communication – SOLUM SERVICES

Manage Well: The 3 Questions

Bring a team into high productivity and positive morale with “The 3 Questions”. Managers must master these. Imbed them into your psyche. Repeat them in your sleep. Make them your meditational mantra. Get it.

What is the down-line impact of this action? How often do you have problems in production or sales or finance because of an inadequate exploration of this question? What will happen in accounting if we promote this new product line at 5% markdown? What will happen to other product lines? Can marketing adjust in time for the sales season? Will production be ready to handle sales volumes?

Put off this question at maximum risk of failure. Even the simplest action in a sequence of workflow has to pursue an expanded understanding before change. If we print this at a new size, will the finishing team be able to handle it? If we promote a new advantage to our product will it meet compliance guidelines? When we implement this change to our computer program for billing will it cause extra workload at 3am that affects another unrelated cycle? There is no end to implications of one actions on other team action. No one can know them all. But you need to ask.

Who else needs to know? How familiar is your team with the interaction of what they do with others? Do you have workers living in a vacuum? Have you taken time to educate them about interplay with other departments, people, teams, divisions, customers, and vendors? When you change the usage of a machine, it might be wise to include the manufacturer in the discussion. Ask often, “Who else needs to know?”

What is your information plan to include them? When do they need to know? Do they have access to enhanced information that might help you make a better decision before advancing?

Work with a production team with large dependency on delivery cycles proved out value here. The delivery team was constantly a day behind. They were only being informed at the time of pickup. By moving the information to them at time of beginning of production, a day was cut out of delivery cycle to the customer and orders increased with increased customer satisfaction. The sales team also needed to know at the same time instead of being informed only after delivery. This enabled them to engage the customer along the path with pertinent and reliable information. Who else needs to know?

What is the best use of my time right now? After you ask the first two questions, answer this one. Too often we ask this one and answer it only considering what we know and what we are doing. We need to consider what others know and what they are doing. A project launch could falter due to conflicting priorities in the organization. A customer order may not be deliverable as requested due to a supply shortage and should be renegotiated. After considering the plans and availabilities of others and related resources, we may want to work on an entirely different project or action and time this one in front of us into another day or week.

Summary Simplicity: These 3 questions are priceless practice for any manager for self decisions and for training team members in their decisions. After working with a team for a season on these, you will find they become masters of the top manager rule. What is the top manager rule? NO SURPRISES. These questions eliminate the element of surprise and provide a foundation for a self managed team.

Ask them often.

What is the down-line impact of my action?

Who else needs to know?

What is the best use of my time right now?

Be Busy Building Better Business,

Phil

Phil@shepherdok.com

405.388.8037

Presence Communicates Production Priority

Managers and leaders communicate priority by where they spend their time. Production teams make America happen. A walk through a production press room tells the workers they are important and what they do is important. Stopping by the front desk in the morning and looking the receptionist in the eye followed by a specific word of appreciation tells the company that guests are important. Openly discussing decisions and gaining feedback from the team along the way gives them a stake. Presence communicates production priority.

30 years of overseeing production teams 24/7 leaves me with a little insight on helping a shift through their day. Every shift is a day in itself. Each one needs right attention and priority.

Every meeting you attend, every walk down the hallway, every lunch in public communicates your deepest heart. You are being watched. An encouraging word, a kind action, opening a door for someone else, or a playful interchange all communicate compassion and priority.

An ancient proverb tells us to not muzzle the oxen as they tread grain. One visual picture we draw is of an ox pulling along in a field being harvested. He needs to munch a little every once in a while. He needs to gain benefit while working, not just at the end of the season. Your presence and encouragement is one of the daily benefits you can give with little cost and great results. Corporate parties, big meetings and bonuses help. They can never replace personal attention and involvement. Presence communicates production priority every day and communicates concern for the people.

Early In The Day Sets A Tone
A manager starts the day for work teams. A little whistle up the hallway in the morning tells the team it is a bright day. P lesant greetings communicate positive expectation and confidence. It is not just physical presence but emotional engagement that builds a productive team of individuals bound by mission.

Middle Of The Day Stimulates
By mid day in a production crew, sales team, customer service group, or any other set of individuals bound by mission, there have been problems. Opportunity to turn dour has come many times by noon. This is one perfect moment to inspire and prioritized. Where you spend the last minutes before lunch tells the team where to focus.

A purposeful and thoughtful communication to key team members on priority projects can keep problems from dominating. Customer service needs to keep moving while issues are resolved. Down equipment needs attended. Production schedules may need adjusted considering current availability. Sales teams may need a pep talk to overcome any weight of complaints.

End Of The Day Rules Over Tides
By the end of a good day, there have been powerful moments and struggling moments. Tides have pressed against the team attempting to bring them to defeat. They need presence. They need reinforcement that the customer is king and the team is in your heart. You need to let them know you are one their side. Before you go home, visit the oncoming team and give them the same whistling start you gave the first team.

Summary: Presence communicates production priority. Production is the ox of your company. Sales must happen. Production must run seamless. An ancient proverb tells us to not muzzle the ox as he treads the grain. Consider your time and attention and presence as unmuzzling the oxen. Invest in your people. They are the strength of the company.

Be Busy Building Better Business. Have a Great Day!

Phil

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Change is Never Straight

Controlled chaos is a normative term in the management of change. Change is never straight. Change defies a linear constraint. Change is messy and change is curved. Leaders must be curved people.

Mentoring a growth team, we reviewed normal impact of change on the growth leader. In this model vision leads to planning and implementation leads to problems and pressures leads to perseverance leads to accomplishment and success leads to celebration and rejoicing leads to increased vision. Or you can choose crisis instead of perseverance which leads to exhaustion and withdrawal can lead to restoration can lead to increased vision. Or crisis can abort the progress. There are hundreds of divergent paths that may happen. Change is messy and curves a lot.

Change is not for straight line people. They are good at regular performance and processes. Change bothers them. A leader must learn to be a curved person. Change is inevitable and needed. Leaders lead through the curves.

There is one major curve in change you should explore and master. It is the curve between your starting level of productivity and your landing level of productivity. In that curve lies all the potential for disaster and triumph. In that curve many leaders lose sight of vision. In that curve success is assured and failure is certain. Master the curve and master change.

Starting Level: Preceding productivity curve is your present level of productivity and accomplishment. How successful are you? What are your measurements? Know them and get them recorded.

Plan: Now, plan the change that you intend to take your business or other endeavor into the next level of productivity. Go from 100 widgets a day to 200 widgets a day. Add a new product line while keeping current production levels on others. Penetrate a new market. Implement improvement in service. Change for growth.

Launch: Launch the change. Communicate, take action, and plunge into the change. Paralysis by analysis is deadly. There is a moment and point of demarcation. Take it. Fall off the mountain. That’s right fall off the mountain of your current productivity level.

Freefall: Change causes freefall. Problems come from change. Teams get confused. Productivity decreases while people absorb new information. The right screw becomes the wrong screw. Questions abound. Production plummets. This was in your plan, right? You made allowance for this, correct? No? Whoops. Fingers get pointed. Doubt crawls up the ladder to challenge the change rationale.

Adjust: Light shines. People push through learning curves. The services straighten out on the planned track. There is smiling in the camp instead of groaning. You knew you would get here, you just wished it had happened on schedule and without the problems. The changes begin to push productivity above your starting level.

Landing Level: Why endure the pain of change? Reach new levels. Plan diligently. Execute well. Adapt strong. Obtain outcomes. Receive reward. Of course, it does not always look so pretty. You might drag onto the landing level scarred and scattered.

Summary: This conversation is one I’ve had with hundreds of learning leaders. Every new leader expects smooth change, gets into the curve, panics, and needs some encouragement. Have your eyes open when you enter the change curve. You still might get blindsided, but you will be ready. Adapt with good and frequent communication and intentional feedback points. Go ahead and fall off the mountain. The landing spot is higher than where you stand.

Manage Well – Document – Publish – Train – Measure DPTM

Manage Well : Document- Publish – Train – Measure: DPTM

Capability maturity models for process in management are based on a simple principle. Document what you expect. Publish it to others. Train them. Follow up with measurement to ensure it is being used and results are being achieved as designed. Some years before I knew anything about CMM, this was hammered into me by an astute manager and mentor. This can apply to any area. Don’t just focus on daily routines. Think about quarterly reports or employee review handling. What about an organizational change? Is it right to use email and quick information on high impact items while painstakingly covering easy routines? But, we do it, don’t we?

You don’t have to belong to the training department or use games to get this. Simple and consistent application of these principles will win you fans in your team.

Why It Works: When you DPTM, you should consider using as many different modes as possible. Don’t just write it down in an email and expect people to understand and follow. It won’t happen.

There are seven understood, primary roots of understanding in learning.

Kinetic – Do it. Touch it. Get physical with it. In a production shop, there are many for whom this is the deepest root of understanding.

Emotional – Yes, some people have to get emotional to ‘Get it.’ Emotions have a big vocabulary. Anger, hatred, frustration, joy, happiness, anxiety, fear, angst, wild hearted abandon, quizzical, consternation, confusion, engaged, light-hearted, enchanted, apoplexy, fixation, consumed, apathetic, mournful. Some people have to grieve over the last item to receive the next one. Believe it and allow for it. Don’t judge team members while they are sorting through emotions. It is a learning process. Now, if they camp on negative emotions, you have some issues to resolve.

Intellectual – Wow. Yes, we all want our team members to study and understand what is happening. But, it is not required for everyone.

Discussion – Even if the subject itself is not discussed, if there is discussion surrounding the process or procedure, it makes for better understanding. Even a negative discussion can open up the ability to understand. Leave this out at a major risk of disconnecting. I’ve seen great people leave companies just because this was not handled well.

Music – Ever wonder why that teenager can learn with loud music in the background or why every movie has sound continually? It helps. For some, it is necessary.

Auditory – We all need to hear what is happening.

Visual – Get your eyes on it. Look over the documents. Attach some graphics. This does not mean literal learning. Many visuals do not connect with the words and paper. They need additional stimulus with color and graphics and maybe even motion.

None of us use only one of these for understanding. Engage them all and you will cover your team’s needs. The more modes of communication, the deeper the message tends to embed.

What each means: DPTM

Document: When you document a policy or process or procedure, you write it down. That can and should include supporting graphics and video and screen captures where appropriate. Email is not documentation. Email might be a delivery method for a document, but an email itself should never be considered good documentation. Documentation is compliance checked, authorized, categorized, organized, stored, and retrievable. Back pocket documentation is dangerous.

Publish: Once you have agreed upon documentation that represents the policy, process, or procedure, you need a communication system that ensures all upstream and downstream team members involved have been notified. Give adequate time for review and questions.

Train: Oh, boy. This one is skipped too often. Well, she should have read it, right? Wrong. Train with the published documentation in hand or on screen. Verify and ask revealing questions that help you understand if they understand. Let the person solo the procedure with the trainer observing. In fact, have the trainer do the process in front of the person before they attempt to solo. Make sure the documentation is readily available for the trainee to refresh. Sometimes you can forget a key point or go long periods between using a procedure and need that original training material alongside at 3am.

Get a sign off. That is not a failsafe. It does challenge the trainee to pay close attention and communicate if it does not make sense to them.

Measure: Include verification and communication of measurement criteria for any routine. This is a good place to make sure the trainee understands what the expected result looks like when the process or procedure is completed or the policy followed. Then implement a measurement tool on a frequency fit to task. Everything doesn’t need measured every iteration, but much does and patterns monitored for continuous service improvement.

Manage well. Apply sensible principles. Consider impact. Have fun.

Lead with Solutions: Five Key Phrases To Lead

There is power in your words, Leader.

Leaders lead. We lead with our words, our actions, our intent, and our example.

Leaders lead. Leading flows from the inner core of a leader outward for followers to follow. Wisdom literature intrigues and builds me. Two principles that regurgitate in my meditative time apply here.

What is in your heart comes out your mouth.
Words carry life or death.

Uncomfortable as that may be for some, it is life and energy for leaders. Those that deny they are being led are fools looking for a place to fail. Those that accept they are both being led and leading others have matured to a grasp of reality needed for contentedness and success. Watching words is a key necessity of leadership.

One of the ways leaders lead is with the entry words they use in conversations and meetings and personal engagements. So let’s look at five phrases that lead well and lead to impact and influence.

How can we lead effectively with our entry words?

Lead #1: How do you feel about this situation? Leaders fail many times by leading with precooked answers. Try leading with a question. The conversation is headed a positive direction based on your quick and thoughtful lead. Watch out for asking how people think. That will get you 80% less response than asking them how they feel. They will tell you what they think in response to asking them how they feel. For the most part, people are less threatened when asked how they feel than asked how they think.

Lead #2: There could be some amazing benefit to this approach. You just opened the other person or group up to a positive view of what follows. Yet, you have not committed anyone to a position of yes or no. The engagement is now open to include a description of the issue being addressed, but with an expectation of a positive outcome. Lead on.

Lead #3: What worries you most about our issue? Wow. You just posed an emotional tie to the others in conversation. It is not someone else’s issue, but our issue. You’ve entered into a supportive stakeholder position and communicated you will be there to help work through the blips. At the same time, you gave the other person influence in the next steps.

Lead #4: Have you considered a possibility of option X? This is an enticing lead that suggests a solution without forcing compliance. Leadership contains an element of power along with authority. By opening with consideration of an option, meaning there are other options, you give power to the others in the conversation. It can be a big win when working with a strong leader. Some leaders place themselves in defensive stance over a position they have taken in the past. You just graced them with a way out that saves face for them and could bring them better success than a present entrenched option.

Lead #5: Having considered many options, here is one I’d like to bring to the table for discussion. Okay, this is a lead based on research prior to this moment. You’ve opened the discussion to include consideration of other options and problem barbs and even rabbit trails. It is an empowering position for all included. Sometimes an entire room will just go quiet at this point and let you lead forward. Be ready for that. After all, you are a leader.

Summary: Notice none of these leads starts with the issue at hand. All of these communicate co-ownership of the issue and the solution and confidence in a positive outcome. Avoid leading with the issue. My days are full of conversations that start, “Phil, I have a problem.” That is a position of weakness. Sometimes the individual just wants to discuss their ideas. Many times they are looking to offload the problem and responsibility. Take responsibility by leading into a solution. Leading with the solution in today’s environment can be considered pushy and too strong. Lead with compassion and listening and strength with some key phraseology that reveals intent to engage along with intelligence and ownership. Lead on, Leader.