them succeed. That's what bosses and managers and leaders are supposed to do! Isn't it?
Woody: I thought so. I hope so. If it isn't, we're really lost!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #4:
Who’s In Charge Here?
Woody: Some years ago, while riding my motorcycle along the Loch Ness, a definition of leadership came though to me so strongly I stopped to write it down: Leadership is the creation of structures and processes through which people can contribute to the achievement of worthwhile goals. I still like it because it includes real things like structures and processes, not a lot of airy-fairy hoopla.
Andy: I can go with that. It ties up the confusion about leaders and managers, you know, where leaders decide the right things to do and then managers do the things right. Real life hasn't worked that way for me.
Woody: How's that?
Andy: Because among workers, someone is always taking the lead. And who's that? It's the man or woman who knows the most about the task and technology. This is a lesson a lot of managers miss. It doesn't matter who has the rank! What's important is who has the most recent and relevant experience. When I was an enlisted man teaching officer/pilots survival skills, I was the one with the most recent and relevant experience, and those officers knew that my job was to teach them how to survive disaster situations. I was outranked, but that didn't matter. What I knew made them listen to me.
Woody: And did none of them resent being lectured to by an enlisted man?
Andy: Only a few, but they created another lesson—competence is so important that the other officers would tell the few to shut-up! So I didn't have to worry about that stuff. The real leaders in any group will keep you covered.
Woody: I got a similar lesson. Once as a lieutenant, I was on a project with a bird colonel and working with a bunch of majors and light colonels. My boss told me, “Woody, if any of these people give you any trouble, refer them to me.” That taught me a lot about delegation, and that if I did my job competently, I was fireproof!
Andy: Isn't that a great feeling? And when you're in that zone, do you need to be motivated? Do you need anything more than knowing at the end of the day that you had a great day, doing your job for someone who appreciated you? That's the thing a lot of people don't get. I've seen a lot of senior people cripple programs because they let their need to be the boss get in the way of getting the job done.
Woody: I once asked a guy who was just standing around, doing nothing, what he was waiting for. He said, “I'm waiting for my boss to tell me what to do!” I thought he was joking, so I asked if he was going to do something different than the day before. “Of course not,” he said, “but my boss likes to tell me what to do, and I like to make him happy!”
Andy: Sure! If he made that decision, he would be taking his boss's job. That's why the “structure and processes” part of your definition is so important. You can't have 15 or 20 people waiting to be told what to do. They have to know, and they do know—if you involve them in planning work and laying out schedules.
Woody: Do many managers do that, in your experience?
Andy: Only the good ones. Leadership is about taking people to new levels of performance, so they surprise themselves when they see how competent they are, and how much fun it is to hook up with others to win against the clock and the budget. Good leaders stretch their people, push them, and make them stronger performers.
Woody: How hard can you push them?
Andy: Right up the edge of what employment laws allow. Sometimes it's giving them more work, or tighter schedules, or making them solve problems and implement solutions by themselves. And when they win, you praise them and talk about what they learned.
Woody: But what if they don't win? If they fail?
Andy: Bull feathers!!! If you pay attention to them, they don't fail. You see them struggling and you stop by to offer a suggestion or two. If they're afraid to fail, they work too slow. If you let them fail, you tell them that succeeding, being on schedule isn't important! I don't care what people write about the freedom to fail, because real leaders don't let that happen to their people. Not if there are any real chips on the table!
Woody: Real leaders, then, make sure people are successful at their work?
Andy: Nothing else is more important!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #5:
Team Building is a Waste of Time and Money
Woody: At least 30 years ago, when I occasionally got team-building assignments, it became obvious that the major thing that kept people from working together effectively was that they chose not to understand their own responsibilities and those of their co-workers.
Andy: What do you mean, “…they chose not to understand”?
Woody: Basic stuff, like job descriptions, like who's responsible for what and when.
Andy: That is basic! How can people not understand…?
Woody: Because they choose not to. It's a variant of waiting to be told what to do, except it's fueled by the kind of petty bull feathers that shows up in work groups when there's no imperative to perform, and no emphasis on “we” and “our” among managers and workers.
Andy: That's a basic difference between military and civilian organizations, and the reason so many ex-military have trouble fitting-in with civilians. The military is based on unit effectiveness. Everyone has a responsibility beyond his or her own role, to chip-in extra effort to support each other when there's a crunch.
Woody: And that means cross-training, knowing what the other guys do and how to do it. Without that knowledge…
Andy: Work grinds to a halt, everyone's got an excuse, and it's time to do some serious talking. The thing is, it's a game and everyone knows it. The game is called “F**k the boss!” I see it played between the locally-engaged staff and American bosses with oversized egos and rotten interpersonal skills.
Woody: It's never the other way around?
Andy: Not in my experience. With very few exceptions, locally-engaged staff are as dedicated and committed a work force as you could want. They stay in one place while their American managers rotate out every two or three years. The locals know where the gold is buried, but they can forget in an instant if they get a boss who's heavy-handed, indifferent, arrogant, or all of the above.
Woody: Don't these people get any training?
Andy: Sure they do, and it's usually first rate. The trouble is, most of these people are specialists—in politics, economics, security, etc.—and managing a staff isn't interesting to them. But getting promoted usually means they have to take supervisory slots.
Woody: You see something similar in private-sector organizations too. Maybe what this means is that team-building is really about overcoming ineffective leadership and a lack of focus on unit effectiveness.
Andy: As soon as you talk about team building, you're telling people that they're supposed to be a team and that working well together is what they're supposed to do!
Woody: And the reason they resist is that there's something more important to those involved than working well together, and that something is sending a message to anyone who notices that “We ain't happy!”
Andy: That's when you need to cut through the bull feathers and get to the issues, like, what's hanging them up?
Woody: You need to ask tough questions, like “What do you want that you aren't getting? What would it take to get you to perform up to your potential? Who or what is hanging you up?” But you need to be prepared to listen and to respond, including making sure the boss is confronted with his or her misdeeds or unmet expectations.
Andy: That works! People don't always like it, but when they know you know the game, they've made their point, and set it up so you find out instead of somebody telling you.
Woody: Which is another indication of an ineffective work group. And then…?
Andy: Then you coach the manager on noticing people and rewarding successes, however small. Rewards work and build a kind of bridge between the boss and the workers. The boss learns and the staff begins to pull together toward positive outcomes instead of negative stuff.
Woody: And teamwork is the result?
Andy: Usually. Some bosses, some groups, need more attention than others, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper than team-building exercises and make-believe games. Real people respond to real issues and to being called on their bull feather behavior. No matter how young they are, they know adult behavior is expected of them, and that includes working together, supporting each other.
Woody: The bottom line?
Andy: Bosses need to be with their people, not distant from them. Bosses need to be there to pay attention to individual performers and to praise the team and appreciate them for everything they do. That's how you build teams!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #6:
Outstanding Customer Service Requires Intelligent Delegation
Woody: Managers think and plan, workers work. In between is delegation, by which authority to perform tasks, consume corporate resources, is granted. That's how it was taught for the last four decades. Is that still how it happens?
Andy: No! Big changes! That old model was about doling out work one task at a time to workers who were viewed as dull and uninspired, and who need specific guidance for each task. Today, there's too much work and too few people, so you have to empower them in advance to pick up tasks as they come in and handle them.
Woody: As you're using the words, delegate and empower mean the same thing.
Andy: Sure, because missing in that old equation was workers' competence, intelligence, and willingness to assume responsibility.
Woody: That makes delegation, as it used to be taught, sort of a ritual for giving employees the opportunity to think at work instead of following mindless routines.
Andy: And that was because everyone was into authority. Most people don't realize how far ahead of the civilian world the military is in breaking down authority and giving young people responsibilities. Consider a kid, a young man or woman, working on the flight line in the Air Force. They make decisions everyday that have life or death consequences. As civilians, they probably couldn't order a box of ballpoint pens without a couple of authorizations.
Woody: That must be where customer service breaks down—when people who have no permission to make decisions are supposed to help customers make decisions.
Andy: Or to obtain services promptly and at a competitive cost. That's my basic job, by the way. An Embassy is a service center for a lot of federal agencies, and my staff has to provide them with everything from housing and offices to pencils and note pads on their desks, not to mention record-keeping, transportation, and maintaining all facilities. Literally, thousands of details to be handled promptly and courteously.
Woody: How about the locally-engaged staff? I know that in Lithuania, customer service is still a largely-undiscovered business concept.
Andy: For many of them, I've been the first person ever to ask—no, to demand—that they make decisions and do what needs to be done without being told. If nobody's ever asked you to be responsible, the learning curve can be steep and scary. You have to be quick with praise and encouragement, and most of them will get used to thinking and doing on their own and turn into world-class performers.
Woody: So you have to wean them away from waiting for marching orders?
Andy: More than that, you have to teach them to anticipate what needs to be done, to plan their work, and to operate independently. These are really smart people, once you get them past the fear of acting without being told what to do.
Woody: I was invited into a Lithuanian workplace where morale problems had been reported. It took about five minutes to sort that out. I heard a lot of noise as the boss showed up—a short guy wearing elevator shoes and shouting orders. I asked the plant manager why he tolerated that abusive behavior, but I don't think he understood the question.
Andy: Some of these guys are amazing in their insensitivity.
Woody: And a lot of these people have been terribly abused at work.
Andy: That's why it's so important to build-up the people I work with. It's really an extension of our foreign policy—to demonstrate the American way of treating employees. When they tell their families and friends…
Woody: Is there really an American way of treating people?
Andy: It might not be every manager's style, but the way I look at it is that: (1) you don't hire people unless there's work for them to do; (2) because they're needed, they're important; and (3) because they're important, what they see and think about how the work gets done and could be improved is important too, and valuable. When you appreciate people for the contributions they make, they become valuable contributors.
Woody: Where does empowerment fit in?
Andy: It's built in! When you take people on as partners, everyone has a role and responsibilities. When you ask people to own their jobs and do them thoroughly and with pride, there's really no need for giving orders or negotiating on every task. If you allow people to be proud of what they do, they will do it well. Every time!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #7:
Don’t Monkey About with Morale
Woody: When I got started in the consulting business, morale was a stock element in supervisory and management training programs. Is it my imagination, or has morale disappeared as a significant issue?
Andy: It hasn't disappeared, exactly, but the big drumbeat today is cost containment, and organizing people into cost-reduction teams. You know, like it's the employees who have driven up the cost of operations, so we'd better let them tell us how to cut expenses.
Woody: That sounds like my mother sending me into the yard to choose the switch she was going to beat me with. So do these committees find cost-containment ideas, and do they get excited about that? Is it a plus or a minus, morale-wise?
Andy: I think a lot of them see it as pure bull feathers. In these big organizations, finding wasted expense is like shaving mold off a chunk of cheese – easy to see, but just skimming the surface. And nobody wants to cut costs in the programs that create their jobs.
Woody: So participation is being used to keep morale high while the system is sending signals that the “good old days” are over? Clever! So what does have a negative impact on morale?
Andy: RIFs. Reductions in force. Laying off popular people. One cost-saving policy allows us to hire temporary employees for a fixed term, so someone with the skills we need gets to have a good job for a short time. But unless some other position opens they can apply for, there's no way we can keep them on beyond the terms of the contract. One such temp was really competent and everyone loved her. I thought we were going to have a rebellion when we had to let her go.
Woody: I guess that means there won't be any recommendations for economies that result in job losses.
Andy: You got that right! And a lot of times, job losses mean the loss of great people and their experience, and that kicks morale and loyalty right in the ass. It's usually a stupid decision by people with limited vision and who need to feel powerful. Wasting people usually is a bull feathers move that will cost an Embassy more than it will save.
Woody: But if you get an order to cut costs…?
Andy: There are lots of ways to cut costs. We got such an order a couple of years ago, and the recommendation that we RIF a dozen people. I went to the ambassador and the deputy chief of mission for approval to cut other costs instead of laying off our people. They agreed, and we cut out some planned travel, some training, a little bit here and there, even reduced the electric bill with the help of our staff. We were all pulling together, and morale was high!
Woody: Because they knew you were protecting them?
Andy: Yeah, and we were all in it together. Then, a new budget cycle finally came and their jobs had been saved.
Woody: And they all knew that if they worked for another management officer, they could have been fired?
Andy: Something like that, but the ambassador and the DCM really made it possible. But staff knew they did something important, even powerful, and in a way, they beat the system….
Woody: And that drove morale sky high!
Andy: Absolutely, and not because of me, but because we—the embassy management—cared about our staff enough to do the unexpected, to make exceptional efforts, and that told our men and women that they are important, valuable, necessary, needed, and that's the message that drives morale.
Woody: But that's not all of it, is it?
Andy: No, you've got to allow employees to feel good about themselves for the quality and quantity of work they do against targets and objectives they helped to set and believe in. Most of our guys don't expect to be entertained. They want to be treated as responsible adults with contributions to make.
Woody: You mentioned loyalty earlier.
Andy: Yeah, that's one of the things you lose when management does something stupid to kill morale. It's not that most of the people can leave the Embassy to go to a better job, because they can't. But if they feel management is screwing them, there's a hell of a lot they can do as pay-back—like stuff they don't have to see or hear or volunteer. Like, ‘Manager, you're so smart, you go find it and figure it out!’
Woody: I've heard that song before.
Andy: I'm sure you have, and you know that if there's bad morale, look at the managers, not at the working people. Poor morale is a symptom of bad management.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #8
If You Want to Hear God Laugh…
Woody: That's what I learned in Slovakia a decade ago—if you want to hear God laugh, make a plan! God, local people, and bosses always change their minds, change the specs…
Andy: Yeah, and I spend a lot of my time cleaning up behind people who don't plan. It's like they can only do one thing at a time, and that time itself doesn't matter.
Woody: You see a lot of that in everyone's organization. What is it? Priorities, and confusion about them? Or the repetitive nature of the work? Or that there's no penalty for not working smart? Or just indifference?
Andy: It's for sure the reason why some people aren't promotable. You tell them, show them, check on them, offering them more responsibility if they'll just get themselves organized, and you might as well be shouting down a well, beating your head against a wall. Thank God there aren't too many of them.
Woody: Most people, you think, really want more responsibility?
Andy: Sure they do, and it's good for me when they make the decision to stretch themselves. They give me more things to thank them for doing, and the more strokes you give them, the harder they work.
Woody: Are you saying that receiving praise makes people plan their days and their work?
Andy: Not exactly. Hell, I don't know what it is, other than that people start to think about their jobs in different ways and maybe they see relationships between thinking ahead, finishing work on time, and getting appreciated for it. Then, maybe they remember the stuff they've heard about planning. I don't know. What do you think?
Woody: I've never heard it explained that way, Andy. Maybe you've come up with a new theory about teaching planning and getting people to take more responsibility.
Andy: Bull feathers! I don't do theories. I just want people to grow out of the boxes they're in when I show up. People can always do more, if they want to, and I keep finding that too many people have never been asked to do more than the narrow definitions of their jobs.
Woody: So they don't learn, they don't grow, they don't get promoted, and they get bored and do less and less work?
Andy: Yeah, that's a good picture of the cycle, and I love breaking it. I can get demotivated by my bosses or bureaucratic bull feathers, but not about the people I work with. That's the part of the job I love—getting my people involved in solving problems and seeing them surprising themselves by how good they are.
Woody: I've met some of your people, and I see how they look at you. I can imagine how much energy you've invested to get that kind of response.
Andy: Nah, I'm just doing my job. But you know they're really getting it when they start seeing improvements in the time it takes to get things done and can relate that to the plans they developed.
Woody: How much do they improve as individuals and as a group?
Andy: Some of them, quite a lot. Some not so much. But as a group, they work better together and get to the point I don't have to worry about them covering my back. My current crew has been recognized by the Department for their performance and their contributions, so I guess it's time for me to move to another challenge, and that's going to happen in the next six months.
Woody: Will you miss them?
Andy: A few of them have become really good friends, and we may run into each other at meetings. But it's the nature of the job—and the strength of the system, I guess. And moving means making new friends and helping a new group of people to see how good they can be.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #9:
Planning is Easy, but Scheduling is an Art Form…
Woody: Anyone can learn to plan in a half-day, but when they start organizing tasks and scheduling resources to get the most out of them, people begin to see that scheduling is practically an art form.
Andy: It's also a way to see who's able to think and who's got their brains scrambled. Even simple things like getting someone picked up at the airport can become confused and I have to give someone a direct order to get their ass in the car and go.
Woody: And it's not always so-called dumb people. I remember a case when a group of college-graduate engineers with project management training couldn't organize getting parts produced, plastic packaging for the parts, and people to put the parts and the packaging together at the same time.
Andy: What's the old saying? A day late and a dollar short?
Woody: Yeah, and it happens every day somewhere in most organizations—people standing around with nothing to do while they wait for parts, pieces, vehicles, or whatever should have been there. Part of it's about not looking behind plans to see what has to be done so that planned work can be performed…
Andy: And part of it's because people don't own the work and aren't committed to getting it done on time. But if you're five minutes late cutting their paychecks, they're right on top of you.
Woody: That's why timelines, deadlines, and due-dates are so important, along with consequences for missing them. Then, people begin to think about resource constraints, about not having everything they need, and having to negotiate to arrange to get everything they need to complete an assignment.
Andy: That's right! It's asking others for support that's the hang-up. Remember back before printers were cheap and we used expensive copy machines and every office wanted their own—so they wouldn't have to share?
Woody: When what they really wanted was not to be held up when they were running late and needed to get a report turned in on time.
Andy: So a lot of this scheduling bull feathers is about having everything you need all the time so you aren't dependent on others because you don't have the interpersonal skills to be able to share stuff without conflict! And if you don't have it all, then you can't be held accountable when things go south!
Woody: Bingo! I think you just had a Eureka! moment, connecting failure to schedule resources with difficult interpersonal relations. That's really interesting! I wonder how often that's the reason?
Andy: Probably more often than we think, because once you don't want to do something because of the people involved, procrastination takes over and all of the sudden you've got a delivery emergency and that makes the interpersonal bull feathers even more difficult.
Woody: Wow! I like that. This isn't about scheduling three shifts 24/7 on an outage in a nuclear plant. It's about stumbles and fumbles and delays on routine work in everyone's organization everyday! I usually talk about identifying where there aren't enough skilled people, materials, or special equipment to perform tasks as planned, and that's when clever manipulation of variables can make a profitable difference. But here, what you've done is to show that the major constraint in a lot of places is lack of trust among workers and a basic inability to communicate, to cooperate.
Andy: Glad you like it! Usually, we think schedules get blown by late deliveries, flu epidemics, or other stuff, but as I think about it, delays are simpler than that.
Woody: Maybe what we need to do instead of training people in natural work groups to work together better is to extend that training to people outside that group, to involve those who have resources that have to be shared, and that means they have to be scheduled…
Andy: And that means the training follows the work in real time.
Woody: Sure, because even the most complex work is based on stuff that's been done before, so there's always someone who knows where work went off schedule in the past, along with how long each activity takes, how much it costs, what kinds of people, equipment, and materials are required. If we know all that, why don't we get the people who will be involved to solve the sharing problems in advance? Or permanently?
Andy: That makes sense to me!
Woody: Sure, because keeping work on schedule is so often a matter of improvisation, and that's easier when you have great working relationships with people outside your immediate work group.
Andy: I'll drink to that!
Woody: What a great idea. Let's do!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #10:
Project Management is Easy—
It’s the
Clerical Discipline That’s Difficult!
Woody: Of all the managerial skills, project management may be the most important. It seems to involve all the qualities you want to find in a new manager—you know, knowledge of planning and scheduling; being familiar with the technologies involved; able to negotiate with functional managers and customers or clients; and ability to collect and organize information. Really, it's a full range of interpersonal, coaching, and meeting-management skills.
Andy: When you say it like that, it sounds like too much for anyone. I'd rather keep it simple and say it's about getting stuff done on time and not causing any problems.
Woody: Sure, it's that, but when you take what that individual does and look at the component parts, it's an impressive array of skills. I tell my students that the only two skill sets they absolutely must get are project management skills and interpersonal skills. Those are the abilities that will get them hired and promoted, no matter where they end up working.
Andy: That's probably true. I know that's what I look for when I go into a new job—the people you can count on to take a project and run with it and not create a lot of backwash that I have to clean up. Some people—it's like the bull in the china shop, pissing-off everybody they deal with, and the clean-up takes so much time and energy you might as well have done the job yourself.
Woody: So where do the good ones get the know-how to be effective?
Andy: I don't know. Maybe from their mothers…
Woody: I've been telling you, women are better at project management than guys.
Andy: Bull feathers! What I mean is that it's about being polite, minding your manners, and paying attention to what you're doing. I think mothers teach that stuff more than fathers.
Woody: I agree! And as you've heard me say, the reason participative management isn't practiced more is that if you had to identify it as male or female, it would come up feminine more than masculine, and that scares the hell out of guys. That's not the John Wayne/Dirty Harry way of dealing with people.
Andy: Okay, but how is it that project management is a female business?
Woody: I've made a lot of male engineers unhappy by saying that women tend to make better project managers for two reasons. The first is that they want to see problems solved, not to solve the problems themselves, which is very much a guy thing. Something breaks and guys have to jump in to fix it, losing sight of their role as managers, not repairmen! The second is that project management is a lot about tracking performance data, and no matter how you do it, data tracking is a pretty clerical business. Can you see John Wayne or Dirty Harry walking around with clipboards, recording performance data, writing down names and numbers?
Andy: Bull feathers! I track data all the time!
Woody: But you aren't insecure! You don't have to act tough because you know you can be as tough as you need to be! You're not worried about getting out of control, about losing face.
Andy: I guess that's true. Maybe it's age and experience…
Woody: That's part of it, but another part is what you said about what we learn from our mothers, that there are ways to get things done without being tough, that being an authoritarian is a Neanderthal way to manage.
Andy: And you can't go across the organization, asking for cooperation, by making demands and giving orders to people who don't work for you.
Woody: Precisely! So when you see somebody who can do that, you know you've found pure gold. Somebody you can develop. Promote into leadership roles. Send off for training and know you're going to get your money's worth.
Andy: Yeah, I've got a couple of those now, and another couple who can't quite get there. Maybe I should give them clipboards and order them to carry them with them at all times. What do you think?
Woody: You'll know you've got it right when you ask for project updates, and they look at their clipboards to answer your question.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #11
Managing Change—It’s an Everyday Requirement Now!
Andy: What do you like best about being a consultant?
Woody: That it's almost always something different—different organization, different culture, different people, different locale. I really love the change and the challenge of getting up to speed to identify issues and problems.
Andy: Some people would probably go crazy handling all that change.
Woody: Until they discover that it's fun.
Andy: Some of our people are so stuck, so resistant to change…
Woody: Because here, at work, is the really stable place in their lives. Outside, kids grow up and leave or have problems, people die, friends move away, even their favorite TV show goes off the air. But when Monday morning comes, they come back to you, ready to do the same old stuff in the same old way and feel safe!
Andy: And you can watch the pace of work slow down as they get comfortable.
Woody: That's when you need to bring some change down on them, to bump them gently out of their ruts.
Andy: Like how?
Woody: Meet with those in a chain of activities to ask how to accelerate their work. Set some targets with them, create an opportunity for you to check with them daily, to encourage them, praise them. Really, they will respond, because you become a change agent. You upset established routines and make them think about the work they do instead of just numbly following routines. Maybe you never thought of it that way, but that's the reason the military has major inspections, with days or weeks to allow people to prepare. It creates some tension, gets everyone to sharpen-up their performance.
Andy: I remember those, and we always thought they were total bull feathers.
Woody: But that's the way people always respond to inconvenience. They have to think, shift gears, break the existing pattern of their days. They have to be alert instead of relaxed, and what's wrong with that?
Andy: I guess nothing. But can you keep people in a constant state of being alert when they're doing routine work?
Woody: Sure! You did it in the Air Force, where working on the flight line is always a serious business. But for civilians, what you need is for your people to have the ability to kick into another gear when there's a reason. One of the best examples of this I know about is presented in Jack Stack's book, The Great Game of Business. I heard Jack speak, had a chance to chat with him, and after a dozen years, I still count that as one of the great conversations in my life.
Andy: What did he do that was so impressive?
Woody: Jack Stack figured out how to get his employees focused on solving performance problems. He said his mostly high-school-graduate workforce can solve technical problems that would baffle college-trained engineers. They don't do that every day, because it's not needed. But when they need to shave time and costs to be competitive on large engine re-build contracts, they can deliver the numbers.
Andy: So it's about being able to change the pace, get people deeply engaged for short periods and after the event, they feel good about what they did! Like when you pass the inspection, everyone goes out for a beer!
Woody: Yeah! They survived the storm, they passed the test, they proved they were professionals, and they feel good about themselves! That's when morale is at its best!
Andy: And that's the basic step in building strong work groups, great teams—they feel good about doing things together, about winning the contest, the contract, acing the inspection.
Woody: Precisely! It's amazing how many people go to work and never experience that kind of shared excitement. Instead, they get birthdays and engagements and retirements, the kind of make-believe-we-care-about-you bull feathers that pass for achievement in most offices. That's such a shame, because there are always things you can celebrate, even in unlikely places.
Andy: What kinds of unlikely places?
Woody: Like a call center, where the boss lady complained about low morale and I proposed Friday afternoon staff meetings with wine and cheese to compare the worst-caller-of-the-week tapes. It could be a hilarious event, experiences common to everyone, “Oh, no!” she replied. “We could never do anything like that!” But she couldn't tell me who would criticize her or what she could do to engage with her staff.
Andy: We get some people like that—no sense that work has to be fun some of the time and that people have to have a chance to feel good about themselves and each other. If you don't give them that, they will go flat and sour. They have to have some change-of-pace.
Woody: Back to change, creating it and managing it, self-imposed, system-imposed, or from “out there” as in the current economic crisis and related downsizings. It's not that people resist change, as they used to say, but that change has a strangle-hold on us, all of us, and we're going to cope or crumble. Maybe learning to deal with change at work is going to prove to be a gift for some people—something to hold onto in case their job is abolished.
Andy: It's a better, faster, cheaper, take-no-prisoners work world we're in. Maybe it's sad, but people need to wake up to that fact.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #12
Ouch! Ethics!
Woody: Ethics is a fun subject to teach, but it's tough to have to drop the hammer on someone you know who's screwed you or your employer.
Andy: That's never a fun part of the boss job, but sometimes the rules are so clear you don't have any decision to make. The guy who's screwed up has already made the decision. If you do the crime, you've got to do the time!
Woody: But what about in some of these cultures where everyone is used to working black, paying bribes, getting gratuities?
Andy: That's something you have to make clear in your first staff meeting! You will have heard about sloppy work and shady practices, so you need to make sure everyone understands that all of you live by the same set of rules. If you screw up, I will do what I'm required to do, because we all are held accountable. By law. No bull feathers!
Woody: Do you run into much of that?
Andy: Not really. If you're supervising your people, paying attention to how they work and what they work on, and maybe what you've heard coming onto the job, you can head them in the right direction before they screw up on your watch. And you explain the rules, and most of the time, that's enough.
Woody: But what about the other times?
Andy: Mostly it's about misuse of government vehicles. I had to send a guy home for two weeks because he was on a task in a government car, and decided to stop to pick up some groceries for his dinner, which seems harmless enough. But someone bumped into the car in the parking lot, the police were called, and a really good employee got a suspension for doing something stupid.
Woody: Probably he saw somebody in the past doing some personal errands…
Andy: Maybe so, but people have to understand that there's no latitude, that there's no such thing as a little bit wrong, like there's no such thing as a little bit pregnant.
Woody: People do have to get it, but it's in the culture of every organization, I guess, to know which rules to follow and which you can ignore. That's why I like to use the Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale book in ethics classes. The Power of Ethical Management is a small book, simply written, and its basic message is that there's no right way to do a wrong thing, and that you can't fudge on the line between okay and not-okay behavior.
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