The Persuasive Wizard

Order The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas to Non-technical Decision Makers at Amazon.com for a low price of $12.95.  However, the publisher has permitted me to offer it to my blog readers, for a limited time, at a special discount.  Go to this site, Wizard and enter the code 7PBGMXNC.  The book is an excellent gift for anyone who needs to persuade others.

Our present discussion is the requirement to predict research outcomes, how much it will cost and when it will be complete.  Most technologists have only a vague notion of how to do this and, subsequently, they do it inadequately, if at all.  This series has several parts because I want to keep each entry succinct and blog-readable.  If you follow these proven steps, though, you will know how to make good, reliable forecasts.  Part IV considers the Fat Cats.

Fat Cats are the absolute hardest part of predicting research because it involves reading people, and people are hard to read sometimes.

In Part I, we created a high-level list of research and technology tasks.  In Part II, we prioritized them.  In Part III, we assessed the quantity of each one – how many, how long it would take, how many dollars we would have to spend, etc.

Now, the difficult part is that all this data, or a significant part of it, comes from someone else, as it should.  If you try to do everything yourself, as many technologists do, disaster is certain.  What do you know about how long it takes to open a requisition and hire someone?  What do you know about the company’s supply chain?  What do you know about capital budgets and allocation policies?  What do you know about the suppliers’ and vendors’ inventories and deliveries?  You have to ask questions and get answers from other people.

And, as our dear Hamlet would said, “Ah, there’s the rub.”

The estimates you get from other people are spongy, at best.  For example, a vendor wants to ensure he can deliver on time.  You told him it was “critical.”  So he gives you a longer time period knowing he can deliver in a shorter time period and get in your good graces.  He adds unwarranted fat to his estimate.  Or, another vendor gives you a totally optimistic delivery time, one that no company on earth can meet because she wants your business and she’ll worry about the late delivery after you’ve signed the contract.  Both have errors but in the opposite direction.  Can you spot these two estimates when they come in?

Another example can be one in your own chain of command.  Management wants you to complete the project by a certain date so you make the assumption that “management” will do what it takes, hire people, and provide capital.  But, “management” is not a person, it’s a conceptual entity.  When reality sets in, you find that you will indeed get the people, perhaps, but the president has delayed his signature for three weeks because of budget concerns.  You didn’t think of that.  Or, the capital equipment you need has to go through the company cycle.  Your idea of getting “fast track” capital processing is mostly wishful thinking.

Another example might be within your own research group.  You ask a team member how long it will take her to do her part of the work.  She pads her answer by about 100% thinking that you’ll probably cut her estimate in half anyway, so that way she’ll wind up with the amount she really needs.  She doesn’t inform you of that, of course.

Now, all these factors get added, and often, multiplied together.  So, if you take everyone at their word, you will find that what you expect to be a nine month project, when you massage all the numbers you’ve been given, will take 27 months.  No wonder no one can predict research.

So, what do you submit to management?  You want to pad your answer by 100% in anticipate they cut your budget in half?  Now, we’re up to four years for what, in reality, is a nine-month project.

So, what is the remedy?

First of all, let’s start with the counterproductive notion that a person is supposed to double everything in anticipation of a 50% cut.  I know this is done and I see it all the time.  Do you?  And, that’s the important part.  You have to learn to read people.  You probe and pry, you question and query, you parry and thrust.  You keep them from lunch, you make them stay over.  You make them come in early.  You sit in their office.  You follow them down the hall.  You wait outside the toilets.  Whatever it takes to get straight talk and cut out all the nonsense.  If they will not cut out the fat, then you do it for them.  Not later, but right then and there, in front of them.  Show them where they are loitering.  Show them that you will not play games.  You want good data and valid information and you expect them to provide it if they want to keep their jobs.

There is no substitute for looking a person in the eye and talking one on one.  But that does not make their answer totally honest.  There is also no substitute for comparison to what they have done in the past.  There is also no substitute for comparing different estimates and querying as to why the differences.  There is also no substitute for making people accountable and rewarding them accordingly; kudos where earned and stingers where needed.  It will not make you popular, but technology persuasion is not about popularity.  It is about advancing technology.  Your popularity and respect will be achieved through keeping jobs and guiding technology.  Employees and peers will see this as a greater, much longer lasting, much more desired reward, than fickle popularity.

Learn to read people.  I am not an advocate of reading body language, but I am an advocate of past performance, commitment, dedication, and skin-in-the-game.  Make those your tools for evaluating performance and predictions.

So, now that you have all your estimates and they are correct, what do you do?  Do you pad them, yourself, in anticipation of a management cut?  Not by any means.

But, first, let us make sure we understand what is meant by padding and fat.  Nothing is certain.  Nothing is for sure.  Every wise manager knows that a certain amount of leeway is necessary for contingencies.  Murphy’s Law is sure to be at work.  Things happen.  All data have error bars.  All statistics have standard deviations.  Therefore, you should include realistic, quantified uncertainties in your estimates.  That is in no way the same thing as padding.  The former is part of good forecasting and adequate data analysis, the latter is playing games.

Inform your own management that your estimate has contingencies, of course, but no budget-games padding.  “But,” you say.  “I know they will cut my budget.  They always do.”  Perhaps, but I will show you later how to deal with that.  The first part is to build credibility with management that you are on their side.  You are working with them.  You, too, want the company to succeed.  Your estimates are correct, sustainable, quantifiable, and validated.

So, get rid of those Fat Cats and do the job right.  If you want to persuade decision makers, then this is the place to start.

Order The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas to Non-technical Decision Makers at Amazon.com for a low price of $12.95.  However, the publisher has permitted me to offer it to my blog readers, for a limited time, at a special discount.  Go to this site, Wizard and enter the code 7PBGMXNC.  The book is an excellent gift for anyone who needs to persuade others.

Our present discussion is the requirement to predict research outcomes, how much will it cost and when will it be complete.  Most technologists throw up their hands (or wave their fists) decrying, “No one knows when a breakthrough will occur!  No one can predict research!”  “You can’t just say, ‘Invent, you swine!’”  Well, that’s not altogether true and whether you wish to or not, whether you should or not, whether you can or not, management will require that someone forecast research.  Do you want a budget?  Do you want personnel?  Do you want to actually have some chance of completing your research tasks?  Do you want to keep your job?  Then learn to forecast accurately and correctly.  This series will show you how to make good, reliable forecasts.  Part III continues the discussion by “Measuring the Tasks.”

In Part II, we compiled a list of the essential elements of the research and assigned relative weights as to their importance and criticality.  If you are wondering what a “weight” might be, go back and read Part II.  Essentially, the weight is a measure you assign to each element in the research.  It is a relative measure of the criticality of each task to the final outcome.  One or two tasks might be critical, the others rank below that in order of importance to completing the task.

Now, if you collect all the data yourself, you are probably pretty consistent with your collection.  In which case you do, especially, need to watch for biases and for things you might overlook or incorrectly minimize.  I assign weights with a small team and insist you do the same.  That helps eliminate your own biases, or at least points them out.  In addition, it starts another essential component, that of getting the team to actually buy into a commitment.

At this point (Parts I and II), you created a high-level list of research and technology tasks and put them in some order of priority, the relative weights.  Now, you need to quantify each element on the list as to its magnitude.  The magnitude is either how much time the task will take, how much money it will cost, or how many people it will require. For some tasks, the time, cost, and personnel requirements are independent so you must specify all three for that task.  Sometimes, because the are dependent, you need specify only one or two.  So, let us consider how to treat each task element.  Some are straightforward and some are complicated.  None are easy.  It is best to illustrate by example.

Equipment. If you know what equipment you will need, then you need to determine how long it will take to get the equipment to begin the research.  The “magnitude” of the equipment task has two components, time and dollars.  You must call the suppliers and get an idea of lead time for delivery.  Is the product in stock?  Must it be backordered?  Is it even available?  (You can’t buy frictionless masses or point sources – a technie joke). Obtain no less than three potential suppliers (vendors) for each piece of equipment.  At the very least, you must have a backup source, so two are absolutely required.  Having three will get you a more realistic idea of how long the delivery will take as well as the cost.  Don’t be mislead by companies who promise what they cannot deliver.  All three estimates (bids) should be in writing and, theoretically, should be approximately the same.  If they are not, query the companies and discover what makes them different.  You may be surprised how educated you become.  One manufacturer may be able to supply the equipment much faster, but at a higher cost.  Depending upon your budget and the requirements, that has to be factored in.  At this point, get the information and do not start making decisions.  Making decisions at this point is what gets many technologists in trouble.  Do not make commitments until all the data is in.  There is much more work to do.

Facilities.  If you need additional or special facilities, check with your own Facilities Department (if it exists) or (otherwise) outside contractors to see when they can complete the facilities and have them ready to move in.  Talk to the person in charge of delivery and determine how realistic their estimate is.  Facilities organizations (internal and external) are notorious for missing schedules, not having schedules, or finding reasons why they cannot make their schedules.  (It was they who taught me “acts of nature” cover a multitude of sins.)  Facilities commitments will never be early and almost always are late.  Sometimes critically late.  Check for past performance of your group to see how what they actually produced on other, similar jobs.  Do this for both internal and external sources.  History is the best judge of the future.  Ignore promises entirely and go with past performance.  Understand their critical factors.  Whatever keeps them up at night will keep you up, also.  Do not settle for hearsay or seat-of-the-pants.  Find out what their contracts require.  Read the contracts, yourself.  Do not settle for Cliff Notes.

Available, Trained Personnel. If you need to hire or transfer people from another organization to your project, then understand all the issues involved.  If you have not even begun the interview process, you need to be very careful.  Are the right people even available?  Can you afford them?  What are the HR rules?  Are requisitions even opened up?  Will the requisitions be signed?  What about moving expenses?  Ask questions.  Make no assumptions.  All of these elements factor into your equation for predicting research.  They are part of the magnitude assessment.  Getting this information requires that you physically go to the HR department and have a long conversation.  Talk to the person in charge.  Do not make estimates based on what you think it should take.  Make your estimates based on history, commitments, and what it will take.

Subcontractors. If you are expecting part of your research to be done by an outside firm, a subcontractor, then find out their history.  Find out their commitment, that is, do they have any “skin” in the game.  Who, by name, will they put on your project and for how long a period?  What is their written, documented commitment?  Since this is done through a contract, read the contract.  What does the contract say?  You cannot imagine how many technologists take for granted what a subcontractor will do or will not do instead of just reading the actual contract.  (When permitted, I personally write the  performance criteria, myself.)  Technologists will risk an entire project and slow projects down for months rather than spend one hour to actually read the contract.  I discuss why this is so in my book, The Persuasive Wizard.

There are many other areas, but this covers some examples to give you the idea.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” technogists say.  It will take me hours and hours to collect all this information.  Yes.  It is not rocket science, but it is necessary.  It is boring for a technologist, and it is mucho time consuming. However, if you have any hope of actually forecasting research, you have to put the time and work in to get the data.  “But,” you say, “I cannot take time away from my present tasks to do this.”

Well, here’s the dilemma.  You can either spend hours making a correct forecast that will stand the test, get you in a position to actually do the work and complete it, serve you and management well, and make money for your company.  Or, you can fiddle your way thorough it and spend months trying to recover from not doing a good job in the first place, make a bad name for yourself, and maybe lose your job or the jobs of others.  It’s that simple.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to pick the right solution to that equation, but you will be amazed at how many technologists just will not bring themselves to spend the time required to do it right.  Or, they will spend hours guessing and estimating on their own instead of going straight to the source and get the correct information.  Don’t let this be you.  You cannot become the Persuasive Wizard by wishing it so.  It is hard work.

Do not quit until you have quantified the magnitude of every element on your list.  When you finish this step, you should have the following:

1. A list of all the essential research tasks (usually at a high level – Part I in the series)
2. A relative weight determining the criticality of each task.  (Part II in the series)
   1. There will be only 1-3 critical steps
   2. Ignoring the critical steps, all the weights add to zero
3. For each task, determine the magnitude – the time, cost, and personnel required.  Get your data from the following:
   1. Written estimates from suppliers and vendors and past performance on similar jobs
   2. Written contracts for facilities and subcontractors with past performance on similar jobs
   3. Specific estimates form departments like HR, Legal, Manufacturing, and any other organizations required.

Note that your opinion is not on the list.  You are an expert in technology.  When we get to technology, we will ask your opinion.  At this point, you ask the experts in their fields.

In the next segment, we discuss additional information needed to make a technology forecast.

Order The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas to Non-technical Decision Makers at Amazon.com for a low price of $12.95.  However, the publisher has permitted me to offer it to my blog readers, for a limited time, at a special discount.  Go to this site, Wizard and enter the code 7PBGMXNC.  The book is an easy read and excellent for anyone who needs to persuade others.

One of the most difficult tasks any technologist faces is the requirement to accurately forecast and predict research, either for an individual or a group.  If your job involves doing anything new, this impossible task of forecasting research will become one of your assignments.  But, it’s not impossible and I will show you how to make sound, accurate forecasts that exhibit foresight and establish credibility with management.  This Part II discusses the “Weights.”

What is a weight? Consider a simple linear equation like ax + by = z.  The coefficients “a” and “b” are the weights.  They tell you how much of “a” to put with how much of “b” to get z.  If this were a bakery recipe it would say 1/3 cup of sugar, 3 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of butter, and the like.  The “weights” (or measureable quantities, sometimes volume) tell you how much of each ingredient.  Clearly, you would have different amounts (weights) for making a pie than for making a donut, for example.

Every decision you make in life has weights.  Suppose you are considering a new job.  There are components to consider and each of these is “weighed” in your mind.  Do you have to relocate?  To where?  Are there good schools?  Can the spouse find employment?  What about selling your current house?  What about buying another house?  Salary? Benefits?  What will the working conditions be like?  How far is the commute?  The list goes on and each factor is weighed in your mind with a relative weight.  Salary may not be the heaviest weight.  Twice your salary in Antarctica may not be as attractive as your current salary next door.

Suppose you want to purchase an automobile.  Used or new?  What about color, horsepower, miles per gallon, make, body style, stereo, interior, or wheel covers?  All of these have weights in your mind.  Some are more important than others.  Some are critical.  Some do not even make the list of considerations.  Something like the transmission may be critical, though.  Automatic is essential if you cannot drive a standard.  You might consider red, but green cars remind you of your ex spouse.  All of these factors have ‘weights” in your decision.  The weights are relative measures of importance to the end goal.  Some things are weightier than others.  Some are absolute like, perhaps, the body style.  Maybe you have eight kids so a compact family car is definitely out of the question.  But, if it’s a commute car, maybe mileage is the most important.  Different decisions have different criteria and these criteria are weighted.

What Weights Occur In Research? If you desire to forecast research, you must first identify the elements – personnel, facilities, salaries, bonuses, equipment, inventory, a break-through technology, reports, tests, validation, or whatever.

Identify the elements in the research. Write them all down.  Talk to your team (always an excellent idea.)  Talk to your boss (an even better idea).  Understand all the factors involved in your forecast.  Step one is just to list the factors affecting your research schedule and your forecast.

Organize the Research Factors Into Three Groups. Which factors are under your direct control and which are not?  If the president expects a report every Friday, then that is not under your control.  If you have vendors and suppliers to consider, that is not always under your control, but in a different way; you can influence them.  Hiring may be an issue involving procedures, HR, approvals, and other factors you may not control.  If a particular element requires management approval and signatures, then that is not totally under your control.  Group all the research factors into three sets, 1.) those factors you control directly, 2.) those factors controlled indirectly by you (your sphere of influence, subcontractors or HR, for example), and 3.) those controlled externally (mostly outside your sphere of influence, like facilities, perhaps).

Prioritize Each List. Prioritize the elements separately in each list as to the importance of each toward the success of the research.  In each list, you usually have one or two critical elements, the sine qua non, “without which, not.”  In other words, those elements that are so critical that if you do not perform them, you may as well forfeit the game and head for the shower.

Now, if you find more than 2-3 elements, total, that are critical, then something is wrong.  You are not thinking about the problem correctly.  Maybe you need to examine whether you actually have a research plan.  Analyze it again and see if you are being realistic.  Ask yourself why each step is so critical.  In the end, carve out the 2-3 tasks that truly are critical.

I worked with a gentleman that assessed everything as critical.  Everything.  Every moment of his day operated in critical mode.  He could not eat lunch, he could not go home.  It was all too critical.  Every request was critical.  This person was wrong.  Some things are critical and some are not.  Learn to recognize, identify, and label correctly.

At this point, you should have three lists with the critical elements marked.  Then, within each list, ignoring the critical ones, prioritize the 3-4 elements that are the most important.  Put these 3-4 in order of importance.  Iterate until you have the top 3-4 items marked in each list.  My experience is that most people cannot prioritize beyond about four elements.  After that, it gets too mushy.  So, don’t worry about it.

Go to the bottom of the list.

At the bottom of the list, prioritize the 3-4 least important items.  Most people can do this readily.  Now you have the critical elements (f any) in each list, the top 3-4  elements of each list, and the bottom 3-4 elements of each list.  Put everything else in-between.  Use alphabetical order or whatever it takes, but don’t spend undue time on this part.  You cannot decide, anyway.

Assign Weights: Now, assign relative weights to everything except the critical elements.  All the weights within each list should add up to 100% (not counting the critical elements).  That is, you should have three sets with each adding up to 100% (not including any critical elements).  Creating these relative weights is usually difficult because most engineers want to assign high percentages to everything.  Then, when they add their total up, they get 2,350% or some meaningless number.  If you do not limit the sum, in this case to 100%, then you have not assigned relative weights.  You are just telling yourself that everything is of tantamount importance and that life will not even exist on this planet unless every step is completed.  Nonsense.  Make the weights add up to 100% in each list (sans the critical elements) and then you will know that you are assigning relative weights, as you should be.

In the next segment, we discuss what to do with those weights and how to meld them into an accurate technology forecast.

My book has just been released from the publisher and is now available!  Thanks to all of you for your encouragement, sponsorship, and sound advice during the process.

You can order The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas to Non-technical Decision Makers at Amazon.com for the retail price 0f $12.95.  However, the publisher has permitted me to offer it to my blog readers, for a limited time, at a special discount.  Go to this site, Wizard and enter the code 7PBGMXNC.  (I apologize for the complex code but the publisher was intractable and did remind me I was writing for technologists.  Although, in reality, the book is an easy read and excellent for anyone who needs to persuade others).

You know someone who needs this book.  That technie who can never communicate.  That coworker who cannot explain anything she is doing.  That manager who can never get funding for your organization.  Make this book a “must read’ for them.  Get it to your acquaintances.  It is being reviewed by colleges and should be available soon as an adjunct in communications classes and engineering.  Personally, I believe all college graduates in a technical field need this book.

My aim is to transform every technoloigst into a persuasive force to gain entrepreneurial funding, to secure research investment dollars, to create startups, to improve resources, to fund new products, to find a new job, to be promoted to a better job, or to fulfill any of the hundreds of other desires that technologists have.

This book will make a difference in their lives.  It will make a difference in mine, too, as I have an expensive wife, and two kids in college.

Thanks for giving me this opportunity.

I welcome all comments either at this site or as a reviewer for Amazon.com.  The book is available through national booksellers Baker and Taylor and Ingram.  Local bookstores can special order through them if it is not available in your local area.

One of the most difficult tasks of any technologist is to accurately predict and forecast research, either for yourself or your oversight group.  If your reaction is, “How in the world can I predict research and breakthrough discoveries?” then welcome to the club.  Nevertheless, management will exact an answer from someone, from somewhere, through some means, and you are the best and most likely candidate.  This impossible task of predicting research is part of every technologist’s job.  Whether you are involved in pure research, product development, product enhancement, product improvement, or anything similar, you will face this problem.  If your job involves doing anything new, you need to know how to make accurate forecasts.  This series will discuss how to accurately and correctly make technology forecasts.  Part I lines up the issues.

The Nature of the Business. Every company is owned by someone.  In a public company the owners are the stockholders.  In a private company, the ownership can be held by an individual or an assortment of investors.  All owners have the same requirement; they want and need to make a profit.  Otherwise, they will move their resources elsewhere.  Money talks.

In a free market (thank God for freedom) there are competitive products.  The business owner must plan how to beat the competition.  Is it Price?  Volume?  More efficient products?  Better?  Faster?  More bells and whistles?  Elegance?  And the list goes on.  In the end, the owners put together a plan for how they can achieve a profit on their investment.  Now, assuredly, this in done iteratively and with some notion of how to implement the plan, but it is only top level, initially, likely full of holes and distinctly deficient in detail.

After the basic concept is formulated, a knowledgeable team puts together a detailed plan.  This plan gets passed down to lower and lower levels of management until it eventually stops at you.  “You are the technologist,” they say.  “Management needs this information and you are the best person to provide it.  Your assigned task is to predict when, how, and at what cost the technology will be developed.”

“You must be crazy!”  you respond, certain internally and often externally.  “How can I predict research?  No one can predict breakthroughs!”

Never mind your opinion, the dirty deed will be done by someone.  The forecast will occur because there are other elements of the business awaiting this essential, critical part of the mechanism.  Marketing and Sales must be formulated.  Value Added Resellers must be put in place.  (“What’s a VAR?” you ask.)  Manufacturing must tool up.  Contracts must be inked.  Suppliers must be found.  Funding must be acquired.

How much will it cost?  How big is it?  How fast will it go?  Where do we buy parts?  What color do we paint it?  How big are the wires?  How tiny the knobs?  How loud the whistles?  How “clangy” the bells?  (Only Poe uses tintinnabulation.)  All those questions are dependent upon your ability to predict research, and your future and the future of those about you depends upon the fidelity and accuracy of that prediction.

Now that you know why you have the problem, and what the problem is, what do you do about it?

The Nature of Research. I use the term “research” in a general sense.  By research, I mean the discovery of something previously unknown.  Obviously, you maybe in product development, quality enhancement, product improvement, manufacturing, field service, rework, or any number of fields that go by various and sundry titles.  Yet, all these have an element of the unknown, the unpredictable, that thing for which you feel forecasting is ludicrous and impossible.  You must forecast the creation, development, or production of something previously not done, or at least not done in the manner now required, or at least not done by anyone of which you or your team has knowledge.

Most technologists take the lofty position of refusing to predict.  They chastise the messenger and try to pass the buck.  This is a mistake of magnitude.  Do not do this.

What you do not realize is that someone will make the forecast for you.  Your cocky answer might be, “That’s okay.  That’s their problem.”  No, it is not okay and it is not their problem.  It is your problem.  Their forecast will affect your credibility, your future, and your career.  Their forecast will become your forecast and no amount of naïve, disingenuous denial on your part will change that.  Not now and not later.  Denial will only label you intractable, an irritant, and the stereotypical wizard technologist.  It will be remembered at review time.  It will be remembered as an inability, inefficiency, and incapability.  Others will be remembered as helping the company, having this capability, and working with the team, but not you.  If you ever do want additional resources, increased funding, or even continued funding and unemployment, you will be labeled as someone with limited ability, someone lacking in understanding of how the company works, a niche player at best.

It is in your best interests to pilot your own ship.  Your prediction of breakthroughs, with all its caveats and weaknesses, is still the most reliable and the best.  It is better to be responsible for your own actions than to be blamed and held accountable for the predictions and forecasts of others.  And you will be blamed and held accountable.  Make no mistake.  No amount of denial on your part will change the perception of management.  Perception by others is their reality of you.

But, why make such an issue?  There is no need to start a war.  No need to draw your sword.  This is a manageable task.  You can do this.  It is possible to make bona fide technology forecasts.  Professionals, like myself, do it all the time, with considerable accuracy, good credibility, and in partnership with the rest of the company.  You can do it, too.  In the upcoming segments, we will provide you with the insights to get you started.

This is Part V and the last in a series on how to properly terminate an employee.  Termination is an unpleasant but sometimes necessary task.  All the more reason to do it correctly and professionally.  I restrict the discussion to technology positions.  I do not refer to  union-controlled jobs or contract labor.  My discussion addresses technology positions where you pay an employee for performance, assess that performance, and act accordingly.

There are two major categories that motivate your decision to terminate, either

1. You have run out of work for this employee

a.) There are no other jobs available in the company because you are already long on people everywhere and the company is downsizing.

b.) here are no other jobs available in the company because the person you chose to terminate does not have the skills necessary for transfer to another job.

2. You need to terminate for cause.

Since problem number two is the most difficult, let us discuss that interview process.  You have decided to terminate the employee for cause, for lack of performance.  To begin with, the termination should not come as a complete surprise to the employee.  In your prior performance reviews, you should have made your position crystal clear and identified and quantified the lack of performance to the employee.  You should already have pointed out areas that needed improvement, laid down the criteria for continued employment, and exercised a probation period.  If you have not completed these tasks, you need to go back and do those steps.  You are not ready to terminate.  Give the employee a chance to improve.

If you have done all that, the task at hand is this: you must meet with the employee and tell that employee he or she no longer has a job.  It is an unpleasant task.  If you can perform it without feelings, then you need to find a different job; you are not management material.  If you have never found reason or the wherewithal to terminate, then examine whether you are management material.  Is is a required and necessary part of the business.  Cultivation and growth does not come without a price.  You must not let inadequate performance affect the entire company.

The interview will affect both you, the person in front of you, and all the other employees.  Once you terminate one employee, all your employees will see you in a different light.  Some will agree.  Some will disagree.  But, all will see you differently.

Make preparation for the meeting.  If you can choose the day, I recommend a Friday afternoon.  That way, the employee has all weekend to foment and assimilate without directly causing disarray with other employees.  It takes time to recover.  The  employee can come back on Monday, clean out the office, or whatever else needs to be done.

Follow the security procedures of the company.  Ensure a prior that the affected employee can do no damage to files, software, databases, or similar. Make sure backups are in place, just in case.

Select a room for the interview that is private, but not isolated.  Be circumspect.  Clear the room of anything that can be used as a weapon.  We are dealing with professionals, of course, but be a professional, yourself and consider possibilities.  Emotions can run high, engines can overload and redline.  Ensure that the unexpected does not occur.

I recommend you either have another manager with you in the interview, or at least someone nearby who can and does hear everything said.  Make it obvious that this person is there, cognizant, and available.  You may need a witness to what was said.  Lawsuits may follow so take notes and have the notepad clearly in front of you during the meeting.  Make sure the employee sees you taking notes.  Have beside you your file of documentation.  You do not need or want to necessarily show this documentation in this meeting (hopefully, you have gone over the file with the employee in previous meeting), but the employee needs to see that you have all the information documented.  Seeing this material will set the stage that this action is not personal.  It is quantified assessment.  It is business only.

Come directly to the point and keep it brief.  Evoke Machiavelli’s sage admonition that bad news must be delivered quickly.  This is not a time to chit chat.  State the facts (and only the facts).  Do this as unemotionally as you can.  Choose your words carefully.  Say nothing inflammatory, prejudicial, or libelous.  In less than three minutes, lay out the previous interviews with the employee, what the results have been, how the employee has (not) responded, and now, your final decision.  End with a phrase something like, “I have made the decision to terminate you as an employee, effective immediately.”  Then stop.

Expect a reaction from the employee.  The employee may curse, cry, raise an alarm, sulk, or do nothing.  The employee may stare with hatred or look bored.  I have encountered all these reactions and more.  Do not expect the employee to agree with your decision, regardless of your documentation and regardless of your prior discussions with that person.  I repeat, do not expect concurrence.  You will not be disappointed.

Do give the employee a chance to vent.  Let the employee have his or her day in court.  You should not permit abuse, but err on that side.  The employee is entitled to an opinion.  You have been planning this meeting a long time. The employee has not.  You have prepared.  The employee has not.  You have chosen your words carefully.  The employee has not.  Consider all this.  Listen to the employee’s opinion, let the employee have a say, and then end the meeting.  Do not defend your actions further or respond further.  There is nothing more for you to say.  Do not react or become emotional.  Keep it professional and business.  It is not personal.  Make sure you keep it that way and convey it that way.

After the meeting, follow the security procedures of the company as to how the employee vacates the premises and returns for personal possessions.  In some cases, you may want to end all contact at this point.  All of which is a separate issue.

As a final note, if you have outside contact with the employee, or the employee is hired by some other part of your company (which often happens in a large organization), do not expect the employee to remain “friends” with you.  Earlier in my career, I somehow thought that the employee would consider, come to understand that I had made the right decision for them, come to agree with me, and eventually return to be friends.  This was naïveté and expecting the impossible out of human nature.  On occasions, I have had employees see me somewhere, be civil, and even remark how my decision actually helped them in some way.  Regardless, they never became friends again.

Terminating an employee – the implementation is not for the faint hearted, but it is part of technology management.

My technology-persuasion series got interrupted by a fabulous family vacation to Glacier National Park – our second trip there and the only location we have graced twice (which includes 45 states and 5 foreign countries).

The US has 58 protected areas known as National Parks.  They are located in 27 states and are managed by the Department of the Interior National Parks Service.  Yellowstone was the first, created in 1872, and the Great Sand Dunes was the last, in 2004.

Glacier splendidly occupies more than a million acres through the upper reaches of Montana and stretches well into Canada.  It is surrounded by the Blackfeet Indian Reservation on the east and the Flathead Indian Reservation on the west.  Its few roads have enchanting names like Two Medicine, Many Glacier (singular, not plural), St. Mary’s, and Going-to-the-Sun.  There are 26 glaciers waiting to be climbed.  At least two are reachable through worthy hikes.  It is a hiker’s and sightseer’s paradise and heaven-on-earth for a backpacker (which never achieves a majority vote in our family of four.)  Switzerland has more elegance and panache, unquestionably, but Switzerland has not the ruggedness and raw breath of Montana.  It is not for nothing that Montana calls itself the Big Sky state.

In 1910, the Great Northern Railroad laid track and built stations throughout Montana.   They needed passengers so nearby to their stations Great Northern took raw materials and constructed enormous lodges on the style of Swiss Chalets.  The dozens of beams that support the East

Glacier Lodge, for example, measure almost four feet in diameter and 45 feet tall just to support the check-in and reception area.  Between these lodges, Great Northern built smaller abodes, about ten miles apart which, at the turn of the century, was an easy day of sightseeing on horseback.

Rich travelers from the east coast flocked to the facilities to stay in the lodges and travel through the mountains.  Today, the park stays open year-round, but the lodges are open only during the summer.  The snows come in early September and the winter temperatures sometimes don’t reach bottom at minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit.  The summer days are an exhilarating 80/45 degrees.

If you visit, do not pass up the huckleberry pie or the Red Jammer Crème Sodas, named after the park’s famous Red Jammer buses.  And, if you’re fortunate you may even spot a grizzly with its cubs or hike to a glacier like my family did.  On our first visit, five years ago, we were chased by an enormous forest fire that burned hundreds of park acreage and jumped the highway onto the Blackfeet Reservation.   The National Park Service has a policy to let fires burn.  (The Blackfeet apparently don’t think much of that policy because they quickly put it out on their side – albeit much easier to accomplish because of the decreased density of forest there).

Most of the pictures attached here were taken by my son, Harrison.  View his other photographs at HarrisonGivens.com

In the first three parts of our series we discussed the very difficult problem of how to terminate an employee.  We do not refer to  union-controlled jobs or contract labor.  These comments apply to those technology positions where you pay an employee for performance, assess that performance, and act accordingly.

There are two major categories that motivate your decision to terminate, either

1. You have run out of work for this employee
   1. There are no other jobs available in the company because you are already long on people everywhere and the company is downsizing.
   2. There are no other jobs available in the company because the person you chose to terminate does not have the skills necessary for transfer to another job.
2. You need to terminate for cause.

Today, we discuss the “plan.”  A good manager knows when the company is downsizing.  Keep abreast of the company and get a sense of what will be happening to the company in the next few months.  If you really want to help your employees, then start working on a plan now to help them transition.

It is debatable how much you tell the employees about the upcoming events.  If layoffs are imminent, then rumors run rampant and exhaust the energy of the company.  This is one of the biggest hidden liabilities to any company in trouble.  Employees spend an inordinate amount of time discussing the rumored layoffs with other employees, looking on-line for jobs, and generally taking the last remaining wind out of the company’s sails.  Unfortunately, this is at the time when the company desperately needs every breath from every employee.

As a manager, I do not in any way comment on rumors.  Even if I know a rumor to be true (or untrue), I do not address it, period.  I make that policy publicly known because once you start commenting on rumors, there is no end.  Employees begin to “bait” for what information you know and do not know and pretty soon you are embroiled it the fray and become the source of even more rumors because you “commented on this one, did not comment on that one.”  Also, in more than one instance, I have vehemently denied a rumor (“because it was so blatantly absurd”) only to see that rumor come true:  senior management above me actually did take such a “ridiculous action” and, for whatever reason, chose not to inform me.  Such happenings make you look totally out of touch with senior management and only serve to further erode the employees’ confidence in the company.  Ignore rumors entirely and do not acknowledge or comment on them.

If an employee really is not suitable for employment, you obviously would not want to recommend that person to anyone else.  Certainly, do not try to solve your personal dilemma of having a bad employee by transferring  her to somewhere else in the company.  This happens all the time and is the product of HR’s mistaken belief that every person fits somewhere in the company.  Some employees are simply not ready for the jobs or structure of your company.  They may need more education, they may need to solve a drug or drinking problem, they may need to get their lives in order, they may need an attitude change, or whatever.  It is perfectly correct to look for solutions but do not make “inter-company transfer” a part of your plan unless that is really the right solution for the company.  You owe it to your peers and superiors to make right choices and proper recommendations.

If it is just a matter of downsizing and this is the second or third round for your company, then you may find yourself terminating some very good people.  This is unfortunate and tragic, but does happen.  Knowing this to be the case, continually examine your network of peers in other companies.  Check with them to see how their jobs are faring.  Know which ones are hiring so you can recommend that company to the employee as an opportunity to investigate.  If possible, get the contact information for the Human Resources department of that company.  These companies are not usually competitors but just companies you do business with, companies where a good employee could continue his or her career.  Build a reputation as a manager who takes care of his people.  You may not be in control of the company, but you can certainly make a difference in each employee’s life.

Keep a mental list of your employees and know which ones are “at the bottom.”  Every manager develops a criteria for elimination.  Think about your criteria, carefully, and make sure your reasons are legally defensive, unbiased, and fair.  To the extent possible, make those reasons impersonal.

The most important part is to actually have a plan.  Take your technology management job seriously.

I am saddened to report that our wonderful Willie Lee Darter has passed away.  I think her to be the only truly good person I have ever known.

Only about three weeks ago, I posted a blog celebrating her 98th birthday; I did not anticipate this follow on.  Before she died, she asked me to do the eulogy at her funeral.  I took some of the prior material from that blog and enlarged upon it.  I include the full text here.  I regret that words cannot do her justice nor can they convey my sadness.

I realize that many readers will think 98 years sufficient. Those readers did not know Ms. Darter.

In 1888, Ola Lee Scales was born the second of what would be seven children to Hammond Bouldin Scales and Fannie Tennessee Brown. Ola was 19-years old when the township of Electra, Texas opened in 1907.  The Scales family farm was a few miles north of the town, near the Red River.  A local boy by the name of Hugh McClure came a courtin’ to the Scales house and Ola and Hugh were married.

In the hot summer, Willie Lee McClure was born July 7, 1913 to Ola Lee (Scales) McClure and Hugh Edward McClure.

Clayco #1, the oil well that started the Electra oil boom, was two years old and the town was growing by leaps and bounds.  Hugh tried his hand at sharecropper farming.  Now, Electra does have some of the finest dirt in the state, but rain to water it is a risky commodity.  Family farming in Electra is not for the faint hearted.

Several years ago, I ran across an old photograph.  I took it to Willie Lee and said, “Can you identify anyone in this old family picture I found?”  It was one of the most forlorn scenes you can imagine.  Four old tin buildings, sheet metal hanging loose, out in the middle of nowhere, dust blowing, and broom weeds the only vegetation.  One of the buildings has two large exhaust pipes exhausting steam up the stacks.  Willie Lee said, “Yes. I know this picture.  That woman is my mother, Ola.  Standing beside her is Grandma Scales.  Beside her is your grandmother, Lucian, and this person is Papa.”  She handed the picture back to me and laughed, “I’m in the picture, too.”  I examined the photo again and asked, “Where?”  She said, “I’m a little baby in that carriage there.”  [In the photograph, the entire carriage was no larger than a BB].  She said, “This is the water plant where Papa worked and we lived.”

When she was four years old, the family of two adults and three children moved to Branson, Colorado where they lived in a half-dugout and washed clothes in the river while Hugh attempted to “live out a claim.”  The government had advertised land in Branson, free for the taking, if you “lived out your claim.”  The attractive brochures that lured them to Branson failed to remark on the unfitness of the terrain for any sustenance.  Today, a full ninety years later, the city of Branson, Colorado boasts a total population of 45 women and 32 men.  Evidently, it’s still hard to “live out a claim” there.

Willie Lee said that one day she and Roxie, her sister two years younger, were out playing while their mom washed clothes in the small stream.  They told their mom that two big cats were looking at them from across the riverbed.  They were mountain lions seeking prey.  Hugh grabbed them all up and began to fortify the dugout.  Willie Lee said they never got to play near the river again.  She laughed and said, “We would be eating in the dugout.  Papa had a tow sack hanging above our eating table to keep the dust off our food.  I remember a centipede and a tarantula dropping from the tarp onto our eating table.  Mother hated those things.”

Needless to say, the hard Colorado winters and scarcely arable land forced them back to Electra.  They loaded up the covered wagon, just like in the movies, Hugh hitched the two horses and the family started back to Electra.  “We planned to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Scales until Papa could find a job, Willie Lee told me.  “I don’t know how happy Grandma and Grandpa were to have a whole wagonload of family settling in on them.”

Half-way home, in Amarillo, Texas, they met a man in a Model-T who was chugging up to Colorado.  Afraid his car could not pull the steep grade of Raton Pass, the man desired a wagon.  In Willie Lee’s words, “He showed Papa how to drive the car.  They probably went about 3-4 blocks.  They got out, and the trade was made.  Our family had a car.  Everything we owned went in, under, and on top of that car.  Mamma cried to see the horses go, but she had to do what Papa said, I imagine.”

“We arrived in Electra around midnight.  Papa drove up to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and kept honking the horn until they came out.”  “Why did he do that,” I asked?  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said.  “I think he just wanted to show off that he owned a car.”

She continued, “It wasn’t long after that that Papa took a job with the Electra Water Works and later, the Electra gasoline plant.”

At the age of twelve, Willie Lee attended a cottage prayer meeting with her Aunt Jewel Scales,  That event changed her life, forever.  In her own words, “the Spirit of God began to move in my heart and I was gloriously saved.”  She would spend the rest of her life focused on service for the Lord.

In 1930, when Willie Lee was only sixteen year old, her mother died, leaving six children, Roxie, Rusty, Henry, Virginia, and Willie Lee the oldest – Avril Jay, the youngest, was only nine months old.  The next few years were tumultuous for the family.  Willie Lee finished Electra High School.  It was customary then when you walked across the stage to have your friends and family “stand up for you” as you were awarded your diploma.  Willie Lee said that not a single person attended her graduation to “stand up for her.”  She supported herself by keeping children for a family in Wichita Falls.  Two years later, her beloved Aunt Jewel died, her mother’s sister who had witnessed to Willie Lee and invited her to that first prayer meeting.

The Church of God began to evangelize in the Electra area.  Willie Lee heard about their Bible School in Cleveland, Tennessee.  There was an older couple in Electra who planned to drive to Cleveland.  Willie Lee asked if she could ride with them and they agreed.  She would go to college.  Her aunt, Lucian Givens, made her a few dresses and gave her $1.50 to “buy stamps and write home.”  “Little did she know that was every penny I had,”  Willie Lee told me.

Arriving in Cleveland, she supported herself in college by living with a family, keeping their children, working the night shift at the Cleveland Hosiery Mills, and, later, working the day shift at the Pathway Press Publishing House.  Everyone she worked with fell in love with her, as they would the rest of her life.

She returned to Electra and, at age 21, married Edgar C. Darter on June 14, 1934.  At that time, Ed owned the Electra Mattress and Furniture Company.  Willie Lee took courses at what would later become Midwestern State University.  In 1938, she and Ed established Darter Furniture in Electra.  Hundreds of people attended the opening where a carnation was given to every lady who attended.  That furniture business would last for the next 29 years.

In the 1940’s, during the war, Ed bought an airplane.  Willie Lee learned how to navigate.  She would plot all the courses and update Ed, as needed.  She said that one time she fell asleep and when she woke up they had flown past Electra and were almost to Oklahoma City.  Ed was just flying along, obliviously happy, waiting for the next cue from Willie Lee.  That vignette stands out as exemplary of their relatonship; they made a great team.

Willie Lee wanted to be a pilot, herself, and earned her private pilot license, a milestone event for a woman of that era in the Midwest.   Her first solo flight lasted a full seven hours and 15 minutes.

They began to use the airplane and their business profits to perform mission work for the Church of God.  Her thinking was years ahead of the times.  While other churches were training pastors in the US as missionaries to go into foreign countries, she felt the most effective way was to bring the native workers to the US, train them here, and send them back as missionaries in their own countries.  It is the common theme, today, but was a novel ideal then.  So, Ed and Willie Lee became integral in creating and funding the International Preparatory Institute in San Antonio, a training ground for Latin American missionaries.

Locally, Ed became a pillar in the Business Men’s Fellowship.  They supported missionaries world-wide with their own resources and energized others for the mission fields.

In 1967, a customer, leaving late from the furniture store, failed to extinguish a lighted cigarette in the balcony.  During the night, the store and its contents burned, damaging the building and destroying all the contents.  That was the year I graduated from High School and I got a job cleaning and sanding down the tin panels in the ceiling, trying to restore the building.  I recall Ed talking with another gentleman and saying, “I don’t know if I will start it back up or not.”

A lesser individual might have been daunted by this setback, but the Lord had more work for Willie Lee and Ed Darter.  A year later, at age 55, Willie Lee was asked to fill the vacancy of the Women’s Ministries Department as Executive Secretary for the Church of God, its highest position for a woman.  She and Ed moved to Cleveland, Tennessee where she produced what she later considered her crowning life’s achievement, an international Christian training program for young girls.  She also modernized the women’s movement within the Church of God and, with help from Janice Givens of Electra, and others, published a book with illustrative Bible lessons for young children.

In 1978, while Willie Lee and Ed were on a holiday visit to Electra, on Christmas Day, Ed suffered a fatal heart attack.  This hastened Willie Lee’s decision to retire as Executive Secretary for the Church of God, after fulfilling ten noteworthy years.  Willie Lee stayed seven more years in Cleveland and moved to Iowa Park at the age of 72-years.

By that time, her work had taken her across the US numerous times and to many international destinations, including Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Israel, England, Germany, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Argentina, and Venezuela – always with the same message – the glorious saving power of Jesus Christ, the same message she had received as a young girl in Electra

I asked her once, “How is it that in all of your adversity, your mother dying young, your having to make your own way, the furniture store burning, your husband dying suddenly, “How is it you were able to keep going.”  She, of course said it was only with the help of the Lord, but when I pressured her she did concede, “I guess it’s true I’m not easily discouraged.”

And yet, in her mid-seventies, there was more work to do.  At Iowa Park, she became instrumental in setting up a ministry for the Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico.  She garnered the support of local churches and shipped truckloads and tons of clothing, supplies, Bibles, and Christian literature to help the Indians, both materially and spiritually.  She made her last trip, personally, to the reservation at the age of 90-years, but continued to garner support, encourage others, and champion the cause of Jesus Christ when she could no longer travel to the reservation, herself.

She died at her battle station some three weeks after celebrating her 98^th birthday.

She was preceded in death by a dear son and daughter, Benford Lawson of Sonora and Lee Ola Able of Electra, two granddaughters, Kami and Jana Lawson of Sonora, and one great granddaughter, Shanea Curry of Electra.  She was preceded by two sisters, Roxie Hugh Lawson and Virginia Ruth Eakin, and one brother, Ira Andrew (Rusty) McClure, all of Electra.

She is survived by two brothers, Henry Edward McClure of Electra and Avril Jay McClure of Kaufman, along with two granddaughters, Lee Ann Ray and Tracey Able, and many great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

On July 26, 2011, the Lord called for a servant.

Willie Lee Darter answered and said, “Here am I.”

Now the Lord shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you.  With long life He will satisfy you and show you his salvation.  His angels, they shall bear you up in their hands …

(Paraphrase of Psalms 91)

In a previous blog we began a series on how to terminate an employee.  The series is not intended to address union-controlled jobs or contract labor.  It applies to those technology positions where you pay an employee for performance, assess that performance, and act accordingly.

There are two major categories that motivate your decision to terminate, either

1. You have run out of work for this employee
   1. There are no other jobs available in the company because you are already long on people everywhere and the company is downsizing.
   2. There are no other jobs available in the company because the person you chose to terminate does not have the skills necessary for transfer to another job.
2. You need to terminate for cause.

Whichever of these reasons, if you are like most technologists, just this morning you made the decision (or were told) to terminate the employee and you want to get it over with by the end of the day.  Sorry, you cannot do that, not ethically, not morally, and usually not procedurally.

The number one management task that most technology managers fail to implement is keeping a personnel log.  To the technologist, the written log is a nuisance because we like to keep things in our head and we hate documentation and accountability.  Nevertheless, it is a sine quo non.  You must keep a log of every employee’s performance.

I recommend a simple spread sheet.  Make a single column for each direct employee and put their names in that column.  Label the rest of the columns by the date of each Friday, or whichever day of the week you choose to make your entry.  You need make only one entry per week.  Not one per month, not one per year, not one per day; make one per week.  Not two, not three; one.  Do not do this at the end of every day.  Pick one day of the week.  I like Fridays because I can do it last thing before I leave.  Plus, that week’s performance is fresh on my mind.

Beside each employee’s name, in the weekly columns, make comments as to the performance of that employee that week.  If the employee did something exemplary, make a note of it.  If the employee was late Tuesday and Thursday, make a note of how late and which day.  Record any excuses the employee may have given.  Annotate good events and bad events.  Keep opinions out of it.  Denote actual performance against some standard.  If the employee missed a schedule or milestone, note that.  If the employee made the milestone, note that also.  Keep the annotation and reporting short, but understandable, succinct, and factual.  Make it full of facts and events.  Avoid opinions and impressions.

Some events are so noteworthy, either good or bad, that you need paper documentation.  If so, file these away in a folder.  If you want to keep a folder for each employee, as I do, fine.  If the file is electronic, fine.

Why do all this?  Because you need documentation for any action you plan to take in the future, either good or bad.  Do not wait until the fatal day arrives to document.  Do it weekly.

Give feedback weekly to the employee.  This does not have to be formal.  It is best when done informally.  Just go by the workstation and tell her that you know she was late for work twice that week.  Let him know he did not meet the milestone.  Do not be rude or embarrassing or intimidating.  It is not personal, it is business.  Just let every employee know what you expect, when, and in what form.  Do not leave them in doubt about shortcomings.  Let them know when they have done exemplary work.  Give immediate feedback whenever possible.

Do not leave them in doubt about either good or bad performance.  If they did a good job, say so.  If it is worthy of stronger or broader recognition, do so.  Throw a party, print up certificates, buy plaques, or whatever is commensurate with the achievement.

Whatever you do, make sure that your spreadsheet annotation matches your actions.  The worst mistake you can make is to single out an employee for termination and this action come as a total surprise to him.  Every employee should know where he or she stands in your eyes, as manager.  You owe that to them.  It is an essential part of your job.

This documentation is essential to performing your job.  It is essential if you plan to terminate for whatever reason.  Anytime you select or single out an employee for termination, you need justification.  Make your documentation count.

When review-time comes, use this employee spreadsheet to evaluate the employee.  That way, your annual or semiannual appraisal matches what you have been saying to the employee.  If you wait until the end of the year to do the review, you will forget too many things and will be able only to talk in generalized terms.  This is not fair to the employee.  The employee needs and wants specifics.

In the next blog, we address the review process and how to best use your managerial documentation.