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New column!  Fortune 500 Forum :- )   :: crowd goes wild ::

:: buried in crumpled Dixie Cups ::

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Ahem.  :: taps microphone ::

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A Tale of Two Engines, Dept.

In the late 80's and early 90's, Boeing launched a critical new program, the one that produced the 777 jumbo jet.  Only two engines, but transatlantic.  Quality Assurance was critical, because the FAA wasn't going to sign off on two-engine ocean flights unless ... well, you get the idea.

With programs like this, there is just a leeeeetle bit more at stake than a 71-91 won-loss record.  It isn't like Boeing execs have less pressure on them than does Howard Lincoln.

They put a bright young 30-something executive in charge of their sparkly-new Quality Assurance department.  Think Keanu Reeves.

This bright young executive needed, in turn, an ideas man, somebody who could help him move QA into the next generation.  That ideas man happened to be ... guess who?  You got it.  'twas Your Humble Correspondent.

Keanu was not messing around, when he said he wanted to go next-generation.  Before Keanu hired Dr. D, he put Dr. D through a long series of interviews.  In these, Dr. D was required to demonstrate new ideas, respond to skeptical questions, and the like... one time Dr. D was asked to produce a list of 20 different process improvements to the QA system.  

Something which, by the way, had Dr. D wallowing in white boards and dry-erase markers.

This bright young executive wanted real improvement.  And so he wanted outside consultants, people who had NOT worked inside the system, people who could bring ...

 *** FRESH PERSPECTIVE. ***

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We Been Putting Planes In the Air for 40 Years, Dept.

There are good reasons to hire from within.  There are good reasons for groupthink.  There are times when the priority is to get everybody on the same sheet of music.   Sometimes you need to stop asking questions, and just get the final print into the can.

This, however, wasn't the time.

The 50-something executive ABOVE Keanu Reeves ... think Anthony Hopkins ... hired the people UNDER Keanu.  

He hired them all out of Defense and Space.  We got a bunch of crusty old military vets (no offense Bat571!) who were personally offended at the idea that their DNSG processes could be improved.

The 60-something DNSG manager -- think Tommy Lee Jones -- liked me, but he flat told me "We ain't going to give you a permanent job until we get BOEING tatoo'ed onto your forehead, kid."  What he meant by that is hard to explain ... there is a Defense & Space way of thinking about things, a way of prioritizing things, a way of finishing the boss's sentences for him, in the way he wants you to.

Tommy Lee liked Dr. D fine, on a personal level.  As a no-nonsense military vet, he also liked Dr. D's ability to complete in 1 day, what took one of his people 30 days to complete.  What he did not like, was Dr. D's tendency to recommend changes.  

We mention that factoid at this point, only because --- > one of those two things was more important to Tommy Lee than the other.  Guess which one?

And are we connecting the dots vis-a-vis Nintendo lawyers yet?

To make a long, sad story short, it all got wayyyyyy behind schedule.  About four months on, the Anthony Hopkins exec fired Keanu, and fired Tommy Lee, and threw pretty much everybody else under the bus.  Except Dr. D and a few other rain-makers, but these also lasted only a few months longer.  

Sir Hopkins had thought that Keanu + Tommy Lee would provide synergy.  Instead it provided a clustermess of galactic proportions, as some of us tried to IMPROVE things while others fought bitterly to STABILIZE things.

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Loyalty ... to Whom?, Dept.

Fast forward ten years, at which point Dr. D is consulting for a certain software giant operating out of Renton.  Comes the time, a year in, when down comes a directive to cut costs.

A 4th-level exec decides, in one swoop of the pen, that there's a great way to do so.  This is his excuse to release all "consultants," while retaining all permanent employees.

I am here to tell you that this exec chopped off some World. Class. Talent. when he did that.  Think Carl Sagan types who were "consulting" with permanent workers comparable to the Pointy-Haired Boss in Dilbert.  One guy, I'll call him Jack N., always had three-to-six people crowding around his desk begging him to solve their software problems for them.  The permanent workers were constantly resorting to us consultants to fix their messes.

In the steering committees, I'd facilitate, twelve "suits" would sit around the table, thirty workers would be on the walls, and Jack N., would throw out answers to any problem posed by anyone in the room, any organization.  Jack N. left, the worker drones stayed.

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Why would you blow your own foot off like that?  Very simple.  The exec simply felt like, if you aren't loyal enough to us to commit to a permanent position, then I don't want you around.  

In reality, he liked guys who jumped through hoops on command.  He wanted employees who were "broken to the yoke," guys who would not "spit the bit" in a crisis.  He rationalized this as rewarding loyalty.  In reality, if he had been loyal to his end customers, he would have kept the people who produced a better product.

The brilliant contract workers left.  The less-brilliant permanent workers stayed.  Service and defects got worse - a lot worse.  But he'd made his point.   Whatever it was.   :: shrug ::  Later, a massive housecleaning took place.

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This illustrates a simple point:  when high-level execs promote from within, they will TELL you that they are rewarding loyalty.  What they really want, usually, is underlings who are easy to work with. 

Also, some execs find Subject Matter Experts like Jack N. to be ... embarrassing.  Here you are, pulling down $300K a year, and a Subject Matter Expert is reprising Albert Einstein while you look on open-mouthed.

Billy Beane cheerfully admitted that he is "always the dumbest guy in the room," and that's how he wants it.  Zduriencik goes through the same thing; his stats analysts are smarter than he is.  Jack Z doesn't mind.  You've heard Jack say "Bill James is a whale of a lot smarter than I am, but..."

GM's, in baseball, are expected to work with Einsteins.  I don't notice that this is true of Howard Lincoln, do you?

It is possible that Howard Lincoln could find it embarrassing to work with Tony La Russa?

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If an exec really wants to improve things, if he is really motivated to do that, he'll bring in outside people.  For exactly the same reason that he changes field managers:  a new manager sees through the blind spots that the old one had.

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Vis-a-Vis Tony La Russa 

When Howard Lincoln gave his interview recently, he made one (1) major point about Chuck Armstrong.

Chuck is connected, you understand.  Chuck has influence in the game.  The only way the Mariners get many things done, is because Chuck Armstrong has credibility with the other 29 organizations.

Okay, here comes Tony La Russa, who unquestionably and obviously brings this credential, to such a degree as to dwarf that of any internal Mariner candidate.  You would now pass over La Russa's "fresh perspective" and industry clout, in order to keep a loyal henchman under you ... why?

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Incidentally, Dr. D is not a huge IQ guy, but ... in the 1980's, anyway, there was a persistent undercurrent (outside the game) that La Russa was some sort of 170-IQ genius.  He does have a law degree from FSU, has passed the bar exam, yada yada yada.  

The point is, if Nintendo wants raw intellectual horsepower on the team, La Russa brings that too.

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Where the animals charity thing fits in, I dunno ... I'd rather see people putting that kind of effort into helping children who are dying in the Philippines.  But "the righteous man regards the life of his beast"...

Compassion for animals isn't the worst thing in the world to include in your public "brand."  Obviously the Mariners, in PC Seattle, could create an entire movement off of La Russa's genuine compassion for animals.

Ordinarily, this "skill set" of La Russa's would snowball into an avalanche of obvious advantages that swept away all in its wake...

There is one big negative that attaches to La Russa's hiring.  He would mean an authentic improvement, er change, in the way the Mariners operate.  Improvement, er, change can be a hassle.

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Fortune 500 Forum.  You'll be able to tell a whale of a lot by the Tony La Russa decision.  The decision will be a window into Lincoln's business soul.

That's my opinion I could be wrong,

Jeff