UNCLE ZEB’S BALANCE STONE
by Gene Levine, www.genelevine.com
What constitutes a business? Obviously, some aspects are a concept, a product, facilities, equipment, inventory, and so on. But the most important asset of that business is people. And today, that’s where industry is falling flat on its collective face.
In our mad rush to survive, we sometimes treat people as impersonally as we do the row of machines . . . maybe even worse . . . for if a machine groans or sputters we run for the mechanic. But if our people show signs of malfunction, we ignore them.
While other industries have rushed in to institute people-oriented programs, Industry has been one of the last to do so. And that will be our undoing, unless we change all that NOW! But change is painful, particularly if it is not handled properly. We’re prone to resist it stubbornly.
Since people are the key to any labor intensive business, let’s look at the people in such an organization.
Of all changes that must take place, the first change – in my opinion – would be to improve the abilities and skills of those few people who direct your many people. So, to improve any business it is necessary to first improve the key people. This means change. And to paraphrase Ortega, "Most companies view change like paying taxes. They’ll never change unless they have to."
Now, however, industry has to make some changes, not only to survive but to survive profitably.
Limitations in key people cause company limitations, and when an organization is limited, it stops growing and begins to die. Today’s organizations must be capable of continuous renewal, and must be interested in improvement rather than just apathetically continuing to do what they always had been doing.
Apathy begins with management and not with workers. First we must create a sense of urgency within our management circles. Better incentives will attain better results. But all the beautiful rhetoric is useless without translating it into "how-to" techniques. For instance, you have an obligation to your organization to sharpen your leaders through proper training, or more specifically, proper re-training.
Speaking of proper training . . . I strongly believe that if managers, supervisors and other key people had to undergo the kind of training that commercial airline pilots are given, business problems and failures would be reduced a thousand-fold, and business failures would happen as infrequently as airline disasters.
If there are problems in your business it’s because problems are allowed to happen. In business, as in life, for every effect there is a cause. If you have any doubt about the law of cause and effect, then you are arguing with the universe. Everything that happens does so as a result of the law of cause and effect. Nothing occurs by accident. There are no exceptions. For every result, there is a cause. Provide poor causes and you will achieve poor results. Better causes bring better results. Excellent causes, excellent results.
The time has come to place a priority in your business to upgrade key employees. To accomplish this, we need to take a multi-dimensional and pluralistic view of these individuals and how they affect human resources under their span of control. We have had to make these assessments in the past to find newer and better ways to deal with people and business problems. That step is necessary again.
Astute assessments will reveal that today’s management practices have created today’s industrial problems. By clinging to outmoded and ineffective ways of supervising training and development, management has stifled self-renewal of its businesses and has ceased to grow. This is diametrically opposite to the needs of business.
Uncle Zeb, The Vegetable Farmer.
Zeb grew his own Vegetables and sold them at his stand in a nearby town. This was many years ago, and in a very under-developed part of the country.
In those times a farmer’s best friend was his mule. Each morning Zeb took his mule out into the field just as his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him had done.
He would lead his mule out to where his vegetables were stacked in baskets. First, he would put a load of vegetables on one side of the mule, then quickly balance that load on the other side with a "balance stone." He would then lead his mule off to town where he would sell his vegetables for money to enjoy a good life.
One day on the road he met a traveler who asked if he might join Zeb on the trek to town. En route the traveler ventured a few curious questions.
"Where are you going?"
"To yonder town to sell my vegetables," answered Zeb.
"Have you sold produce for a long time?"
"Yep," said Zeb. "My kin been sellin’ vegetables in these parts for as long as I can remember."
The traveler then turned to the mule and, spotting the strange stone inquired, "Why is that huge stone strapped to your mule?"
"Why," replied Zeb without hesitation, "that’s to balance the load of vegetables."
"But what would happen if you took the stone off?" queried the traveler.
"Oh," Zeb responded brightly, "the mule would tip over and fall on top of the vegetables."
"But," the traveler insisted, "why not balance the load of vegetables on one side of the mule with an equal load of vegetables on the other side? That way you could take twice as many to market at the same time."
"Nope. Couldn’t do that," Zeb said.
"Why not?" the stranger persisted.
"What would I do with the stone?"
"Why you could throw it away," the traveler laughed.
Zeb slowly shook his head from side to side in dissent.
"I couldn’t do that either," he said, resolutely.
"And why not?" asked the traveler, incredulously.
"Because," said Zeb. "it’s been in my family for years!"
And so it is with us. We often . . . too often . . . do what we do because we’ve done it that way for years, and haven’t really stopped to figure out a better way.
So how much dead weight are you carrying in your business? Are your human resources vegetables or stones? Payroll or payload? How long has it been since you questioned your procedures with a truly analytical eye? Uncle Zeb precluded self-renewal. How about you and your company?
There are reasons why yesterday’s ways to train supervisors have become obsolete. Suffice it to say our technology has changed, and along with it our employees’ work ethics have changed. But the main reasons yesterday’s methods no longer work are differences between yesterday and today’s value systems.
We are all aware of value conflicts between generations: socio-economic groups . . . men vs. women . . . students and faculty . . . management and worker . . . and various changes in life styles.
Furthermore, there should be no doubt that government doles and intervention into business now have become factors in workers’ attitudes and ethics. That is why single value systems in business are no longer effective. Dealing with workers today is management’s biggest challenge. Their problems are our problems, whether we like it or not.
The cause of worker problems is not the topic of discussion for today. The solution is what we are all after and from solutions will come vast increases in profits and tremendous reductions in problems.
Mark Shepard, Jr., a former president of Texas Instruments once said, "The challenge of increasing human effectiveness is emerging as the remaining frontier offering competitive advantages to the organizations most successful in channeling human talent and energies into constructive outlets. The reservoir is vast, since talent at all levels is poorly utilized."
Most management within our industry does a poor job in realizing that. Although they have employed people, most of these people are under-employed!
I submit that under-utilization of employees is the largest tragedy in our industry today. Under-utilization leads to job boredom, which in itself is a major deterrent to maximum individual productivity. The final effect of under-employment is high turnover – the curse of our industry.
The main reason I have found for the existence of under-utilization is due to managers and supervisors who do not know how to correct it, even though solutions are available. In short, workers are under-utilized because the people who direct them are undertrained.
Let me take a moment to quantify my thoughts about utilization of labor into dollars and cents.
Worker effectiveness has a direct bearing on labor costs. Labor today is the largest single cost in our industry’s profit and loss statements. Executives in our industry are aware of this fact, so it intrigues me to see how many corporations, through their management, seemingly pass up almost unbelievable cost-avoidances. Most corporations fail completely to maximize potentials of their employees. I believe that people presently employed in these corporations could easily do at least 30% more than they are doing now, and In some cases a great deal more than that.
Each $1,000,000 of payroll should therefore be costing you only $700,000. Why not try to avoid that $300,000 cost???
To achieve that objective you must do only one thing—properly utilize your employees to their present untapped potential. To oversimplify, I had occasion recently to hear an interesting conversation as I was leaving the premises of a well-known apparel manufacturer's factory.
One of the women on the line was met by her young daughter who was about eight years old. The little girl was enthusiastic and excited about her activities of the afternoon.
"Mamma!" she exclaimed. "Betty’s mother started teaching us how to sew today. She let us cut out new blouses. Look!" And the child happily held up a plastic bag containing a brightly colored print. "Will you help me sew it together tonight?"
"I’m sorry, Baby, I can’t," the woman answered. Then seeing the puzzled, yet disappointed look on her young daughter’s face, she added apologetically, "I only know how to sew buttonholes."
And that woman had been employed by her company for ten years! She was a meekly woman, working to help support her family. But, she was working apparently without incentive or inspiration, either from her supervisor or herself, to do or learn anything other than that one simple operation— sewing buttonholes!
Thus, I do not think cost-avoidance will come about through coercion or intensifying present management styles. Since these styles have proven to be ineffective, cost-avoidance will come forth only when today’s management finally realizes that the needs of employees must be consciously satisfied by management and supervision while the employee is at work.
This will require a restructuring in business methodology. It will require much training. It will require much effort. But, to get to the promised land of increased profits, you must walk through the wilderness. And, if you want more from your business, you must begin now to provide causes that will produce the effects you want.
Employees are losing their will to work and unless you do something positive and fast . . . to rekindle that will . . . your business will die!
Examine your ways of dealing with employees with an eye toward improvement. Don’t continue to treat complex problems with simple aspirin. Yes, it may temporarily mask the pain, but you can’t cure cancer with aspirin.
The answer to today’s problems and procedures to avoid future problems should be clear. Succinctly, it is to train . . . or retrain . . . your management and supervisors in newer, more effective skills and knowledge – in relation to your line workers. As important as training is, it is valueless if the person you now have in a key position is in the wrong job. Training will be wasted if you are not training the right "raw material."
To reinforce these thoughts I direct you to the torrent of studies conducted throughout industry and their findings. Study after study has concluded that over 95% of key people are . . .
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