As a manager at any level in the organization, one of the many challenges that you will face is keeping work in front of your team so they can be productive. To do this well, you must be actively aware of and looking into several things at once. It can be a bit of a balancing act to be in synch with your team. But here’s how you can accomplish this.
First, you must understand the work scope that you are managing. In other words, ask, “What needs to get done (and what is not necessary) to hit your target?” Next, you need to know the details of the work. The details are not only the steps, but also knowing who is responsible for each of the different steps and any other departments that might be required to assist your team in completing each one of those steps. You also need to have a handle on how your team accomplishes their assigned tasks and be able to predict their progress. You need to ask, “How long will it take to complete each step?” Asking questions is a great way to dig into and know the details.
Once you have this process laid out in your mind, you can start to look ahead, identifying the “gotchas” that may soon slow or stop your team’s progress toward your goal. In this blog we will talk about what you can do to avoid gotchas!
In the last several blogs, I talked a lot about thinking, planning and managing the details. Removing roadblocks not only requires thinking, planning and managing the details, but it also requires that you anticipate what may be coming ahead – finding the “gotchas.” Anticipation is a critical activity, and as a manager, you need to not only recognize the problem, but also address it. You have to be able to see the roadblocks coming before they stop your team. Anticipating problems helps you remove the roadblocks so that your team doesn’t miss a beat.
One of the best tools for anticipating or identifying roadblocks is talking with your team. Many times, they can see the obstacles in their path before you can. Especially when those obstacles are related to workmanship, part availability or some other technical reason. An open dialog along the lines of, “do you see any problems with this plan”, or “do you have any concerns about this approach” can focus the team on working together to identify roadblocks. A conversation and listening to your people will go a long way in building a strong team. (I’ll have some more to say about this in a future blog…)
So, what are some potential roadblocks that you should be looking for? Roadblocks can come in many shapes and sizes here in the shipyard. Tool availability, part shortages, engineering changes, planning changes and missing installations might be a few on the production side of the yard. Involving other departments, vendor lead times or needing new equipment or software might present different roadblocks. Then there are those that are more personnel-related, like having the right skills available to do the work. Poor workmanship or mistakes at the point of execution that cause rework can also be roadblocks. Roadblocks are nothing more than problems that need to be solved so your team can keep working at the pace necessary to achieve your goals.
Fortunately, solving most roadblocks are “Just Do Its” and don’t require any formal problem solving. But, in order to make sure your team stays on track, you do need to identify the roadblock as part of your plan, and track it until it is removed.
One of the best ways to manage roadblocks once they are known is by conducting detailed meetings on the status with your team and the related support teams. These don’t have to be sit-down meetings. They can happen at the viz boards or walking around to view the “list” of roadblocks when they are known and posted where everyone can see and track them.
I prefer having several bump-and-run type meetings to cover and status my roadblocks during the day (or night) to make sure I keep the pressure, or sense of urgency, on the team working the problem. (You could also refer to this sense of urgency as energy like we did in the blog “Drive”.) I have found that knowing the details and applying the right pressure helps get things done.
So to come full circle to where we left off last week and the start of today’s discussion, the more you know the details of your business (the tasks you are managing, roadblocks, schedule and team status) the better you will anticipate and manage progress toward your goals. The better you manage it, the more successful you will become.
See you on the deckplates!
Safely Execute High-Quality Work