I had lunch with my friend BJ on Saturday and we were discussing a concept called Completed Staff Work. This is a concept I had heard of before from the military but Klaus Kleinfeld was the first person who I have met who has put it to effective use in a massive company.
Back in 2016 (on 21st Octover 2016) I spend some time with Jeff Smart and his friend Patrick said, “Jeff, your work shows me how to select “A” Players – but what I need is a book that tells my team how to become “A” Players” – and that statement has led me into creating that book for my team. It is in draft form and it is still a work in progress, but here is a small section from my notes below (it will be converted into a simple ‘how to’ format and links will be posted here as it is updated)
Historian George Santayana said “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
Klaus Kleinfeld Chairman of Alcoa at the time (Previously CEO Siemens)
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Kleinfeld
Riccardo Mariti (RM) Klaus Kleinfeld (KK) notes from Guthrie Castle – 15.04.2013 – 17:15h
(Notes from chapter 13 from my new book soon to be published)
Question
“What are you looking for in the ideal executive?”
Answer
- Self-starter
- Goes the extra mile
- How they treat others
- Character
- Looks out for the executive that kisses up and kicks down
- Inspects daily actions
- Respects people
- True character shows when people think you are not looking
- Respect also means that every individual has the same value
- Cleaners KK said, “I just like to talk to people. It’s the way you engage” – “I remember a cleaner saying to me one time that he really appreciated the fact that I asked him questions; he said when you are poor people look through you”
RM asked: – Regarding the concept that “Silence implies giving tacit approval – how does this translate into the corporate arena?”
KK answers: – “It is important that the founder imposes his DNA on the company.”
“The founder can do this by telling stories”
“Feedback and participation are part of the process. New hires have the same right to speak up.”
“Founder and senior managers must set the expectation level.”
“It’s always how you achieve the largest impact.”
Asking, “Are you aware of what just happened in this room?”
“It’s about good coaching – using every opportunity as a coaching moment.”
“Ideal scenario is”, “Let me understand why you think that?”
“Turn your hypothesis into questions”
- Feedback
- Regular Reviews Tuesdays 08:30h
- Tuesdays 07:30h 100 people on the phone for the order intake call
- Friday – “Leadership Team send me a letter. It’s a Dear Klaus letter (I ask them “tell me what’s on your mind”) this letter is cc’d to the whole group (division) so is a way for all members to stay in touch with what’s going on. – NOTE Klaus reads all of these on Saturdays”
- Each 4 weeks they have 2 days of performance reviews
- Strategy, budget, people
- Each 3 months they have 3 more days
- Investors, customers, suppliers, communities, politicians
KK studied a German-style MBA, studied software programming for mainframe computers also philosophy and psychology and statistics. Loved statistics.
“My desire is to solve problems that are hard to crack”
He was product manager “Nervous system pharmaceuticals” for drug development team, science and marketing
“Career planning is a myth”
“It’s not about the amount of time you spend with family, it’s the quality of how you engage in the critical moments”
“Dan came later in my life” (Dan Pena (DP))
“My family were refugees from East Germany
Father was an engineer. He built cranes and forked lifts at Focher”
Talking about East Germany – “I observed an environment that is Un-Free”
“I truly believe that I can learn something from every single person. You don’t have the right to look down on people”
“High-performance organizations have to be Value-Based”
Question –Do you act as a mentor to your direct reports?
“Yes, but not officially now I’m CEO”
“Build your leadership – and your recruiting process- with your values… you have to hard wire the values system … create systems for this …
“When you are disappointed with that person, get a system out”
“Founders do it naturally but as a manager, you have to do it systematically”
How many direct reports do you have?
“25-30 … I don’t believe in 2-3”
(DP later said over dinner, “yes but the 25-30 people reporting to KK are of the highest quality, not like the moron brother-in-law most of you have working with you!”)
Performance dialogue is extremely hardwired in calendar
Discussion is part of it … some is in a set format
We call it succession planning
Part of the evaluation process is set and structured and another part is free-flowing
Monthly / Quarterly
Long discussions, with customers about customers, looking at numbers etc.
Toughest decision I made was deciding to leave Siemens after 21 years. There was a crisis; made a fast decision … it took 8 weeks to make the decision.
I don’t have assistants. They are using “borrowed power”. Everyone is somebody who works for me!
I often reach down, deep down to the lowest levels and it produces chaos. … And I want chaos
I do all of my own emails
I only touch it once. I force myself to conclude even if it’s replying “Let’s discuss!”
(The following is what BJ Wright was particularly interested in:-)
I took a military concept called “Completed staff work”
I expect staff to use this format when they communicate with me. I want them to say “These are the alternatives and I suggest … It must be complete … they have to assemble all the facts.
It’s your duty when you have a problem to think it through as long as I would think it through and you have to come up with your best solution and give it your best shot even if you’re not 100% sure.
You then have three boxes for me to tick one: –
- Yes, I approve
- Let’s discuss
- No
The subject line of all emails must contain FYI (for your information) or “Needs Decision”
Talent management process
Formal evaluation once a year
- Financial
- Customers
- Employees
- Attitude
- 4e’s and P
- The 4 E’s of Leadership (From Jack Welch)
- Energy – Individuals with energy love to “go, go, go.” These people possess boundless energy and get up every day ready to attack the job at hand. High energy people move at 95 miles-per-hour in a 55 mile-per-hour world.
- Energizers – know how to spark others to perform. They outline a vision and get people to carry it out. Energizers know how to get people excited about a cause or a crusade. They are selfless in giving others the credit when things go right, but quick to accept responsibility when things go awry.
- Edge – Those with edge are competitive types. They know how to make the really difficult decisions, such as hiring, firing and promoting, never allowing the degree of difficulty to stand in their way.
- Execute – The key to the entire model. Without measurable results, the other “E’s” are of little use. Executers recognize that activity and productivity are not the same and are capable of converting energy and edge into action and results.
- P is for Passion
Self-assessment goes into talent sheet
Education – what businesses you have experience
Top 400 positions go into succession process
Categories: –
- Ready Now
- 1-3 years
- 3-5 years
- Your name can appear numerous times in numerous places for succession
Talent marketplace
Top 300 talents … identify talent … I think that person could also do x
Takes 21/2 days (not sure what I meant here BJ, I will look up my notes and amend or expand)
KK worked in many businesses … had consulting business
Learnt how to do benchmarking and build growth programmes
Projects, not theory became knowledge
Company Vision
- Language has its insufficiencies
- You need a vision that connects to the heart of a person
- You have to get the heart especially when things get tough
- Now operationalize the vision
- Asking “what does that mean for this?
- “What does that mean for that?”
- Turning the vision into real life through systems and policies
- Go through the whole vision and break it down into do-able chunks
NOTES FROM DINNER
Question: – What did Dan (DP) teach you?
Answer: –
- Trust my instincts
- Trust your instincts!
- You never have all the facts
- I no longer felt I had to “de-risk” my decisions
- If you double your speed, even if you make 2 or 3 mistakes your net balance is higher (Dan added “Mistakes above the waterline!” – i.e. if they are below the water line it could sink the ship!)
- Move faster
- Move faster to get out of my comfort zone
- How did he push you?
- Through Challenges!
- Not to be intimidated by elders.
- To trust my instincts
- To not listen to their “conventional wisdom”
- Confidence to still be able to show them respect even if I didn’t do what they thought I should
- Have goals
- Reflect on why I didn’t reach my goals
- I had a 1-page Mind map of my goals – on my desktop & iPad & phone
- Goals I wrote down I reached quicker (they were in the forefront of my mind)
- My worry was how I would get there – Dan helped me to ignore this and postulate regardless
Jack Welch is a dear friend
DP said KK was like a sponge. Absorbs information. Writes things down!
Send this through to your boss every day – do it for yourself, your life will never be the same, and neither will theirs! – the quality of this report will determine how much you de-commoditize you –
- Daily Report version#1 “Reporting” (Dan Pena)
What did I do today?
What am I going to do tomorrow?
What Didn’t I do today that I said I would yesterday and why?
Problems?
Areas of improvement:
Suggestion:
BJ, Here is a letter I sent to Scott with the references
Dear Scott,
I mentioned Klaus Kleinfeld saying that the two things that really changed his life were a) setting goals and then (if unsuccessful) spending a lot of time analyzing why he didn’t reach them, and b) Completed Staff Work which they got the idea from the US Military.
I made some notes for Dan Pena and enclose below.
Hope you have a great trip to US.
Very best wishes,
Riccardo
Basically when a member of staff communicates with you it is done in the following way:-
The subject line either says “Subject +FYI” or “Subject + Needs Decision”
If it says “Subject + Needs Decision”
then the following is also needed
1) They state the situation
2) Give all data necessary to make a decision
3) Advise a solution / decision
4) Contain a space say 1) “I approve” 2) “I do not approve” 3) “We need to discuss”
Further notes
The Doctrine of Completed Staff Work
The following memorandum has been reproduced countless times by military and civilian organizations since World War II and has become a widely accepted definition of what effective staff members do. The original source of the memorandum is unclear. Some reports indicate that the memo was issued in January 1942 by the Provost Marshal General, U.S. Army. It has also bee attributed to Brigadier G.E.R. Smith, a member of the Royal Canadian Army, who released it in 1943, while he was serving as Deputy Director of Supplies and Transport, First Canadian Army.
COMPLETED STAFF WORK
- The doctrine of “completed staff work” will be the doctrine of this office.
- “Completed Staff Work” is the study of a problem, and presentation of a solution, by a staff officer, in such form that all that remains to be done on the part of the head of the staff division, or the commander, is to indicate his approval or disapproval of the completed action. The words “completed staff action” are emphasized because the more difficult the problem is the more the tendency is to present the problem to the chief in piece-meal fashion. It is your duty as a staff officer to work out the details. You should not consult your chief in the determination of those details, no matter how perplexing they may be. You may and should consult other staff officers. The product, whether it involves the pronouncement of a new policy or affect an established one, should when presented to the chief for approval or disapproval, be worked out in finished form.
- The impulse which often comes to the inexperienced staff officer to ask the chief what to do, recurs more often when the problem is difficult. It is accompanied by a feeling of mental frustration. It is so easy to ask the chief what to do, and it appears so easy if you do not know your job. It is your job to advise your chief what he ought to do, not to ask him what you ought to do. He needs your answers, not questions. Your job is to study, write, restudy and rewrite until you have evolved a single proposed action – the best one of all you have considered. Your chief merely approves or disapproves.
- Do not worry your chief with long explanations and memoranda. Writing a memorandum to your chief does not constitute completed staff work, but writing a memorandum for your chief to send to someone else does. Your view should be placed before him in finished form so that he can make them his views by simply signing his name. In most instances, competed staff work results in a single document prepared for the signature of the chief, without accompanying comment. If the proper result is reached, the chief will usually recognize it at once. If he wants comment or explanation, he will ask for it.
- The theory of completed staff work does not preclude a “rough draft”, but the rough draft must not be a half-baked idea. It must be completed in every respect except that it lacks the requisite number of copies and need not be neat. But a rough draft must not be used as an excuse for shifting to the chief the burden of formulating the action.
- The “completed staff work” theory may result in more work for the staff officer, but it results in more freedom for the chief. This is as it should be. Further, it accomplishes two things:
- The chief is protected from half-baked ideas, voluminous memoranda, and immature oral presentations.
- The staff officer who has a real idea to sell is enabled to more readily to find a market.
- When you have finished your “completed staff work” the final test is this: If you were the chief would you be willing to sign the paper you have prepared, and stake your professional reputation on its being right? If the answer is negative, take it back and work it over because it is not yet “completed staff work”
This is what Klaus was talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Completed_Staff_Work
http://asq.org/pub/qualityprogress/past/0307/qp0307career.html
http://asq.org/img/qp/072289-table1.gif
