If an executive has his flow lines wrong he will NEVER be a Product Officer but only a comm clerk.
For some poor reason executives get themselves onto all comm lines in their area. Probably it is an individual Why for each one. But the fact remains that they do do it!
And they promptly cease to be useful to anyone. While they “work” like mad!
Basically they have confused a comm line with a command line. These are two different things. A comm line is the line on which particles flow, it is horizontal. A command line is a line on which authority flows. It is vertical.
Here is an example of a divisional secretary who can get nothing accomplished while sweating blood over her “work.”
Now quite obviously this secretary is suffering from “fear of juniors’ actions” or “having to know all.” Exactly nothing will happen because the person is plowed under with paper. No real actions are taken. Just relays.
One such secretary of a division even acted as the relay point on all out and in BODY traffic. In short, just a divisional receptionist.
No product. Nothing happening at vast expense.
Here is another example. The correct one.
This is known as horizontal flow.
It is a fast flow system.
The correct terminals in each department are addressed by terminals outside the dept, directly. And are so answered.
Now we have a divisional secretary who is a PRODUCT OFFICER and whose duty is to get each department and section and unit producing what it is supposed to produce.
So long as a command line is confused with the comm line an org will not produce much of anything but paper.
It is vital that an executive keep himself informed.
The joker is, the despatch line does NOT keep him informed. It only absorbs his time and energy.
The data is not in those despatches.
The data an executive wants is in STATISTICS and REPORTS and briefings.
Statistics get posted and are kept up-to-date for anyone to look at, especially but not only the executive. They must ACCURATELY reflect production, volume, quality and viability.
Reports are summaries of areas or people or situations or conditions.
The sequence is (a) statistic goes unusually high, (b) an inspection or reports are required in order to evaluate it and reinforce it.
Or (a) the statistic dives a bit and (b) an inspection or reports are needed to evaluate and correct it.
Thus an executive is NOT dealing with the despatches or bodies of the division’s inflow and outflow lines but the facts of the division’s production in each section.
An executive makes sure he has comm lines, yes. But these are so he can make sure stats get collected and posted, so reports can be ordered or received and so he can receive or issue orders about these situations.
Despatch-wise that is all an executive handles.
Personally or by representative, an executive INSPECTS continually.
His main duties are
All this adds up to the production of what the division is supposed to produce. Not an editing of its despatches.
A good executive is all over the place getting production done.
On a product he names it, wants it, gets it, gets it wanted, gets in the exchange for it.
He cannot do this without doing OBSERVATION by (1) stats, (2) reports, (3) inspections.
And he can’t get at what’s got it bugged without evaluation. And he can’t evaluate without an idea of stats and reports and inspections.
Otherwise he won’t know what to order in order to SUPERVISE. And once again he supervises on the basis of what he names, wants, gets, gets wanted and gets the exchange for.
This is the scene of an executive.
If he is doing something else he will be a failure.
The scene is an active PRODUCTION SCENE where the executive is getting what’s wanted and working out what will next be wanted.
An actual executive can work.
A real fireball can do any job he has getting done under him better than anyone he has working for him or under him.
He can’t be kidded or lied to.
He knows.
Thus a wobble of a stat has him actively looking in the exact right place. And evaluating knowingly on reports. And getting the exact right WHY. And issuing the exact right orders. And seeing them get done. And knowing it’s done right because he knows it can be done and how to do it.
Now that’s an ideal scene for an exec.
But any exec can work up to it.
If he does a little bit on a lower job each day, “gets his hands dirty” as the saying goes, and masters the skill, he soon will know the whole area. If he schedules this as his 1400 to 1500 stint or some such time daily, he’ll know them all soon. And if he burns the midnight oil catching up on his study.
And he knows he must watch stats and then rapidly get or do observations, so he can evaluate and find real WHYs quickly and get the correction in and by supervision get the job done.
That’s the ideal scene for the exec himself where he’s head of the whole firm or a small part of it.
If he can’t do it he will very likely hide himself on a relay despatch line and appear busy while it all crashes unattended.
An exec of course has his own admin to do but they don’t spend hours at it or consider it their job for it surely isn’t. Possibly an hour a day at the most handles despatches unless of course one doesn’t police the dev-t in them.
Most of their evaluations are not written. They don’t “go for approval” when they concern somebody’s post jam. They are done by investigation on the spot and the handling is actual, not verbal.
A desk is used (a) to work out plans, (b) catch up the in-basket, (c) interview someone, (d) write up orders. Two-thirds of their time is devoted to production. Even if a thousand miles away they still only spend 1/3rd of their time on despatches.
An executive has to be able to produce the real products and to get production. That defines even an Esto whose product has to do with an established person or thing.
Any department, any division, any org, any area responds the same way — favorably — to such competence.
To attain this ideal scene with an executive, one can find out WHY he isn’t, by getting him to study this P/L and then find WHY he can’t really do it and then by programming him to remedy lack of know-how and other actions increase his ability until he is a fireball.
If you are lucky you will have a fireball to begin with. But only the stats and the truth of them tell that!
Esto action: Can you do all this and these things? If the answer is no or doubtful or if the executive isn’t doing them, find the Why and remedy.