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All That Is Left Is The Work

“Sometimes, we don’t know what we know.”

Regular readers of this blog understand that I have a day job. But, thanks to my low posting frequency here you may not realize that I consider blogging to be my second job. I spend about 20 hours per week of actual “work” time on my various and sundry sites, scraping together a few extra bucks each month to add to the household coffers.

Because I am self-taught about all things bloggery, I am in a perpetual state of insecurity about my knowledge and skill level. Last year, I took the leap and a day off work to attend BlogOrlando, hoping to walk away with strategies and tactics that more successful bloggers keep secret from the unwashed masses and only transmit in the offline world.

So, what happened?

Not much really. I discovered that if there are any secrets, they aren’t shared at conferences and gatherings. Sure, I enjoyed networking, but I didn’t learn anything I hadn’t already read on 689 other blogs. Disappointing in that I didn’t walk away with anything new I could put into practice, but comforting to know I hadn’t been wasting my time all those years learning techniques and skills where shortcuts might have existed.

The lesson I took from this is to not underestimate myself. I’ve taken this lesson to my day job as well - I work with some impressive minds and it is easy to feel insecure around them. But, I think back to that day and remember that I have the background, experience, and education to do the job very well and I buckle down and DO IT.

Sometimes, it really is as obvious as it seems. Sometimes, there are no shortcuts to continuing education. And sometimes, other people are more successful than you because of luck or superior networking or the fact that they just out-worked you.

Posted 12 September 2008 § Performance ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Critical Thinking is a Critical Skill

“You still have to ask the question, even when you think you know the answer.”

Never assumeHere’s the situation: You need supplies from a vendor, yesterday. Historically, they have a 4 week lead time. Others in the organization don’t even try to expedite the order and just place it at standard lead time. You pick up the phone, ask for the supervisor/manager/owner, and make your request. To your surprise, they comply immediately.

What are some of the reasons they might do this?

  1. They are holding too much inventory.
  2. They improved their process and shortened their lead time.
  3. They have a more customer-centric philosophy than earlier, and are willing to make an extra effort.
  4. Business is slow.
  5. Capacity has increased.

Get the idea? The world is fluid. Conditions change. Good and Bad Things happen every day, and there is no reason these changes can’t work in your benefit. But many times, people don’t bother asking the question. They assume a static world.

Critical Thinking is a Critical Skill. Practice it every day by asking those questions. When the answrs keep coming back the same, ask “Why?”

Next time, try this: Assume the supplier has done a poor job communicating that they can support whatever initiative is underway, and ask if they can improve. You might get a pleasant surprise, and you give your supplier a chance to be a hero.

Posted 20 August 2008 § Communication ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Where Responsibility is Taken and Accountability Begins

“The most important words in any meeting are not in the first sentence, they are in the last sentence.”

In any serious meeting, the opening statements are all about posturing - if it is serious enough, the participants have rehearsed what they’re going to say and prepped with their teams. They stake out positions and begin working through their issues.

But meetings evolve. Someone takes control. Someone cedes control. Some minds disengage and wander, while others get too emotional.

But the end of the meeting is where you get the meat. This is where the participants try to clarify the points discussed, where actions are dictated, and notes are made. This is what gets reported to superiors and subordinates, and it drives decisions afterwards.

This is where responsibility is taken and accountability begins.

Posted 13 August 2008 § Management ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Dealing With Success

“I may not live on the other side of the tracks, but I can still hear the train.”

There are a ton of self-help resources available in print and online to help human beings deal with failure. There are also a ton of resources about how to become successful. But, not much is available for those that want to learn how to deal with success.

Frankly, the market is pretty small, and the definition is different for everyone.

So, let’s define the context of the word “success” in this blog post: You’re successful at your job. You don’t have to be rich and you don’t have to be the CEO. But, you’re respected in the workplace, your job is as secure as is reasonable to believe in the early 21st century, and you’re compensated to the extent that you’re comfortable as defined by your own terms.

So, is the race over? Time to take off the uniform?

Of course not. But, we’ve all made the mistake of getting too comfortable or too arrogant after a good run at work. I admit it, I’ve done it. Got kicked in the keister for it, too.

The inspiration for that pithy Rocky-III-like quote at the beginning of this post is the current state of my life and career. I actually live in a nice neighborhood, but the train tracks are 3 blocks away and we hear those trains rumble and hoot at all hours. It’s mostly white-noise to us now, but every once in a while we get one coming through that gets our attention.

Much like work. I started a new job several months ago, and it has gone very well. Better than I expected, and much better than my management expected. A short time ago though, I got sloppy and rushed and made a mistake. Not big, no real impact, but enough to get my attention like a midnight coal train rumbling through the neighborhood. It reminded me to stay disciplined, focus on the details, work the fundamentals, and always, always strive for a higher standard.

Posted 06 August 2008 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Communicate Simply

“Never assume others in the organization automatically understand what you understand; develop clear tools to communicate information simply.”

One of the most common failures I see in organizations where responsibilities are divided by necessity due to sheer size is that a person doing a job assumes everyone else in the organization understands every aspect of that person’s job.

If that were true, would the organization need that person? Probably not.

My background is in forecasting - market forecasting, both long-term and short-term, as well as production forecasting. Production forecasting could be as simple as running a backlog report and saying “Here you go”, but that’s never the case. Real-world concerns like material availability and capacity constrain every forecast. So, how does one present this information in a manner that is easily understood?

I use a simple forecast template that I’ve developed and evolved at 3 different companies, plus my own side business. It’s simple, it’s easy to read, and it gets the job done. It takes me less than an hour on Monday to update it with changes from multiple reports that have relationships only a few people understand, and putting the data into a format that is easily understood by the team as well as showing the relationships between the data elements.

So, I’ve decided to make the template available for download. It isn’t some magical analytical tool to make you a better forecaster, it’s just a communication tool that you can change to accomodate your organization. I use all 3 tabs in this template in different ways:

Rolling 4-Wk Daily Plan

This is used to focus everyone, myself included, on what has to be done NOW. While every management guru tells you that if you plan well in the long-term you can prevent short-term issues, the real world is never that clean. You don’t want to miss a sale next week because you’re focused on next year’s sales.

Production Plan by Month

Of course, those management gurus ARE correct - quality planning prevents problems - just not all of them. But, you still have to do it or you’ll fail. Every week, I verify my backlog/forecast to be sure the prior week’s data was entered properly. Recently, I discovered a data entry error that would have led to a severe excess inventory problem six months from now. Every week, I go through my reports line by line and make sure I understand my forecast and production plan, and highlight any issues I foresee. It takes all of one hour, and the whole organization is on the same page.

Revenue Forecast by Month

As I worked with this tool, I started looking for ways to leverage the information for other purposes. The prime candidate was revenue forecasting, because the translation from units to dollars is real simple. In this tab, you only need to enter your identifier (part numbers) in the same order as they are listed in the monthly production plan, and enter the selling price per unit where indicated. The formulae do the work and you have a revenue forecast completed every time you update your unit production plan.

I included an instruction worksheet, but if something isn’t clear just leave a comment or shoot me a note from the Contact page. I’m putting this out as an unprotected sheet so you can customize it to your needs because I just don’t have time to customize the file for each person/company. Just be sure you save a backup copy of this file in case you need to re-start if something breaks.

  Simple Forecast Template (127 KiB, 109 hits)

Posted 30 July 2008 § Communication ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , , , , , ,

4 Steps to Managing Expectations

Hide the saws before you climb out on a limb.

Have you ever been placed in a position you know is risky, but unavoidable?

What do you do? CYA?

Yes.

There is nothing wrong with it. You have every right to point out the risks of the situation. In fact, as a professional you are expected to highlight risk.

It is what you do afterward that makes all the difference.

A key client makes an unreasonable request, but your management team makes a strategic decision to take the request and tasks you with making it happen in a certain timeframe. You MUST NOT snap your heels, salute, and go forth to conquer. What you HAVE to do is assess the situation:

1. Put the request into perspective - how difficult will it be to get the resources required to satisfy the customer?

2. Request the resources in a timely manner - if you have two months to perform a six-month project and you wait until there are only two weeks left to start asking for help, shame on you.

3. Expect management assistance - your boss’ function is to hire the best people for the job, get them the resources they need, and get out of the way. They hired you. Don’t sit back and say “Why bother asking, they’ll just say no”. It is their job to say yes. Be specific. Be timely. Most important, be relevant. Don’t ask for something you don’t really need. Expect “Yes”. Define the consequences of “No”.

4. Communicate frequently - it’s a maxim in management to communicate, communicate, communicate, but how you do it depends on the nature of the job and organizational culture. Some jobs or organizations require regular detailed reports; others prefer “management by exception” reporting (Just tell me if you run into problems, otherwise I expect everything to be on time).

Whatever you do, don’t be a lone wolf. It is rare that tasks of this magnitude can be performed by one person. Be sure everyone that needs to hear the risks hears them from you. Be sure that everyone that needs to help you hears the request from you. Take every opportunity to manage expectations.

Posted 23 July 2008 § Performance ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: ,

Best Practices and a Culture of Success

Most jobs can be done by anyone with 10 fingers and 10 toes, provided they know what to count.

Simplistic, I know. At least, on the surface it may seem simplistic. But the key to this statement is the last six words: “…provided they know what to count.”

My current job has many facets, some obvious, some subtle. The subtle items are no less important, but the difference between someone good at this job and someone great at this job is this understanding. So many people approach their job as firefighters, flitting about serving whoever yells the loudest. Understanding the relationships of the data to the tasks to the objectives to the politics is critical for success. Simply completing a series of tasks in a timely manner is not enough. Recognizing which task is most important and addressing that task first is the most important factor in success.

In my short time in my current role, I have been recognized publicly several times in front of coworkers. I never fail to tell people what I do to get this recognition, but no one ever comes to me and asks me to show them how I work the way I work. That is good and bad, I suppose; good in the sense that over time I will outperform my peers, and bad for the company in that the way I approach my work can have a multiplier effect if performed the same way by others.

As managers, recognition of Best Practices and a commitment to push those practices through the organization will go a long way to developing a culture of success.

Posted 16 July 2008 § Management ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Crisis Management

People good at crisis management got that way for a reason.

Think about that statement for a moment.

I’ve met a number of people that come through big when the chips are down. I’ve also seen a lot of those same people unable to manage an operation on a day-to-day basis. Crisis is where they operate best, and they continuously cycle in and out of crisis.

Take it from me. I was one of those people for many years. I saw it in co-workers while working a banking data center - the guy that managed to bring the system back from a crash always seemed to have the most system crashes while running the mainframe.

Ironically, these people are compensated well and viewed as key employees. When the company is in crisis and people are receiving layoff notices, the crisis managers are seen as indispensable. These are often the same people that others are whispering about during the layoff, saying “But Joe ran his department so well, never a problem, never a hiccup, while Sam’s department is the whole reason we’re in this mess”.

But, Sam can save the day.

As managers, it is our responsibility to identify solid performers and do our best to retain them. These are the people that aren’t scrambling around to make a shipment on the last day of the month, or pulling their hair out designing yet-another-forecast-system-to-replace-the-crappy-forecast-system-we-already-use.

Think carefully the next time you’re faced with a great crisis manager - he or she may be the root cause.

Posted 09 July 2008 § Management ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

99 Dead Monkeys

I can give a Master Carpenter a hammer and he will frame a house in a week. But if I give nail guns to 100 monkeys, all I will get at the end of the week is 99 dead monkeys.

Yes, the first post on Profound Business is titled 99 Dead Monkeys.

They say you have to grab the reader with a great headline. We’ll see.

So, what does this mean? Let me put it into context: I recently started a new job and was afforded the opportunity to spend my first week on the job taking online training for the computer system I would be using. The training made everything look so easy, and the system looked absolutely perfect.

Then, I started digging into the live system that had been filled with bad data by people that did not appear to have the background or training to run the system properly. The reasons are many and blame lies everywhere, but that isn’t the point of this post.

The point is that the most efficient and effective tool is worthless unless it is used by someone that understands how to use the tool to its fullest capability. Worse, the tool can often cause more harm than good when used improperly. For example, much of the functions of complex, expensive business planning software packages can be replicated in simple, cheap office suites. The databases and spreadsheets one might design to take the place of the more complicated software packages will allow a solid performer to do their job.

The solid performer is the key in any system. A multi-million dollar business planning system that forecasts components needed to manufacture widgets sold in a market can bankrupt a company if a user does not enter data properly, ignores exception signals, and fails to issue invoices properly. These systems are so complex that there can be literally thousands of opportunities for failure in the process map to produce a single unit.

Compare this to a trained, qualified, and experienced user that only has a database and spreadsheet at his or her disposal. This person can execute all of the functions required to plan, produce, and get paid for a product. The system may be slower, but data integrity and confidence in the system will be higher due to the person managing that data, not the tool they are using.

So, it is important as business professionals that we never allow ourselves to be blinded to our Chevrolet engine by the bells and whistles of a Cadillac system. We need to be sure we are investing as much time in the people using the tool as we do in configuring and implementing the system.

Posted 02 July 2008 § Management ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: , ,