(EN) The Biggest Problem You Can Have Is No Problem!

As a manager, don’t you just sometimes wish all problems will go away? Wouldn’t it be nice if everybody in the company agreed with you? Having been a production manager myself, I agree that indeed, yes, that would be nice. At the same time, this would be one of the most dangerous situations your company could be in. Simply said, a company will always have problems and disagreements; that is just the nature of companies. Continuous improvement is solving these problems, resolving the disagreements, and tapping the potential that your company has. Not having any problems merely means that you DON’T KNOW these problems, and a lack of disagreements is merely PEOPLE NOT TELLING YOU about problems. And those are the biggest problems you can have in your company…

On the Nature of Problems

A company is in constant flux. Things are always changing, employees come and go, machines get bought and over time wear out, new products are introduced and old ones phased out, suppliers change, legal framework can evolve, and many more things may happen. Some of these become predictable over time, and with a little bit of foresight can be managed (albeit not every company seems to be able to do so). Others are an unexpected sucker punch hitting you in the ribs. You could say that the only thing constant in a company is never-ending changes.

A lot of the success of a company depends on how well it is able to manage such changes. You deal with foreseen problems before they happen to avoid them. You deal with problems after the fact if they surprise you. You improve your company to become even better, as anything that could be done better but is not is also a problem. The best companies in the world are usually also the best problem solvers.

On the Nature of Management

To coordinate and set up the problem-solving (and sometimes also to do the actual problem-solving), you need managers. And for the managers to do this, they need to know about the problems. Some problems the managers will notice by themselves. In areas they are familiar with, these may be foreseeable problems handled proactively. Others are unexpected problems they will notice after the fact. However, no matter how good a manager is, they will not see and know everything. A lot of the knowledge about current and future problems depends on people reporting them.

Also, just to be clear, the manager is also not the person who needs to solve all of these problems. Some they may solve themselves, others will be solved by the people around them (and yes, some may never be solved at all before the problem has run its course). The job of the manager is to enable their people to find, understand, and solve the problem (and then check to see if it is truly solved, i.e., doing the PDCA).

On the Nature of Promotions

Not everybody in a company wants to get a promotion, but many people do. Managers especially did not become managers by accident, but because they worked toward their current position. And they are often currently working for their next position. So, how do you get promoted to a higher position with more power and more money? The naive view is to believe that you have to do good work. That is unfortunately not quite true. In reality, your boss (or whoever is in the position to promote you) needs to believe that you are doing good work. You get promoted if the person in charge of the promotion thinks that you are the best person for the position. In some cases, this does not mean that you are the best for the company, only the best for the promoter (e.g., the least threatening person, a person not smarter than themselves, etc.). Albeit, in most companies I have seen, they truly try to promote who they think is the best person for the job.

So, in summary, it is not so relevant what you do, but how you appear. In a good company this should overlap significantly, but in a lot of companies it overlaps much less or not at all. And, to appear good, the person in charge needs to like you. A lot of factors come into play in that one, for example that more attractive or taller people are liked more, and hence are promoted more. But you should also take care not to annoy your boss. And that is where, in many cases, the source of the problem lies.

On Who We Like

We like people who agree with us. We like people who tell us we are smart/pretty/strong or just generally good. Hence, one way to move forward is (often) to praise your boss. Unfortunately, not everything a boss does is necessarily praiseworthy. Some people praise only where praise is due, but others lie about this. In effect, they tell the boss only good news and try to hide the bad news (unless it hurts a rival). They try not to disagree, but to agree with whatever decision the boss makes.

„There Are No Problems“ Is a Big Problem

A company always has problems, even if it has not yet obtained improvement potential. To manage this, the manager needs to know about problems, both current and upcoming. And for this, they need people who honestly tell them about it, even if it is not a pleasant conversation but maybe even a bit annoying. A boss needs people who tell them the dirty truth; otherwise it is hard to manage the company.

In old times, kings had a fool or jester who—wrapped in comedy—sometimes was the critical voice in court. When a Roman general returned victorious from battle, he got a triumph (i.e., a parade through the city). But during the entire parade, a slave, the lowest of the castes, stood behind him and whispered, „Memento mori“—“Remember you are mortal”—in his ear. Every manager needs some people who do not glorify them but ground them in the facts, even if some managers rather want to be glorified.

But quite a few managers don’t like that. Through careful selection, they surround themselves with people who agree with them, the famous „yes men.“ They tell the manager only what the manager wants to hear, so as to obtain influence and money through their power. However, in this case, the manager will be the fool, as they get a lot of wrong and misleading information—or in other words, they are lied to.

You NEED to Hear Bad News!

To prevent this, a manager NEEDS bad news. A manager NEEDS to hear about the problems, even if they are ugly and unpleasant. People disagreeing with management (with proper wording, of course) are valuable employees. A great example, both good and bad, is Boeing. In old times, disagreement at Boeing and warnings about problems, especially safety problems, were heard and taken care of, even if it cost time and money. After a strange—sort of—reverse takeover by McDonnell Douglas managers, the culture changed fundamentally and people warning about problems were punished and shut down. And now, Boeing is a mere shell of its former self, its reputation in tatters. (See my blog post How Managers Drove Boeing into the Ground… with more details). But then, every company has the people it deserves, and in some companies the biggest liar is at the top, because he got his position through exactly such behavior. Hence, make sure that you receive a full picture of the situation and not the rose-colored-glasses version. Now, go out, hear bad news and listen to people disagreeing, since you need to have this information too, and organize your industry!