TeamTips: Team Leaders' Resource Library

Formula One: A SMED Lesson.

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:28:00 GMT

Set-ups and changeovers are important to most of us, but for some industries they’re absolutely critical.

One such ‘industry’ is Formula One Racing. F1 teams are expensive to run (£80M a year - that's around $150M) and rely on sponsorship to survive and the more successful teams demand a higher sponsorship. These days, as cars become more equal and more reliable, races can be won and lost in the pit lane.

In our training programmes and workshops we use the analogy of a Formula One Pit Crew to get across the need for planning, organisation and structure (hence the name of the newsletter).

You can download our article about the lessons from Formula 1 from our main site, in pdf format. There's also a lot more information on our SMED training and SMED consulting pages.

Goodbye TeamTips . . . Hello Pitstop.

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:12:00 GMT

To focus our writing more towards the stuff we do for business, we've changed the subject for our fortnightly newsletter. The new publication, PitStop is all about reducing machine set-up times. If you work in the print industry, you probably call this make-ready time. Or in metal-bashing (pressing etc), it's changeover time.

Whatever you call it, the fact is that these activities are a major pain. They add no value, and take up time and production capacity, forcing you to make bigger batches than you'd ideally want.

The techniques in PitStop are all about how to reduce these times, boosting capacity, reducing costs, and pushing up profits. You can read the first edition at http://www.sevenrings.co.uk/pitstop/01Introduction.pdf, which talks about the basic concepts of SMED - the technique we use.

If you liked reading my more rambling thoughts, go to http://www.mccracken.me.uk

Karl.

We’re Special - You Can’t Systemise us! (1)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:17:00 GMT

Why it’s Important

A lot of people thrive on the creative ‘buzz’ of their workplace. Every day represents new challenges, full of opportunities to learn. There’s never a dull moment, and although to an outsider, it could look like disorganised chaos, that’s just because outsiders don’t understand ‘the system’. Things like . . .

The little pile of project files that everyone has on their desk - because they work on several different jobs at once
The Post-Its™ that everyone has around their monitor - as reminders of important information and a means of communicating things like phone messages
The independently managed address books everyone keeps. The business is about client relationships, so individual contacts matter!

But look below the surface at each of these. People can only work on one job at a time, so the pile of files is a distraction from what you should be doing, and a place to lose files other people need. Post-Its™ around the monitor are a visual distraction from what you should be concentrating on, and the fact that they’ve been left there doesn’t mean they’ve been read! Those personal address books mean that when someone moves, you have multiple ‘databases’ to update - its easy to forget one of these, like the billing address!

Dealing with all this means you spend more and more time on things that just don’t add value. Worse still, it means that dealing with all this other stuff could actually get in the way of adding value, meaning that you never actually get to do the things the customer’s paying for.

With a system to take care of all this ‘stuff’, you could be free to concentrate on what matters. Like the things that customers would be willing to pay for if you listed them as separate line items on an invoice.

Next: Seven Tips

We’re Special - You Can’t Systemise us! (2)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:10:00 GMT

Seven Tips

1. What DO Customers Buy From Us?
As a first step, ask yourself, the team, management (and even the customers themselves) what it is that your organisation ‘DOES’. When seen from an outside perspective, why does your organisation exist at all?

2. What Else Do We Do?
If you were perfectly efficient, you’d just do what the customers want, and it would take no time at all, and cost almost nothing. So what else happens? What enabling activities need to take place before you can create the value? What accounting & recording activities take place after?

3. See Any Patterns In The ‘Other’ Stuff?
Now think about those ‘other’ activities. Does every job seem to need the same type of preparation doing, and the same information analysed afterwards?

4. Are There Patterns In the ‘Value’?
Often this is harder to see. But when you take a slightly more ‘wide angle’ view, you’ll see that most jobs which seem unique at the detail level, have the same series of activities performed.

5. Map The Patterns
Work with your team to draw process maps of how the patterns flow. Where a step needs a particular set of ‘things’ (either physical, or To-Do items ticked), make sure you list them as enablers.

6. Can You Simplify?
Look for duplicate or redundant steps. Can you combine or eliminate activities that don’t add value?

7. Systemising Needn’t Mean Computers
You can get big benefits from automating even small businesses with software like Mamut (and Jan Grieveson uses this as a cornerstone for business turnaround). But you can also get easy results from things like paper-based checklists, and clear, visual management techniques to improve the ease with which people can operate the workplace.

Next: Three Things To Do To Find Out More

We're Special - You Can't Systemise Us! (3)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 08:53:00 GMT

What Next

This edition of TeamTips is concerned with efficiency & effectiveness. There are three things you can do if you’re interested in finding out more about this:

1. Read a Book
We recommend “The E-Myth” series by Michael Gerber. These are great, easy-reading books that can frankly change your outlook on business and the whole work:life balance thing.

2. Read Our In-Depth Management Briefing Papers
We publish a series of more detailed papers - just visit www.sevenrings.co.uk and click on the ‘free stuff’ button.

3. Call Sevenrings
We’ve helped scores of individuals and organisations improve their efficiency & effectiveness, and we’d be happy to talk to you about your particular situation at no initial charge.

We specialise in helping people to get better results by changing the way they work. We can provide training from 1/2 day taster sessions focusing on just one aspect of the Team leader’s role, up to comprehensive programmes over several months.

Our phone number is 0191 2522 335.

Seven Tools (1)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 3 Oct 2006 10:09:00 GMT

Why It's Important

Quality is no-longer optional. When was the last time you bought a bad product? And have you noticed how service-sector companies which aren’t very good at customer service, don’t stay in business for long?

But it didn’t used to be this way. Back in the ‘bad old days’, simply having ‘Made in England / USA / The Empire’ was enough to sell your products to a willing queue of customers. Customers who could buy from you, or from really second-rate alternatives, or just plain go without.

It ain’t like that any more, is it?!

Through painstaking analysis of defects, errors and mistakes, quality has moved forward more than any other measure of companies’ effectiveness.

The problem is that even though quality is taken as a ‘given’ by customers and consumers, many companies just take it for granted. They’ve improved their performance on a rising tide, rather than pulling themselves up by the bootstraps.

And then you get a quality issue, just when the CEO attends a seminar on something called Six Sigma. This is a system that was designed in semiconductor plants, where one defect in a million is enough to stop all production. It uses advanced statistics and some great change management methods, all wrapped up in karate-style language (Black / Green Belts etc).

Six Sigma is NOT appropriate for most companies! If they’re not doing the basics to improve quality and control their business processes (this applies to service-sector firms too), Six Sigma is just too much, too fast, and far, far too expensive!

Most companies should use the seven basic quality improvement tools to exhaustion before they go anywhere near Six Sigma. Used properly, they’ll solve 90% of all problems.

And seeing as they’re ‘basic’, once you’ve learnt how to use them, you don’t need expensive consultants to apply them again, and again, and again.

Next: The Seven Tools Described.

Seven Tools (2)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 3 Oct 2006 10:05:00 GMT

The Seven Tools:

1. Histograms
Make your process’ performance visible. You may know how it performs ‘on average’, but how good (and bad) does it get? Plot on a graph the frequency of different results to see the natural variation inherent in any process. Is the spread of results larger than customers really want? Is the process skewed?

2. Cause & Effect (‘Ishikawa’) Diagrams
Draw a horizontal arrow from left to right, pointing at your problem’s description, with four arrows labelled ‘Man’, ‘Machine’, ‘Materials’ and ‘Methods’ pointing diagonally onto the first to make a herringbone. Brainstorm causes of the problem, and attach these to the relevant ‘M’ arrow. Select the most likely ones for further investigation.

3. Scatter Diagrams
If a process’ input and outputs are variables (can be change on a sliding scale, rather than discrete steps), plot one against the other to see if they’re related. Can you change one input and get a predictable (-ish) change in the output?

4. Check Sheets
If you have a range of products / services, and a range of problems, draw a table with the products on the top, and problems down the side. Tally up each problem’s frequency for each product to identify the dominant factor.

5. Pareto Diagrams
Count the frequency of each problem type, and plot them on a bar chart, in order from worst to best. Tackle the worst ones first - typically 20% of the problems will be causing 80% of the pain.

6. Flowcharts
Having difficulty understanding what’s going on? Draw a picture of the process’ flow to see how each element is related, and how external factors can influence things.

7. Run Charts
Plot performance over time (hourly, daily, or weekly results), and look for patterns, cycles, and trends. Take corrective action before problems occur.

Next section of this article: What To Do Next

Seven Tools (3)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 3 Oct 2006 09:58:00 GMT

What Next

This edition of TeamTips is concerned with the problem-solving side of Team Leadership. There are three things you can do if you’re interested in finding out more about this:

1. Read a Book
We recommend “Memory Jogger II”, by Michael Bassard. This is a fantastic little pocket-sized book that’s packed full of every problem solving technique you’ll ever need.

2. Read Our In-Depth Management Briefing Paper on the Seven Tools.
We publish a series of more detailed papers - just visit www.sevenrings.co.uk and click on the ‘free stuff’ button.

3. Call Sevenrings
We’ve helped scores of individuals and organisations improve their performance through improving their ability to analyse and solve business problems, and we’d be happy to talk to you about your particular situation at no initial charge.

We specialise in helping people to get better results by changing the way they work. We can provide training from 1/2 day taster sessions focusing on just one aspect of the Team leader’s role, up to comprehensive programmes over several months.

Our phone number is 0191 2522 335.

And finally . . . . If you want more information on the Seven Tools . . .
then for the next two weeks only, a copy of one of our training presentations is available as a special bonus to this article. Check out this special free bonus.

Seven Tools - Bonus Material - Presentation

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 3 Oct 2006 09:38:00 GMT

The Seven Tools can look a bit daunting, when all seven are summarised in only a couple of hundred words. So for a limited time only, here's a movie of one of the presentations we use to teach this material in workshops. The Seven Tools section starts about 1/3 of the way through.

It's a clickable Quicktime movie - so it should play just like the presentation. To move to the next slide / animation step, just click on the movie.

SORRY - THIS FILE HAS NOW BEEN REMOVED (IT WAS A LIMITED OFFER ONLY!) FOR A COPY, PLEASE EMAIL KARLatSEVENRINGSdotCOdotUK

You'll need Quicktime to view this movie - available free from Apple for Windows and Mac.

This movie will be available only until 17th October 2006, and is copyrighted by sevenrings. Please feel free to use it within your company, but don't sell, or distribute it outside your organisation!

Honda Vs Ford

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:19:00 GMT

This morning saw two automotive news stories run by the BBC.

On the one hand, Ford's still apparently on the back foot.

Interviewed on the Today Programme, their European president seemed far from gung-ho about the company's prospects, saying the cuts in the US were a mirror of what happened on this side of the pond over the last few years. He tried to sound up-beat about the company's re-connection with its market, having right-sized its production capacity and model range to customer demand. Customer demand that's calling for smaller, more economical, less polluting cars like Ford's Ka, Fiesta and Focus. Of course, this is on the day that they're unveiling the new Mondeo . . .

And then there was Honda's announcement that it's going to expand the Swindon plant that produces the Civic. The BBC sites The Sun as its source for this story (so a pinch of salt may be needed), but apparently the expansion will will increase capacity by almost 30%. And manufacturing in the UK (/western Europe) is 'in decline'. Obviously not, when you really do figure out what it is your customers want, and how to deliver just that.

It's Not About The Money - Addendum

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:22:00 GMT

Found this video tonight on Dvorak.org/blog/ - kinda funny, but also makes the point about the motivational ladder. If you can watch for ten minutes, do!

It's Not About The Money (1)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:01:00 GMT

Why it’s Important

Early on in most client projects, this is a question I put to the management:

“So, why do people come to work here?”

I always have a private bet with myself that someone in the team will give the answer:

“For the money”

And so far, I’ve won the bet every single time.

This of course, isn’t the right answer at all. Don’t get me wrong, we all go to work in general for the money. Without money, it’s pretty hard to keep a roof over your head, pay the bills, and feed the family. And there are probably very few of us who, if we won the lottery (and really won - I mean several million pounds, not three numbers for a tenner!), would keep going to work.

But the question wasn’t about work in general. It was about your specific organisation, and could be re-phrased as:

“Given that unemployment’s low, so most people could find an alternative job that pays more than you do, why do they stay here, and how do you motivate them to get more out of them?”

Now that’s not such a snappy question, but probably one that’s far more useful to ask. Properly motivated people will achieve the impossible.

So if you can figure out what makes each of your team members tick, you’ll be astonished by what they can do, and how little it often costs.

It's Not About The Money (2)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:59:00 GMT

Seven Tips

1. Motivation Is Like A Ladder
Each of us has a set of ‘needs’ arranged in a hierarchy - like the rungs of a ladder. If a ‘need’ is not being met, we cannot progress to the next rung, and are motivated to find a way to have the ‘need’ satisfied. On lower rungs, getting ‘enough’ is a motivator, while nearer the top, the more we get, the more we tend to want.

2. The Bottom Rung - Biology
Basic biological requirements. Air, water, food, and time to rest. The first three are largely taken as given, but what about the last? Work your team too hard, with too many weekends lost to overtime, and I guarantee problems.

3. The Second Rung - Money.
You have to pay people ‘enough’. If they can’t afford to live on what you pay, they’ll move on. Having more tends not to motivate. Think of the last time you got a pay rise - for the first few weeks, you felt great. Then you just got used to having the extra money, and stopped noticing it!

4. Employment Benefits & Security
People will leave good jobs if they feel insecure, or are offered benefits that they value more than the money they’ll miss out on. Benefits can include aspects such as workplace safety, so pay attention to this.

5. Friendship Is On The Fourth Rung
With enough money, and a safe, secure job, people look for a sense of belonging. Use daily team briefings to emphasise this, and regular social events to cement it.

6. Recognise Achievement
We all need to know our place in the social structure of the fourth rung. So make sure that you positively recognise each team members achievements on a regular basis, and reward them with appropriate levels of responsibility.

7. Creativity At The Top
Once you’ve climbed the first five rungs, you need a continual stream of challenges and opportunities for creative expression. Use regular kaizen activities to provide this, creating a spirit of continuous improvement.

It's Not About The Money! (3)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:44:00 GMT

What Next
This edition of TeamTips is concerned with the motivational side of Team Leadership. There are three things you can do if you’re interested in finding out more about this:

1. Read a Book
We recommend “The Harvard Business Review on Motivating People”, by HBR Paperbacks. This is a great collection of articles, including Frederick Hertzberg’s 1968 classic, “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?”. It’s available from the Sevenrings book shop at www.sevenrings.co.uk/bookstoreandlinks.asp in the “Management Books” section.

2. Read Our In-Depth Management Briefing Paper on team management.
We publish a series of more detailed papers - just visit www.sevenrings.co.uk and click on the ‘free stuff’ button.

3. Call Sevenrings
We’ve helped dozens of individuals and organisations improve their performance through improving team motivation, and we’d be happy to talk to you about your particular situation at no initial charge.
We specialise in helping people to get better results by changing the way they work. We can provide training from 1/2 day taster sessions focusing on just one aspect of the Team leader’s role, up to comprehensive programmes over several months.

Our phone number is 0191 2522 335.

One At A Time Please AAC Version

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:50:00 GMT

A little later than I'd intended, here's the AAC version of the TeamTips Podcast for issue 16. AAC is Apple's file compression format - this file's less than 50% of the size of the MP3 version, so it'll download quicker.

Most of us have more things to do than there are hours in the day. So to cope, we try to do a little of everything that needs to get done . . . and hope that sooner or later one of our tasks will actually get finished, so that it can be crossed off the ‘To-Do’ list.

Just click on this post's title to download the file.

One At A Time Please MP3 Version

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:45:00 GMT

A little later than I'd intended, here's the MP3 version of the TeamTips Podcast for issue 16.

Most of us have more things to do than there are hours in the day. So to cope, we try to do a little of everything that needs to get done . . . and hope that sooner or later one of our tasks will actually get finished, so that it can be crossed off the ‘To-Do’ list.

Just click on this post's title to download the file.

One At A Time, Please (1)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 15:00:00 GMT

Why It's Important

Most of us have more things to do than there are hours in the day. So to cope, we try to do a little of everything that needs to get done . . . and hope that sooner or later one of our tasks will actually get finished, so that it can be crossed off the ‘To-Do’ list.

You can recognise that you’re doing this if . . .

On your desk there are several different ‘jobs’ all in different stages of being finished.
On your PC you’ve got several different applications or documents open, relating to different things that need doing.
You have an In-Tray that’s full of stuff you’ve started, but not quite finished yet.
Your ‘To-Do’ list is just that - an unstructured list, with no sense of what should take priority when everything’s due today.

The thing is, that we frequently value action and activity over planning and thinking. So when faced with a stack of things that need doing, most of us just get busy. We try to nudge everything along, and trust to luck that sooner or later something will get finished. In itself, this isn’t such a bad thing - after all, you’re paid to work!

The problem comes when the boss / customer / colleague needs to know when a specific item will be finished. With everything moving along little-by-little, it’s really hard to judge exactly how much of the job has actually been done. Or how much time (and money) you’ve actually spent on it so far.

So its better to spend a little time planning, and you can focus your efforts on the things that matter, one at a time. You’ll be astonished at how quickly things can get done, and also how much easier it is to manage priorities and the unexpected.

One At A Time, Please (2)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 14:50:00 GMT

Seven Tips For Focus and Flow

1. The One At A Time Mindset
Remember the old-style banks? You’d always join what looked like the shortest of the eight queues, only to find yourself behind the man from the penny arcade. Now there’s only one queue but it moves much faster. As a teller becomes available, you’re directed to them.

2. For your own work . . .
Look at your ‘To-Do’ list, and prioritise it, using the methods we’ve talked about in previous editions of Team Tips. What’s Important, and what’s Urgent? What doesn’t actually need doing at all, and what can you delegate? Schedule the remaining items into your diary, if at all possible, in time block’s that’ll see them finished.

3. Communicate
Tell the people who’re expecting work from you when it’s going to be done.

4. FOCUS the Team
If the team routinely works on several similar items in parallel, consider how you could re-organise things to focus their efforts on only one job between them.

5. Scalpel! Forceps! Suction!
When there just isn’t space for everyone to work on the same job, think about an OPERATING THEATRE. You’ve seen ER / Casualty / Days of Our Lives - usually there are only two people up to their elbows in the work, while the rest of the team supply materials and tools. This is highly effective - how can you copy it?

6. If You Can’t Focus, FLOW
If the team’s work is largely repetitive, can you organise it into a production line? You’ll need to break the job down into equal segments, and link these together. It’s essential that work is passed along as it’s completed - don’t allow batches at any stage, as this’ll slow things down.

7. Takt and Diplomacy
If you’re setting up a production line, work out the TAKT time - the rate every stage must run at to meet your hourly / daily target. Where a stage is too slow, involve the team in figuring out a solution to the problem.

One At A Time, Please (3)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 14:42:00 GMT

What Next? More About Focus and Flow

This edition of TeamTips is concerned with the performance-management side of Team Leadership. There are three things you can do if you’re interested in finding out more about this:

1. Read a Book
We recommend “Cellular Manufacturing: One-Piece Flow for Workteams”, by Productivity Press. This is a great book from the ‘shopfloor series’. Very manufacturing oriented, but full of useful techniques for office, or service-sector teams. It’s available from the Sevenrings book shop at www.sevenrings.co.uk/bookstoreandlinks.asp.- just click on the Amazon.co.uk logo to order.

2. Think About Organisation With Either Focus or Flow
Look at the incredible focus of a Formula One pit team when they’re doing a tyre change. If you’re in Tyne & Wear, go to Porcelli’s fish & chip shop on the Team Valley. How they cope with the Friday lunch-time rush is a superb example of flow. To see how bad things can be without focus or flow, visit almost any busy pub, and just watch the chaos at the bar!

3. Call Sevenrings
We’ve helped dozens of individuals and organisations improve their performance through creating focus and flow, and we’d be happy to talk to you about your particular situation at no initial charge.

We specialise in helping people to get better results by changing the way they work. We can provide training from 1/2 day taster sessions focusing on just one aspect of the Team leader’s role, up to comprehensive programmes over several months.

Our phone number is 0191 2522 335.

I've just got back from my summer holiday, so we're aiming to record the podcast to accompany this article on Wednesday 6th September.

Systemise or Die (3)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:49:00 GMT

What Next? More About Systemising.

This edition of TeamTips is concerned with the performance-management side of Team Leadership. There are three things you can do if you’re interested in finding out more about this:

1. Read a Book
We recommend “The E-Myth Manager”, by Michael Gerber. People think that Gerber’s all about franchising, but he’s not. His core message is to systemise, and E-Myth is without a doubt one of the best business books I’ve ever read.

2. Think About Firm’s Who’ve Systemised
Corporations like McDonalds (never mind the food / ethics - just admire their beautiful system!), Xerox, and Dell. But it’s not just for huge firms - systemising also works for small companies like twentyfirst century media, onebestway, and of course, Sevenrings ;-)

3. Call Sevenrings
We’ve helped dozens of individuals and organisations improve their performance through systemising, and we’d be happy to talk to you about your particular situation at no initial charge.

We specialise in helping people to get better results by changing the way they work. We can provide training from 1/2 day taster sessions focusing on just one aspect of the Team leader’s role, up to comprehensive programmes over several months.

Our phone number is 0191 2522 335.

No podcast this week - I'm off on holiday!

Systemise or Die (2)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:49:00 GMT

Seven Tips For Systemising

1. “But What We Do Can’t Be Systemised.”
Few companies have the luxury of Ford’s 1920’s production line, where everything was standardised. At the detail level, everything can seem bespoke. But without exception, if you take just one step back, you’ll see stable, repeatable patterns in what people do. Put it this way, if highly creative firms like onebestway and twenty first century media can systemise, then so can you.

2. Three Functions In A Cycle
Jan Grieveson (old page, but the content's right) says that every business or department does three basic things. Getting the work in (sales, scheduling, planning), doing the work (operations, production, service delivery), and checking if it was worth the effort (accounts, performance measurement). Start with these building blocks.

3. Draw A Picture
Get a BIG sheet of paper, and with your team, sketch out the sequence of activities that complete the Three Function Cycle. Break the cycle into broad processes - e.g. Lead generation; proposal writing; making product type A; delivering service type B, etc.

4. Discuss The Picture
Add detail - as much as you can! Things like feedback loops, what information is required at each stage, how decisions are made, how things are communicated.

5. What Can Possibly Go Wrong?
Rank each of your broad processes for how frequently you or any other team member has to do something outside of the norm in order to fix a problem. Consider the cost (time and money) and frequency of problems.

6. Start With The Worst.
Design a system for the worst process. Document this with a flow diagram, and design any forms that are needed to standardise the information captured / used. Paper forms are fine - just remember to define where they get stored, who uses them, and how long they’re kept.

7. Work Through The Rest . . . and Start Again
Design systems for each of your processes, making sure you involve your team. Remember, you can’t do everything at once, but over time, you’ll create a system that all but runs itself, dramatically improving productivity.

Find out more about systemising in the final section of this article.

Systemise or Die (1)

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:40:00 GMT

Why Systemising's Important.

If you’ve ever had people directly reporting to you, sooner or later, you’ll be struck by the completely bananas things they’ll do!

Things like . . .

Making mistakes in the simplest of tasks
Getting caught making improper use of equipment.
Avoiding responsibility when things go wrong.
Forgetting who ultimately takes responsibility (you).
Paying lip service to making improvements.

Many managers fall into the trap of believing that they can learn better ‘people skills’ to overcome these kinds of problems. And it’s true that a little improvement in interpersonal communication can work wonders. But ultimately, without a system, you’ll spend more and more time sweating those ‘people skills’.

Because the problem is that you can never manage people. They’re just too complex and independent to be controlled by your winning personality alone.

But you CAN manage a system - especially if it’s one that’s designed robustly to deliver exactly what your customers want, AND it takes account of the people who’ll operate it. Do this, and you’ll be able to deliver consistently exceptional value and performance - to your customers, to your employees /staff / team, to your suppliers, to investors, and to yourself.

Develop systems that work, and you’ll be well on your way to a stress-free life. One in which you can can have confidence in your team’s performance, so you can get on with leading.

Seven Tips on Systemising in the next posting.

Finding Time AAC Version

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Mon, 7 Aug 2006 17:18:00 GMT

This is an AAC version of the podcast to accompany our article about finding the time to get around to the things you know you should be doing. Download this version if you use iTunes or an iPod to listen to podcasts on - it's less than half the size of the MP3 version. Just click on 'update podcasts' in your iTunes podcasts folder to download this programme.

Finding Time MP3 Version

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Mon, 7 Aug 2006 17:14:00 GMT

This is an MP3 version of the podcast to accompany our article about finding the time to get around to the things you know you should be doing. Download this version if you DON'T use iTunes or an iPod to listen to podcasts on. Just click on this post's title to download the MP3 file.

I Just Never Get Around To It . . .

karl@sevenrings.co.uk (Karl McCracken) — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 11:12:00 GMT

Why It's Important
It’s a fact that being busy is just a part of life. But I’ll bet that your day is also just full of annoying trivialities that don’t add value, when seen through your customers’ eyes.

Things like . . .

Creating reports that no-one understands or reads.
Staffing issues - dealing with people who don’t arrive,
Vague meetings - without a clear purpose or agenda.
Interdepartmental ‘stuff’ - having to play the political game within your organisation
Walking - would a ‘shoe leather allowance’ make a big difference to your pay?!

The problem is that we’re all so good at getting busy. So much so, that we’ll cheerfully fill our time with activity that adds little value. But in doing this, are you avoiding something else?

Too often, high-value activities end up sidelined. This is especially true when those activities are things we’re not comfortable with. The result is that we tend to feel guilty (because after all, you know what you should be doing), AND our performance as an individual / manager / leader is less than it could be.

So to perform to your potential you need to stop being so [darned] busy with trivialities, and focus on the things that matter.

Do this, and you’ll be astonished at the difference in what you, your team, and your organisation can achieve. And that’s got to be worth considering!

Seven Tips
1. Just Where Does All The Time Go?

Draw a 2x2 grid on a piece of flipchart paper. Label the vertical axis “Lo/Hi Value”, and the horizontal “Short/Long Time”. Stick it up, and over a couple of weeks, record your activities on it using Post-It™ notes. Get the rest of your team involved by posting their activities too.

2. Analyse

Get together and discuss the activities that you’ve all posted. Remember ‘Value’ is a subjective term, so you may have some interesting differences in opinion.

3. Act: Low Value

For Long Activities, find ways to just stop doing these things! They take up lots of time, but for no real value. Short Activities are probably simple tasks that are below your ‘level’. How can you delegate or outsource these?

4. Act: High Value

Where you want to be is creating high value in small time packets. The more of your activities you have here, the better you’re performing. For Long Activities, systemise the work, to achieve the same result in less time.

5. BUT . . . What's Missing?

Analysing what you DO is great, but what AREN’T you doing? Brainstorm the high-value activities that always seem to get put off.

6. What Get's Scheduled Is What Gets Done

Put those missing activities into your diary. Treat them as FIRM appointments, not to be deleted or re-scheduled

7. Stand Up And Be Counted

Involve others in those missing activities. Make promises, go public, and do everything you can to be held to account for them. This way, you’re far more likely to stick to your intentions to do them.

What Next
This edition of TeamTips is concerned with the performance-management side of Team Leadership. There are three things you can do if you’re interested in finding out more about this:

1. Read A Book

We recommend “Eat That Frog”, by Brian Tracy - all about how to find the time for those activities you avoid.

2. Find Out More About The 'Time Grid'

I’m indebted to Vicky at Accelerate for this great technique. It’s just one of the tools from the Lean Practice programme that we run jointly with her company. You can find out more about this by visiting www.leanpractice.co.uk.

3. Call Sevenrings

We’ve helped dozens of individuals and organisations improve their teams’ performance, and we’d be happy to talk to you about your particular situation at no initial charge.

We specialise in helping people to get better results by changing the way they work. We can provide training from 1/2 day taster sessions focusing on just one aspect of the Team leader’s role, up to comprehensive programmes over several months.

So for an initial no-fee conversation about what you're trying to achieve, call us now. Our phone number is 0191 2522 335.

Finally . . . You can also download this personal & team effectiveness article in PDF format, and a podcast to accompany it will be available next Tuesday, 8th August.