E Goldratt - The Goal

I love it. Rehashing the day's events with Julie really helps me to digest it all.

"So what do you think?" I ask her at last.

"I'm starting to see what Jonah meant when he warned you about increasing the dependency," she replies.

That makes me think for a while, but I still can't see the connection. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe I'm wrong, but you gave me the impression that you're not too sure that Lou'll be able to come up with a good, new measurement system."

"That's right," I smile.

"Is a new measurement system important for you?"

"Are you kidding? I don't know of another single thing which is as important as that."

"So if it weren't for Jonah's refusal to continue giving you pointed questions, am I right in assuming that you'd be on the phone right now, trying to squeeze more hints from him?"

"Most probably," I admit. "It's certainly important enough."

"And what about Bob's idea," she continues. "Do you regard that as something important?"

"If he pulls it off it'll be a revolution. It'll guarantee that we take a big share of the market. Definitely our problem with get- ting more sales will be over."

"And how much hope do you have that he'll be able to do it?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. Ah. I see your point. Yeah, I would have run to Jonah with these questions as well. And the same with the issues that Stacey and Ralph have raised, each one of them is essential."

"And how many more things will pop up when you start to manage the division?"

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"You're right, Julie. And Jonah is also right. I felt it today as well. When each one of them spelled out their immediate dream in such a tangible form, I wondered what mine is. The only thing that kept popping into my mind is that I must learn how to man- age. But where on earth am I going to find the answer to Jonah's question: What are the techniques needed for management? I don't know, Julie. What do you think I should do now?"

"All the people back at the plant owe you a lot," she says, stroking my hair. "They're proud of you, and rightfully so. You've created quite a team. But this team is going to be broken up in two months when we go to the division. Why don't you spend the time that's left sitting with them and going over your question. They'll have ample time after you're gone to work on their problems. Anyhow, it'll be much easier for them to achieve what they want to achieve if you have the management tech- niques."

I look at her in silence. Here is my real, true advisor.

So I've done what my advisor suggested. I gathered them all together and explained that if each of them wants to be free to concentrate on his pet project the division must be well run, and in order for the division to be well run the division manager must know what he is doing. And since I, frankly, don't have the foggi- est idea of how to run a division they had better put their brains to helping me. Thus, we are going to devote the afternoons- provided of course that no special emergency comes up-to help me analyze how the division should be run.

I decide to start the meeting with the most naive questions. Initially they might think that I've lost all my self confidence, but I must expose to them the magnitude of the problem I'm about to face. Otherwise I'm going to end up, at best, with some frag- mented, vague suggestions.

"What are the first things I should do when I assume my new position?" I ask them.

They look at each other, and then Bob says, "I'd start by visiting Hilton Smyth's plant."

After the laughter dies, Lou says that I should first meet with my staff; "you know most of them but you've never worked closely with them."

"What is the purpose of these meetings?" I innocently ask.

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If this question had been asked under any other circum- stances they would have taken it as a clear indication of a total lack of managerial knowledge. As it is they play the game.

"Basically you should do general fact finding first," Lou an- swers.

"You know," Bob adds, "like where the entrance is, where the toilets are..."

"I do think that meeting the people is important," Stacey interrupts the laughter. "Financial numbers only reveal a small fraction of the picture. You have to find out what the people think is going on. What do they see as problems? Where do we stand vis-a-vis the clients?"

"Who has a grudge against whom?" Bob contributes, and then in a more serious tone. "You also have to get a sense of the local politics."

"And then?"

"And then," Bob continues. "I'd probably take a tour of the various production facilities, visit some of the big clients, and probably even some suppliers. You've got to get the full picture."

Maintaining my poker face I ask, "And then?"

At last I've succeeded to provoke them, since both Stacey and Bob answer vehemently, "And then you'll take it from there!"

How easy it is to give advice when the responsibility is on someone else's shoulders. Okay wise guys, it's time to turn the table, and in a calm voice I say, "Yes, what you suggested just now is the usual line of action one takes when he is told to 'go there and fix it.' Let me play it back for you, but in a more schematic way. Where are the colored markers?"

I grab a red marker and turn to the white board.

"The first step, as you all have pointed out, is fact finding. I hold a staff meeting and what do I find? Oh, here we find fact A," and I draw a nice red circle. "And here are three somewhat smaller circles. And here is a tiny one and there are two which are overlapping. Now let's talk with another manager, this is very helpful. You see, this circle, he claims, is not as big as we were led to believe. And here, in the left upper corner are two more big- gies. Now, someone else reveals to us that some rectangles exist. We check, and yes, he's right. Here there is one and here and here and here. We're making progress, the picture starts to un- fold."

What they actually see is how the white board is getting the

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measles. It looks like one of the drawings my kids used to bring home from kindergarten.

I don't think they got the message, they just seem confused; so I decide to continue a little more bluntly. "It's about time to talk with another manager, we must get a sense of the local poli- tics. Oh, this is very interesting, there are also green circles, and even some green stars. Here's an unidentified shape-never mind, we'll address it later. Now, let's tour the production facili- ties, visit clients, and even some suppliers. We're bound to reveal many more interesting facts." As I talk the board is filled with overlapping shapes.

"Now that we have the full picture, we can take it from here," I finally conclude and put the markers down. "Well?"

The board looks like a nightmare in Technicolor. I take a deep breath and pick up the phone to order more coffee.

Nobody says a word, not even Bob.

"Let's make it less personal," I say after a while. "Suppose that we are a committee that's been given the ungrateful task of 'find out what's going on.' How do you suggest we should start?"

They all smile. Somehow pretending that we're a committee makes us feel much better. "The safety of being part of a herd," I think to myself; the blame will not be aimed at anyone in particu- lar.

"Ralph, will you volunteer to describe the committee's ac- tions?"

"They would probably start in the same way-fact finding. And as you so vividly demonstrated, they would end up in the same colorful ditch. But Alex, is there any other way to start? How can you do anything sensible without knowing what's going on, without having the data?" Ralph is true to his profession; for him, knowing what's going on is equivalent to having the data neatly stored in his computer files.