Background



Bill was a painting contractor. Most of his contracts were with repeatcustomers, some of whom had done business with his father. The businesshad thrived under Bill, enabling him to invest in a motel, arestaurant, real estate and other businesses.

The Problembr

Suddenly, Bill encountered a big problem. He signed a contract torepaint a large motel. The foreman was a steady fellow who'd been withBills firm for 20 years, but the job was falling behind schedule. Asthe weeks progressed, other problems arose that put the job evenfurther behind. Now Bill was facing penalties for not finishing ontime. He was watching his profits tick away on the clock..

The Solution

Bill, his foreman and I met for breakfast to review the situation. Isuggested a contest, with incentives where needed, and advised them tosplit the crew into two teams. We divided the remaining work in twoequal lists of areas to paint and things to do. We calculated the timeit would take to complete a quality job on budget and with a profit.Bill announced to the two crews that the goal was to finish theirrespective tasks in the allotted time, adding that any time saved underthe allotted time would be a bonus-paid time off. As a kicker, the teamfinishing first would get a case of beer.

The Resultbr

The whole motel project finished two days ahead of schedule and thecrews won two paid days off. They all experienced the satisfaction of ajob well done. Bill met the contract terms and made a profit - hisreward. Bill hated to lose money on a contract. As he was fond ofsaying, "Its ok to be tired and it's ok to be broke, but being bothbroke and tired is stupid!"

Commentary

Management frequently has financial benchmarks for progress or but they rarely share them with the team. By using non-financialmeasures and by breaking down the goal into easily identifiablesubunits and extending a challenge and a reward on top of wages, thepride and initiative of the team were engaged and everyone came outahead. Profit is not a particularly good interim measure of progress.Physical units of measurement allow team members to keep track ofprogress for themselves. Then they can manage themselves. , What you can measure, you can manage.