A CASE OF WORKING SMARTER, NOT HARDER

I'm an investigative reporter for a business magazine. I was doing a story on the most successful managers in the country. No surprises, really. Until I called the last name on my list. Hello. Uh Jack McGregor's office, please. This is McGregor. Oh. Um Uh this is Tom Copeland This McGregor answered his own phone. That should have told me something. I gave him my pitch and tried to wangle an interview. Can I set up an interview? Not necessary. Come over anytime, except on Thursdays between 10:00 and 12:00. Okay, that's great. I was curious. I must have interviewed 50 managers for the story. They were all hard to get hold of and all frantically busy. All that is, except McGregor. You must be Tom Copeland. How are you? All the managers I'd talked to prided themselves on the extent to which they invited their subordinates to participate in organizational decision-making. I expected pretty much the same from McGregor. I couldn't have been more wrong. Do you um have regular meetings with your subordinates? Yes, I do. How often? Once a week on Thursdays between 10:00 and 12:00. That's why I couldn't meet you then. What sorts of things do you discuss? Well, my subordinates tell me about the problems they've had and the decisions they've made past week. So, you believe in participative decision-making. No, as a matter of fact, I don't. You mean uh you don't share decision-making with your subordinates? No, I don't. You mean you tell them everything to do. No, quite the opposite. They tell me what they've done. What do you mean? Well, you see, I don't make the decisions, they do. I just listen. Excuse me, but I am find that a little difficult to believe. Well, why don't you ask them? You wouldn't mind? No, not at all. Quite frankly, I didn't know what to think. If McGregor wasn't running the show, who was? Gremlins? I took McGregor's offer and went to see one of his production people, Jim Mitchell. I asked him what he thought of McGregor. Couldn't be a guess. Been working for him 2 years now. Right now, I'm the Thursday man. The what? The Thursday man, discussion leader at the Thursday meetings. Let me get this straight. McGregor is the plant manager. Oh, yeah. And when he meets with his production people, somebody else leads the discussion? Right. He doesn't want to influence our solutions and decisions. He just wants to hear about it. So, he appoints one of us to act as a discussion leader. The Thursday man. Right now, it's me. Why are you? Well, Mac noticed that when one of the others got stuck in a problem they were trying to work out, they tend to come to me to get help. I've been around longer than the others and I guess I know the ropes a little bit better. You know, without Mac to lean on, we help each other a lot. In fact, we kind of compete at helping each other because we know Mac will give us credit for it at the Thursday meeting. He really doesn't make any operating decisions himself? Never. Never? That uh must take some getting used to. Yeah. You you ought to talk to Shelly Connors over in finishing. She's new around here. So, McGregor never helps you? I didn't say that. I said HE NEVER SOLVES OUR PROBLEMS OR MAKES our decisions for us. In fact, he helps a lot. I mean, he's a very good coach. He's fair and honest in evaluating our work. He always lets us know how we're doing. And that's a help. Where I worked before, I was never quite sure. But he's tough, right? Well, he's a tough negotiator, yes. Every 3 months we work out my production quotas together. He helps me set the quotas, but that's it. How I get there, he leaves entirely up to me. So, he gives you a lot of responsibility. Yeah. Sometimes I'm not so sure I'm ready for it. What do you really think I mean, as a manager? He's the greatest. McGregor seemed too good to be true. Before I nominated him as man of the year, I decided to go downtown and find out what Dick Roll, company president, thought of him. That guy is amazing. I can call him up at any time and get any information I need. If I need to know what it would take to increase production by 40% say in 3 years, I just call Mac up, he has the answer. I don't know how he finds the time. What with running the entire production operation as well. But I do know McGregor runs our most efficient plant. Is that because he has the newest equipment? No. Fact he has the oldest. Does McGregor get uh the choice people? Not really. But they're a lot better when they leave. Oh, so there's a lot of turnover. Great deal. So, people can't take his system. Are you kidding? After Mac's control system, they're used to working on their own. In fact, most of his people go on to be plant managers in our other divisions. The more questions I asked, the more I knew there was only one man who could answer them. Roll told me you uh have quite a control system. Can you give me an idea about how it works? Very simply. Every Wednesday I hand out these printouts to each production head. They show output against quota. If there's a problem, the production people work out the solution themselves and I hear their decisions at the Thursday meetings. That allows me to evaluate their thinking and see how everybody's coming along. Now I was getting somewhere. The system was the story. I asked McGregor if I could sit in on the Thursday meeting and see how all the pieces fit together. Furnace three is at 72% capacity. I'll bring up output on bars 18%. I thought the week of the 19th would be the best time to repair furnace two. I asked Mitch what problems that would cause me. Yeah. Yeah, we got together and reviewed the data and I agreed that'd be the best for me, too. I suggested that Bobby talk to Shelly about any conflict with her schedule. Well, I I have to get out 80 tons of finished product with limited raw stock. I realized that the Thursday man's job was to act as coordinator. The decisions were made all right, except McGregor himself didn't make them. The subordinates did. I'll have to cut 50 tons of grade 40. That'll bring But McGregor was very interested in how they got to their decisions. I could either start with new raw stock and add another shift or we could use the bars canceled from the United order. What do you think? Well, what do you think? I I think that we should use the bars stored in warehouse, too. How did you arrive at that? Putting on another shift would be more costly than running the bars through and we need that storage space. Is that your decision? Yes. Suppose Shelly's decision is a mistake. What would you do about it? That would depend on how much the mistake cost us. Why? Well, first I don't know that it is a mistake. Second, even if it is, what she could learn from it would probably be worth the cost. Now I had a story. The system was simple, just as McGregor had said it was. It was delegating, sure, but it also provided training and incentive for the employees and allowed time for McGregor to plan. As I typed up my notes, I just about sprained my wrist patting myself on the back. But something wouldn't why. I had a great finish for the story, but I had no beginning. I mean, how did McGregor find his system in the first place? In a fortune cookie? By now, I knew the story wasn't just the system. It was also the man. Hello. Hi. Uh This is Tom Copeland again. Look, I'm sorry to bother you, but uh I still have a few questions I need to ask. You play golf? All the other managers I talked to see themselves as the primary problem-solvers and decision-makers. They're all pretty frantic and overworked. You don't and you're not. You've always been that way? No, far from it. Until 5 years ago, I was caught in the old managerial trap. My office was busy with people every minute, the phone always ringing, and all the rest of it. Let finishing go into overtime and I started out in your division. I'll have that problem licked in no time. You're supposed to have your blood pressure checked today. Yeah, uh remind me next week. I really appreciate you helping out. Whenever my people came, Jimmy, with technical problems, I always tried to help them. They expected me to, and I felt it was part of my job. Yeah. Hi, Jack. Dick Rowland. Uh we need the last quarter projection for this year up at corporate. Uh sorry, Dick. I'm afraid just isn't ready yet. I'll have it for you beginning of the week, for sure. Sure, get it. Yeah, bye. You know something? I was so caught up in helping my people with their work that I'd fallen way behind in my own. Got a real problem in rolling. Got to get a handle on it by Monday. Mr. McGregor, your wife on line one. Yes. Hi, Jack. What time should we be ready? Ready? Oh, yeah. Uh I'll have to get back to you. Something just came up. Got it, Jack. Sorry. If we raise five to 90%, we run a big risk of breakdown. I see. What's four running at now? Well, if you'd come over to the rolling division tomorrow, we could figure it out. What about Sid? Or Bill? They're willing to help out, but they just don't have your experience. All right. Give me these figures, I'll work on them tonight. We really appreciate it. This time wasn't any different from dozens of weekends I had to spend at the plant. But I'd promised my wife we were going away for the weekend. I was tired and bogged down. Hi, Jeff Mack. Look, Jeff, I'm not coming in tomorrow. I have other plans. Yeah, I understand, but this time you people are going to have to do it on your own. You know, it really is your responsibility. Right. I realized I'd been spending 90% of my time doing other people's jobs. And it wasn't just something they were doing to me, it was something I was doing to myself. I guess I thought that by making their decisions for them, I kept control. Takes two to tango. Right, but it was a deadly trap for them and for me. So, I started very deliberately backing off. I stopped making operating decisions. But that wasn't enough. I needed a complete new system of management. I see. You mean you needed a system that encourages people to stand on their own two feet. Exactly. And that leaves you time for long-range planning. Right, and also time for playing golf. Mhm. It's your shot. Mhm. Wonder how I should play this. Well, that looks tough. What do you think? Should I uh go for the pin or play it safe over there? Well, it's your decision.