Losing Superman (Visibility Process Organization)

“I just don't get why this is so hard. We never had a problem with Jason”

I was visiting with a client a while ago and he was talking about the new lead in one of his shops. This area of the company had been a “no brainer” department for a long time; always on schedule, great quality, no problem.

Their old lead, Jason, was a star. He was always up to the challenge of dealing with whatever the company would throw at him. He always found a way to get the job done right, even if he did not always get the right information, or time was short. The department ran like clockwork; always organized, always clean. Everyone thought that Jason had it easy.

In the end, Jason left for greener pastures. He had talked to management many times about how things could be done better, but his department was not a “problem area” so management focused elsewhere.

Now, it seemed the department had gone south. They could not keep up with demand even in the slow winter months. There were quality problems and they were worried about what would happen when business picked up. The blame sat squarely on Mario, the new guy. Managers with experience in the area talked about how he ran things inefficiently, not combining runs of similar material, and not thinking ahead. He did not think things through as well as Jason. He was easily confused and got flustered often.

Having seen this before I started asking questions.

“How do you know he is less efficient?” I asked.

“Well, I think we were late on a couple of jobs last week and I don't think we were really busy”

“So you really don’t know how efficient he is. It is hard to hold him accountable and drive improvement if you are not using facts and data to talk about his performance.” I replied

“How is it that you want him to plan his jobs? What is the most efficient way to do it?” I asked again.

“Well, it is obvious, isn't it? he said. “You run all jobs of the same color at the same time… unless you need a quick run for an order, or if the setup time is short or, well - you know. You have to be flexible.”

“That doesn’t sound very obvious,” I said. “Does he have a standard operating procedure? Is the process documented? Is there a manual he can look to if he gets lost or stuck? Are there any Best Practices written down? Some people can just figure things out, but they are few and far between.”

“Who decides his schedule?”, I asked.

“He does! He has the authority to do what he wants! Unless sales has a rush order or one of the owners has a project that needs doing or we are short material.”

“It sounds like anybody can decide his schedule,” I said. “He seems to have the responsibility to meet the schedule but not the authority to do what he needs to meet it.”

“Well my hat is off to Jason”, I said. That guy got it done despite not having any Visibility, Process, or Organization in his job. You can find people who can work in that environment, but it is like trying to hire Superman. Sadly Superman usually flies away from that environment and uses his talents elsewhere for more money.

My client needed help to create a job environment where Mario, not Superman, could thrive.

Visibility: First they needed to decide what performance they wanted and how it could be objectively measured so that when they talked with Mario everyone would be on the same page about what was expected. They could track progress and use data to solve problems rather than vent frustration about failures.

Process: There is clearly a lot of best practice information about this process that only exists as “Tribal Knowledge” and the tribe leader took it with him when he left. The manager needs to write down Standard Operating Procedures or best practices so that Mario has the knowledge he needs and can be held accountable if he does not perform.

Organization: It is not clear who has the authority to schedule the shop, Authority and responsibility were mismatched and Mario was dragged in different directions. It was not a surprise that he couldn’t keep a schedule.

Over the following weeks, we worked through installing Visibility, Process, and Organization into Mario’s job. We agreed on metrics for his performance, so we could talk about how to produce better results rather than how Mario did a bad job.

The act of writing down how to plan the area resulted in some key process improvements that helped everyone. They also documented a new process, which dealt with schedule changes, that gave Mario clear authority to manage the shop. Soon folks were talking about how much better Mario was doing. Management started looking to install Visibility, Process, and organization in other areas of the company.

I always enjoy the opportunity to help companies to create jobs mere mortals can do. Everyone is happier, and well, Superman is hard to find.