Improving Performance: Learning from those below us

Managers would be wise to pay attention to what their reports have to say

RON BOURQUE

Back in 1980, NBC broadcasted a special report entitled, “If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?” It aired during primetime and drew a lot of attention. It showed how the Japanese were building such high-quality products and literally taking market share from many American companies. GM laughed when the first Toyotas were imported, but they didn’t laugh for long.

The documentary gave much of the credit for this incredible Japanese success to an American, W. Edwards Deming, PhD.

During World War II, we had devastated Japan, and the conqueror has to feed the conquered. American taxpayers were less than delighted about this. Japan was known for producing low-quality products. Gen. Douglas MacArthur invited Dr. Deming to Japan to show them how to make better products, so they could export them, enabling them to feed themselves. We never dreamed they would learn as well as they did.

Bob King, a manager at Malden Mills, a company in Lawrence, Mass., that was in trouble, had seen the documentary and invited Dr. Deming to come and help them. Word got around, and King formed an organization called GOAL/QPC. It was devoted to helping companies that were interested in learning how to become more competitive building high-quality products.

One morning, I gave a presentation at one of their meetings. Jack Newcomb, the associate director of the Center for Advanced Engineering Studies at MIT was in the audience. He loved my presentation and asked me to present at their seminars. They had hired Deming to give seminars around the country. He was the main speaker, and I became one of the supporting speakers. The other supporting speakers were incredibly distinguished; I was so delighted to meet them and work with them. I learned so much.

I was working for Digital Equipment.

Ken Olsen, our CEO and founder, was an MIT grad, and we had a lot of folks from that hallowed institution. Attending MIT seminars was a great career booster, and some of our managers were signing up for them until they saw my name on the program. “Why should we pay to listen to him? We can do that for free!” Well, a giant furor arose. These folks were jealous, and some felt they should be presenting instead of me. This put my boss at the time, Roland Girard, in a terrible pickle, but he was a great manager and stuck by me.

I went to see Dick Clayton, our VP of quality. He invited me to QBOD, our Quality Board of Directors, to do my presentation, which I did. He was delighted and told everyone, “We ought to be doing more of what he’s saying.” They weren’t happy, but they had little choice.

There was nothing personal against me.

The problem was that I was on a lower level at the time. If I’m lower than they are, how could they learn anything from me? Many of them had been promoted into high-level quality positions with no background in the discipline. So had I, but I learned, read books and took courses. What really broke my heart was that I was presenting what they really needed to know, and they had so little interest.

This a very common malady. There’s an old saying that, “a consultant borrows your watch to tell you what time it is.” There is some truth to that. I’ve done a fair amount of problem-solving. I speak with the bosses to learn their perspective, but to find out what’s really going on, I have to speak to those closest to the problem. They are usually the last people many managers want to speak with, but they almost always have the information we need.

Of course, they won’t clue me in until I earn their trust. They don’t want to get into trouble. Often, they only have one piece of the puzzle, but they can direct me to the person with the next piece. Sometimes it becomes a complicated maze, but working together, we can figure it out. Selling the solution(s) to management becomes the next challenge.

So, if you’ve got a problem that just won’t go away, go speak with the people closest to the problem in a non-threatening way. Treat them as your teachers from whom you can learn, and you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll get, and they can help you solve it.

Ronald J. Bourque, a consultant and speaker from Salem, has had engagements throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He can be reached at 603-898-1871 or ronbourque3@gmail.com