A friend of mine is in the process of building a pool in his yard. He hired a company that, at first impression and through referrals, looked adequate for the job. They presented great plans and good pricing. My friend accepted, signed the contract, and looked forward to having a pool ready for the summer. The process started with a request for permits from the city and a large cash payment from my friend. Permitting happened smoothly and that led to breaking ground. Not long after construction initiated, the first problems started to arise in the form of delays, failed inspections, shoddy work, and overall poor communication. The project continued to progress intermittently because of the poor work practices. Months went by with little to show for in terms of a pool and now as a result the project is many months behind schedule from the original estimate. To make things even worse, during last city inspection, the inspector found the pool’s water level to be higher than it can be according to code (contractor did not follow the grading plan). I have no idea what kind of repair this will entail but what I know is that my friend is at wits end, the contractor has probably spent the entire budget, does not respond to my friend’s calls or emails, and there is no clear path forward that will not require lawyers.
How did we get to this point? Could it have been avoided?
If I ask “why” enough times, I arrive at the fact that along the course of the entire project, the contractor has not stepped foot at the project site once.
To me this is heresy! How can you “manage” an operation and not even attempt to see the progress with your own eyes? Can you get information from others? Sure. Can you trust sub-contractors to tell you whether the work is being done satisfactorily? Maybe. Why take the risk? The most trustworthy and adequate assessment of whether the work is being performed adequately is done between the general contractor and the client. Both will need to look at the work and assess. The fact that the general contractor didn’t do this once is in my opinion careless and negligent.
I’ve mentioned how walking around your operation is crucial to results and improvement. Everywhere you go in your operation you should be able to easily determine if you need to intervene or not. Visual cues should be enough to let you know if the operation is under control or not. The best companies keep it simple: Green means go, Red means stop (and ask).
You might think this level of involvement on your part as a leader and the visual monitoring tools you put in place are too much but people thrive in this kind of environment. Top athletes play with a scoreboard as the background. They always want to know if they are winning. They keep score.
People usually seek this feedback loop. Is what you are doing working? or not working? Are you improving? Should you make a course correction (before it’s too late)?
As a leader, it’s your role to provide feedback to your people. They will appreciate it regardless of whether the feedback is positive or corrective. Everyone loves recognition; specially for good work performed. Make it easier for you to catch people doing something right! Setting up visual cues that make this recognition easier to see and to celebrate is of crucial importance.
On the other hand, if performance is subpar and the feedback needs to be corrective, associates will also appreciate you letting them know what you think. I’m not trying to make it a joke but imagine if you were to walk out of a public restroom and you have toilet paper stuck under your shoe. Wouldn’t you appreciate someone pointing it out to you so you can make a correction? You wouldn’t want to go all day with the toilet paper stuck under your shoe! Even better if you could see the toilet paper on your own. At the plant you achieve this using visual management tools. They help anyone see whether we are winning or losing at any point in time.
If you are looking for a boost in performance and getting your people more engaged, start with setting up and using visual management tools and providing accountability and feedback on a daily basis.