The almost phd!

Early in my career I witnesses a great example of how not to lead. Its funny how sometimes we learn from observing mistakes. I think we might be hard wired with pride that allows us to learn from others mistakes easier than learning from the stuff they do well.

Anyway, back to my story. I was working at a manufacturing plant at a particular process. This plant made electronic circuits and it was a multistep process. Materials would go through many different machines before the product was ready to ship. I saw a particular man, we called them operators, struggle with this one process. It was doing work on a roll of material and the roll was not tracking as well as it needed to. There was a real art of the set up to get the roll to track properly and it was a little like black magic. You had to tape it to the leader just so, hold your head to left while sticking your tongue out to the right and you could get it throught the process in one piece.

The man was really working hard to make it work, when one of our engineers came back to talk to him. As he came back he observed that the taping of the material to the leader was not done as he had instructed before. This would cause some additional loss of yield to the first few feet in the roll if you taped it differently. The engineer did not ask the man why he was doing it differently, but rather dressed him down, loudly and in front of me. In the process, the engineer told the operator that he had almost attained his phd and the operator had no business questioning his directions. Who was he to question someone with so much more schooling. And without question the operator was to do the splice exactly like he had directed him to do. The engineer who almost had his phd then turned and left the room.

I saw the operator after the engineer left. He no longer cared if the machine did a good job or not. He no longer cared if it made scrap, because he knew that in this plant he was an operator, not an engineer who almost had his phd. He had no ownership in what he did. The man who had ownership told him why he had ownership, why he was better than him, and that he did not need this mere operator to think.

The next day, I saw the same operator meticulously make the splices as he was told. And with proper procedure feed each of the rolls at his station through the machine. He also seemed to feel some glee as he watched each roll quietly be stretched and ruined as it tracked improperly through the different baths this machine pulled the material through. His splice would have lost a few feet but not the whole roll. That week we lost a huge amount of materials due to this error in leadership. I honestly can't remember if management really knew the whole story. The operator did not get blamed, because the machine was malfunctioning. The engineer who almost had his phd did not get blamed, nor did I see that he recognized what he had done.

But I saw people and how they respond to arrogance. If you lead like your competent, when you make mistakes all the time, people notice. The engineer who almost had his phd recieved compliance. The operator submitted to his request. But to have an organization be great, you need much more than compliance and submission. You need much more than unquestioning obedience if you want to obtain the rewards of people working together. You need to let people have passion for what they are doing. You also need all brains engaged. Had the engineer had a bit more humility towards himself and a bit more respect to the lowly operator, he would have had a much different outcome in that small 2 minute exchange of words.

The thing is, you never know when those moments might come if you not trying to help them happen all the time.