Bull Feather Chronicles: Conversations with an Intuitive Manager ppt

Bull Feather Chronicles:
Conversations with an Intuitive Manager
By
Dr. Woody Sears
PUBLISHED BY
Woodrow H. Sears at Smashwords.
Editorial/Design Support by
PleasantValleyPress.net
BULL Feather Chronicles:
Conversations with an Intuitive Manager
Copyright © 2011 Woodrow Sears
License Notes
This free ebook is a collection of articles that first appeared in Expert Access, the
business journal published during 2010 and 2011 by Cincom, the pioneering
creator and distributor of business software. It is made available by permission of
the publisher. You are free to reprint this book, share it with friends, or quote from
it, but please provide attribution as follows: “Dr. Woody Sears, writing in Cincom's
Expert Access Business Journal.” Thank you for respecting the author's work and
the publisher's ownership.
Table of Contents
Bull Feather Chronicles:
#1: Management Theory is Useless!
#2: Motivation? Not for People who are Appreciated
#3: Coaching? Just Begin with Telling the Truth
#4: Who’s in Charge Here?
#5: Team Building is a Waste of Time and Money
#6: Outstanding Customer Service Requires Intelligent Delegation
#7: Don’t Monkey About with Morale
#8: If You Want to Hear God Laugh…
#9: Planning is Easy, but Scheduling is an Art Form
#10: Project Management is Easy—It’s the Clerical Discipline That’s

Difficult!
#11: Managing Change—It’s an Everyday Requirement Now!
#12: Ouch! Ethics!
About the Bull Feathers Chronicles Participants
Author’s Note
These conversations with my friend, Andy Graves, took place over several years
during his posting at U.S. Embassies in Vilnius, Lithuania; Oslo, Norway; and
Tallinn, Estonia. We talked while he was cooking, tending turkeys on the Weber,
over dinners, in bars, and walking through the forests near his Vilnius and Tallinn
homes. Accordingly, these conversations are reconstructions of fragments of
discussions, assembled with the certain knowledge that they accurately represent
the attitudes and practices of one of the finest managers I've met in 40 years as a
consultant and management educator.
At root, Andy is an expediter. He knows how to get things done. He knows from his
head and heart how to work with people, and his people respond to him with
appreciation and affection. I was a guest at a reunion with a staff from eight years
past, and it was like a family reunion. In truth, how often do you imagine people
show up on their own time to celebrate the visit of a boss from eight years back?
That is the measure of a special individual.
Now, Andy is using his skills and talent as an Embassy management officer, the
individual who is in charge of all the non-political, non-diplomatic activities and
operations within the Embassy. His current staff has been recognized for its
achievements when measured against other locally-engaged staff worldwide.
It is also important that you know that Andy spent 22 years in the U.S. Air Force
and won numerous performance awards. Most readers will not have experienced
military service, but for those with the will to learn and lead, the military offers
training and opportunities to prove their capabilities. Andy Graves is an outstanding
example of the kinds of leaders that system produces. He is embarrassed by my
persistence in writing about him, insisting that he is just doing what he’s paid to do.
But trust me, better than the average bear! I am pleased to introduce you to the

headwork of a truly intuitive manager
I also want to acknowledge the support of Steve Kayser, the award-winning editor
of Expert Access who chose to include these conversations in his exciting and
valuable journal. If you haven’t yet discovered this great free resource, please
check it out at: cincom.expertaccess.com.
~~~~~
You know about Intel’s Andy Grove – but do you know Andy Graves?
Probably not. This Andy is a retired USAF master sergeant, a natural leader, and a
born (intuitive) manager who currently works for the U.S. Department of State.
This is a record of a recent conversation.
Bull Feather Chronicles #1:
Management Theory is Useless!
Woody: What do you mean? You can't say categorically that management theory is
useless. For the last 100 years…
Andy: No, that's exactly what I mean! For the last 100 years, we've been capturing
people and putting them in work groups they didn't choose. As often as not with
people they don't like and wouldn't choose to be with. What managers and wanna-
be managers need to know is how to mix with those people and help them find the
common points of interest that will let them work together effectively. And
challenging their ability to hang onto their salaries is a good place to start getting
their attention.
Woody: I thought goals, objectives, and targets and team building did that kind of
thing.
Andy: I love that story about Frederick Taylor designing a new coal scoop 100
years ago—you know, when scientific management was born? As far as working
people think, management's been redesigning the coal scoop ever since, trying to
find new ways to make them work harder, faster, cheaper. Most people believe in
program goals like they believe in bull feathers.
Woody: So how would you train managers?
Andy: That woman you quoted in your book* said it—but no guy ever would—that

you have to love your people enough to listen to them. People who can't do that
can't be managers—just people pushers. When managers don't listen, they send a
clear signal that they don't care about their people. Even so, they think their people
are dumb enough to do extra work for them, to make them look good in front of
their bosses. Man, I don't think so!
Woody: People pushers? I like that term. Never heard it before.
Andy: That's the alternative to having your people working with you. If a manager
can't get in with his or her staff and lead them to see the points of common interest
among them, then the only choice is to threaten, push, and behave in ways that
are basically abusive and push people further away. Those are the nasty guys
everyone knows and hates.
Woody: Yeah, I've known a lot of those guys, and some women too. But back to
the question—what do you recommend for manager training? Or, better, the great
theorist Douglas McGregor—the Theories X and Y guy—said that every managerial
act begins with a theory. What's your theory of management, the ideas that guide
you?
Andy: Empowerment! Responsibility! Collaboration! These words don't have
meaning outside the context of a specific group doing specific tasks in a specific
place and time. Otherwise, those words are just more bull feathers. I guess I push
too hard sometimes, but I want people to make decisions, to act as if the work was
their own, to make sure it gets done to support the mission. But for that to work,
everyone has to be held accountable and be responsible for doing professional work
that meets the expectations of others whose work must be integrated into a service
or product.
Woody: Does everyone “get it?” Do they appreciate your approach?
Andy: I wish it, but no. There are always some hardheads who've got their egos
and heads up their a s. But the majority get used to me and find that they are
doing more work independently, slipping into leadership roles, and taking initiatives
they never imagined before. You have to remember that most of the people I work
with are locally-employed staff, and in this part of the world (Eastern Europe), their

culture tells them not to stand out, not to be noticed, not to outperform their
colleagues. But this tends to chill down when the rewards and recognition starts
coming—not only from me, but from the Ambassador, the Deputy Chief of Mission,
and from Washington and regional bureaus. As for the hardheads, they are a
benchmark for how far we've come.
Woody: So there really is a theory behind management success?
Andy: If it's a personal theory. But real people at work don't want theory. They
want to know in specific terms how to be successful. They want to perform well,
they want to please their managers, and they want to be appreciated when they
make extra effort. Anything else is just pure bull feathers. I've been sent to a lot of
so-called management training, and it's at least 50 percent bull feathers and has no
connection to working with untrained staff on tight deadlines and inadequate
budgets That's where the “can do spirit” kicks in, and I think you have to live it, at
least once, to know it.
Woody: I wish I knew how to bottle what you know. We could change the world.

*See Manager's Front Line Guide to Communicating with Employees, HRD Press,
2007.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #2:
Motivation? Not for People Who are Appreciated!
Woody: Some of us see the work place as a combat zone in which managers use
the emotional technology and bribery of motivational theory, trying to get more
productivity out of unwilling workers. For their part, workers are likely to cut
through the chatter to say, “Do they think we're stupid?”
Andy: I agree 100 percent! If people love the work they do and admire and respect
their co-workers, you don't need to add more grease. In fact, if you try to
“motivate” them, it makes them suspicious.
Woody: The problem I see is that if you want highly-effective groups, it has to
start during recruiting and screening—like at Southwest Airlines where they put

more weight on the attitudes candidates display at the interview than their degrees
and other work experience.
Andy: Where I work, there's so much emphasis on academics that it lets people
slip through the Human Resource screen who are long on smarts but short on
common sense. When they've got 10 years in the system and have been promoted
several times, you still have to give them heads-up recommendations on how to
work with people, especially with the locally-engaged staff.
Woody: That's not pretty. Are these people just insensitive or insecure and need to
throw their weight around?
Andy: It doesn't matter. The fact is, those order-givers don't really understand
teamwork and don't realize that they can't be effective without the support of the
locals. And that lack of understanding makes those at the bottom of the ladder feel
bad about themselves and their jobs.
Woody: Probably most people at work don't love their jobs, but they have to work
somewhere. Can you turn them into effective, committed workers?
Andy: Absolutely! Usually, it's not only that they don't like their jobs, they don't
like their bosses or the people they have to support. Organizations can't control the
expectations of the people they hire, but they can definitely influence the quality of
the supervision and success-support they get. When people do their work well, that
needs to be celebrated, appreciated, and they need to be recognized among their
co-workers.
Woody: But what happens when the same people keep getting the rewards?
Andy: Then you look for the lazy supervisors who spend time in their offices
instead of getting out on the work floor and seeing their people in action. There's
always someone or something to praise, and when people know that their work is
being observed, they tend to work better and earn some praise for themselves.
Woody: Still, isn't there a problem of just a few people being recognized as star
performers, and demotivating the others?
Andy: No, no, no! That's the bull feathers excuse managers use when they're too
lazy to work the system to get rewards for their people! If you want to know who

the star performers are, just ask the workers themselves. They know! And most of
them aren't jealous. They know some people work better than others, and that
some are just natural performers. And usually, they are the informal leaders in the
group. At least that's my experience. The people who get the rewards and
recognition usually are leaders who sort of pull the others to perform in an
outstanding manner. Besides, there are so many ways for a manager to show
appreciation that there's no reason to leave anyone out of the winner's circle.
Woody: Is it really that simple—just paying attention to performance and
rewarding it?
Andy: Yes and no. Rewards are necessary. But they are the icing on the cake. The
manager's real work is in knowing his or her people, talking to them individually,
encouraging and appreciating them one-on-one. That's how you get to know who
your people are, what kinds of skill-building they need, and what kinds of off-the-
job burdens they're carrying. See, they work for you, not for the company or the
organization, and managers have to create that connection with individuals.
Woody: What you're saying is that if the manager doesn't create those
interpersonal connections, the workers will create their own! Those connections
don't always include the manager and can compromise the performance of the
entire group.
Andy: Oh yeah! One of the most useful things I've heard you say, quoting
Frederick Herzberg, is that if you don't piss-off your people, they'll probably give
you 10- or 15-percent more performance, for free! That makes sense, because the
worst thing that can happen to a worker is to have a selfish, me-first boss who
ignores the people who do the work.
Woody: If we could burn that thought into the brains of all managers, we could
change the world!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles, #3:
Coaching? Just Begin with Telling the Truth!
Andy: The strangest thing I found on this trip was a woman, sitting maybe 10 feet

from her boss, and they've been communicating by e-mail because they don't like
each other.
Woody: That's bizarre! Are they locally-engaged staff? [Note: Some work our
Embassies do must be performed by Americans, but most work can be delegated to
locally-employed staff.]
Andy: Yeah, but what makes it so bad is that her boss is the local HR guy! So
naturally I said we've got to talk, and I sat down with the two of them. She thinks
he's unfair, he wants to fire her, and this has been going on for more than a year!
And they don't talk to each other!
Woody: That can happen in these cultures. Some of these folks are not great at
confronting problems or each other.
Andy: Well, apparently there had been a lot of confrontations, but this guy had no
records, no documentation covering what she failed to do, what he advised her to
do, and what follow-up actions he took, so of course he can't fire her. He's been
sent to training, he knows how to do that stuff, he just doesn't like to do it. So I
reminded him of the requirement to document malfeasance and hammered on him
about having to keep a record of what he did to help her succeed on the job. It was
like he never heard it before!
Woody: And what about her?
Andy: She said she didn't know what she didn't do well, because he never told her.
All she could say was that he didn't like her! And since I don't know the
background, I have to think maybe she doesn't perform adequately. But she says
she doesn't know what she does wrong, and there's no evidence that he ever told
her!
Woody: That doesn't leave you a lot of maneuver room, especially given the short
trip.
Andy: No it didn't. I even told the Deputy Chief of Mission that they might have to
end up firing her. But then something kind of magic happened.
Woody: She resigned?
Andy: No! That would have been too easy. What happened was I sat down with her

on Friday, and all she could talk about was how badly she had been treated three
months ago, six months ago, nine months ago. And as I listened and looked at her,
it was clear that she was a total mess—hair, dress, complexion, emotionally. In
fact, she looked like s**t!
Woody: This isn't sounding very politically correct.
Andy: Don't worry! I'm not going there! What I said was that as long as she was
focused on things that happened months ago, all that could happen was that she
would create the same situations again. And that instead, she should look at today,
tomorrow, and start thinking forward instead of backward.
Woody: And about her appearance?
Andy: I just told her the truth, namely that I'm not big on dressing up and avoid
wearing suits and ties and usually show up with an open neck shirt and a sweater,
as I was dressed then. And I said that compared to the other women in the
building, it didn't look to me like she as paying much attention to her appearance,
and maybe that was somehow connected to how she was looking at her job and
maybe…
Woody: Then what happened?
Andy: She admitted that was something to think about and thanked me! But then,
on Monday, she shows up looking like a different person! She had a new haircut
and style, some make-up, and was wearing a really sharp outfit. I damn near didn't
recognize her!
Woody: How did her boss respond?
Andy: I think he was as blown away as I was.
Woody: Will she still get fired?
Andy: That could happen. But the signal she sent loud and clear on Monday
morning was that she wanted to keep her job and get out of the rut she'd been in
for so long. For certain, she came to work with a different attitude, and that in itself
might be enough to turn things around.
Woody: That's beautiful, Andy. But why did no one else talk to her, at least the
other women?

Andy: You know that women don't always help each other, and guys are so afraid
of getting hit with a charge of sexual harassment or some other bull feathers
reason for not getting involved… Seems like most people are just afraid to be
human anymore, to reach out to tell each other the kinds of truth that will bump
them off bottom-dead-center, that will help them succeed. That's what bosses and
managers and leaders are supposed to do! Isn't it?
Woody: I thought so. I hope so. If it isn't, we're really lost!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #4:
Who’s In Charge Here?
Woody: Some years ago, while riding my motorcycle along the Loch Ness, a
definition of leadership came though to me so strongly I stopped to write it
down: Leadership is the creation of structures and processes through which people
can contribute to the achievement of worthwhile goals. I still like it because it
includes real things like structures and processes, not a lot of airy-fairy hoopla.
Andy: I can go with that. It ties up the confusion about leaders and managers, you
know, where leaders decide the right things to do and then managers do the things
right. Real life hasn't worked that way for me.
Woody: How's that?
Andy: Because among workers, someone is always taking the lead. And who's
that? It's the man or woman who knows the most about the task and technology.
This is a lesson a lot of managers miss. It doesn't matter who has the rank! What's
important is who has the most recent and relevant experience. When I was an
enlisted man teaching officer/pilots survival skills, I was the one with the most
recent and relevant experience, and those officers knew that my job was to teach
them how to survive disaster situations. I was outranked, but that didn't matter.
What I knew made them listen to me.
Woody: And did none of them resent being lectured to by an enlisted man?
Andy: Only a few, but they created another lesson—competence is so important
that the other officers would tell the few to shut-up! So I didn't have to worry about

that stuff. The real leaders in any group will keep you covered.
Woody: I got a similar lesson. Once as a lieutenant, I was on a project with a bird
colonel and working with a bunch of majors and light colonels. My boss told me,
“Woody, if any of these people give you any trouble, refer them to me.” That taught
me a lot about delegation, and that if I did my job competently, I was fireproof!
Andy: Isn't that a great feeling? And when you're in that zone, do you need to be
motivated? Do you need anything more than knowing at the end of the day that
you had a great day, doing your job for someone who appreciated you? That's the
thing a lot of people don't get. I've seen a lot of senior people cripple programs
because they let their need to be the boss get in the way of getting the job done.
Woody: I once asked a guy who was just standing around, doing nothing, what he
was waiting for. He said, “I'm waiting for my boss to tell me what to do!” I thought
he was joking, so I asked if he was going to do something different than the day
before. “Of course not,” he said, “but my boss likes to tell me what to do, and I like
to make him happy!”
Andy: Sure! If he made that decision, he would be taking his boss's job. That's
why the “structure and processes” part of your definition is so important. You can't
have 15 or 20 people waiting to be told what to do. They have to know, and they
do know—if you involve them in planning work and laying out schedules.
Woody: Do many managers do that, in your experience?
Andy: Only the good ones. Leadership is about taking people to new levels of
performance, so they surprise themselves when they see how competent they are,
and how much fun it is to hook up with others to win against the clock and the
budget. Good leaders stretch their people, push them, and make them stronger
performers.
Woody: How hard can you push them?
Andy: Right up the edge of what employment laws allow. Sometimes it's giving
them more work, or tighter schedules, or making them solve problems and
implement solutions by themselves. And when they win, you praise them and talk
about what they learned.

Woody: But what if they don't win? If they fail?
Andy: Bull feathers!!! If you pay attention to them, they don't fail. You see them
struggling and you stop by to offer a suggestion or two. If they're afraid to fail, they
work too slow. If you let them fail, you tell them that succeeding, being on schedule
isn't important! I don't care what people write about the freedom to fail, because
real leaders don't let that happen to their people. Not if there are any real chips on
the table!
Woody: Real leaders, then, make sure people are successful at their work?
Andy: Nothing else is more important!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #5:
Team Building is a Waste of Time and Money
Woody: At least 30 years ago, when I occasionally got team-building assignments,
it became obvious that the major thing that kept people from working together
effectively was that they chose not to understand their own responsibilities and
those of their co-workers.
Andy: What do you mean, “…they chose not to understand”?
Woody: Basic stuff, like job descriptions, like who's responsible for what and when.
Andy: That is basic! How can people not understand…?
Woody: Because they choose not to. It's a variant of waiting to be told what to do,
except it's fueled by the kind of petty bull feathers that shows up in work groups
when there's no imperative to perform, and no emphasis on “we” and “our” among
managers and workers.
Andy: That's a basic difference between military and civilian organizations, and the
reason so many ex-military have trouble fitting-in with civilians. The military is
based on unit effectiveness. Everyone has a responsibility beyond his or her own
role, to chip-in extra effort to support each other when there's a crunch.
Woody: And that means cross-training, knowing what the other guys do and how
to do it. Without that knowledge…
Andy: Work grinds to a halt, everyone's got an excuse, and it's time to do some

serious talking. The thing is, it's a game and everyone knows it. The game is called
“F**k the boss!” I see it played between the locally-engaged staff and American
bosses with oversized egos and rotten interpersonal skills.
Woody: It's never the other way around?
Andy: Not in my experience. With very few exceptions, locally-engaged staff are as
dedicated and committed a work force as you could want. They stay in one place
while their American managers rotate out every two or three years. The locals know
where the gold is buried, but they can forget in an instant if they get a boss who's
heavy-handed, indifferent, arrogant, or all of the above.
Woody: Don't these people get any training?
Andy: Sure they do, and it's usually first rate. The trouble is, most of these people
are specialists—in politics, economics, security, etc.—and managing a staff isn't
interesting to them. But getting promoted usually means they have to take
supervisory slots.
Woody: You see something similar in private-sector organizations too. Maybe what
this means is that team-building is really about overcoming ineffective leadership
and a lack of focus on unit effectiveness.
Andy: As soon as you talk about team building, you're telling people that they're
supposed to be a team and that working well together is what they're supposed to
do!
Woody: And the reason they resist is that there's something more important to
those involved than working well together, and that something is sending a
message to anyone who notices that “We ain't happy!”
Andy: That's when you need to cut through the bull feathers and get to the issues,
like, what's hanging them up?
Woody: You need to ask tough questions, like “What do you want that you aren't
getting? What would it take to get you to perform up to your potential? Who or
what is hanging you up?” But you need to be prepared to listen and to respond,
including making sure the boss is confronted with his or her misdeeds or unmet
expectations.

Andy: That works! People don't always like it, but when they know you know the
game, they've made their point, and set it up so you find out instead of somebody
telling you.
Woody: Which is another indication of an ineffective work group. And then…?
Andy: Then you coach the manager on noticing people and rewarding successes,
however small. Rewards work and build a kind of bridge between the boss and the
workers. The boss learns and the staff begins to pull together toward positive
outcomes instead of negative stuff.
Woody: And teamwork is the result?
Andy: Usually. Some bosses, some groups, need more attention than others, but
it's a hell of a lot cheaper than team-building exercises and make-believe games.
Real people respond to real issues and to being called on their bull feather
behavior. No matter how young they are, they know adult behavior is expected of
them, and that includes working together, supporting each other.
Woody: The bottom line?
Andy: Bosses need to be with their people, not distant from them. Bosses need to
be there to pay attention to individual performers and to praise the team and
appreciate them for everything they do. That's how you build teams!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #6:
Outstanding Customer Service Requires Intelligent Delegation
Woody: Managers think and plan, workers work. In between is delegation, by
which authority to perform tasks, consume corporate resources, is granted. That's
how it was taught for the last four decades. Is that still how it happens?
Andy: No! Big changes! That old model was about doling out work one task at a
time to workers who were viewed as dull and uninspired, and who need specific
guidance for each task. Today, there's too much work and too few people, so you
have to empower them in advance to pick up tasks as they come in and handle
them.
Woody: As you're using the words, delegate and empower mean the same thing.

Andy: Sure, because missing in that old equation was workers' competence,
intelligence, and willingness to assume responsibility.
Woody: That makes delegation, as it used to be taught, sort of a ritual for giving
employees the opportunity to think at work instead of following mindless routines.
Andy: And that was because everyone was into authority. Most people don't realize
how far ahead of the civilian world the military is in breaking down authority and
giving young people responsibilities. Consider a kid, a young man or woman,
working on the flight line in the Air Force. They make decisions everyday that have
life or death consequences. As civilians, they probably couldn't order a box of
ballpoint pens without a couple of authorizations.
Woody: That must be where customer service breaks down—when people who
have no permission to make decisions are supposed to help customers make
decisions.
Andy: Or to obtain services promptly and at a competitive cost. That's my basic
job, by the way. An Embassy is a service center for a lot of federal agencies, and
my staff has to provide them with everything from housing and offices to pencils
and note pads on their desks, not to mention record-keeping, transportation, and
maintaining all facilities. Literally, thousands of details to be handled promptly and
courteously.
Woody: How about the locally-engaged staff? I know that in Lithuania, customer
service is still a largely-undiscovered business concept.
Andy: For many of them, I've been the first person ever to ask—no, to demand—
that they make decisions and do what needs to be done without being told. If
nobody's ever asked you to be responsible, the learning curve can be steep and
scary. You have to be quick with praise and encouragement, and most of them will
get used to thinking and doing on their own and turn into world-class performers.
Woody: So you have to wean them away from waiting for marching orders?
Andy: More than that, you have to teach them to anticipate what needs to be
done, to plan their work, and to operate independently. These are really smart
people, once you get them past the fear of acting without being told what to do.

Woody: I was invited into a Lithuanian workplace where morale problems had been
reported. It took about five minutes to sort that out. I heard a lot of noise as the
boss showed up—a short guy wearing elevator shoes and shouting orders. I asked
the plant manager why he tolerated that abusive behavior, but I don't think he
understood the question.
Andy: Some of these guys are amazing in their insensitivity.
Woody: And a lot of these people have been terribly abused at work.
Andy: That's why it's so important to build-up the people I work with. It's really an
extension of our foreign policy—to demonstrate the American way of treating
employees. When they tell their families and friends…
Woody: Is there really an American way of treating people?
Andy: It might not be every manager's style, but the way I look at it is that: (1)
you don't hire people unless there's work for them to do; (2) because they're
needed, they're important; and (3) because they're important, what they see and
think about how the work gets done and could be improved is important too, and
valuable. When you appreciate people for the contributions they make, they
become valuable contributors.
Woody: Where does empowerment fit in?
Andy: It's built in! When you take people on as partners, everyone has a role and
responsibilities. When you ask people to own their jobs and do them thoroughly and
with pride, there's really no need for giving orders or negotiating on every task. If
you allow people to be proud of what they do, they will do it well. Every time!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #7:
Don’t Monkey About with Morale
Woody: When I got started in the consulting business, morale was a stock element
in supervisory and management training programs. Is it my imagination, or has
morale disappeared as a significant issue?
Andy: It hasn't disappeared, exactly, but the big drumbeat today is cost
containment, and organizing people into cost-reduction teams. You know, like it's

the employees who have driven up the cost of operations, so we'd better let them
tell us how to cut expenses.
Woody: That sounds like my mother sending me into the yard to choose the switch
she was going to beat me with. So do these committees find cost-containment
ideas, and do they get excited about that? Is it a plus or a minus, morale-wise?
Andy: I think a lot of them see it as pure bull feathers. In these big organizations,
finding wasted expense is like shaving mold off a chunk of cheese – easy to see,
but just skimming the surface. And nobody wants to cut costs in the programs that
create their jobs.
Woody: So participation is being used to keep morale high while the system is
sending signals that the “good old days” are over? Clever! So what does have a
negative impact on morale?
Andy: RIFs. Reductions in force. Laying off popular people. One cost-saving policy
allows us to hire temporary employees for a fixed term, so someone with the skills
we need gets to have a good job for a short time. But unless some other position
opens they can apply for, there's no way we can keep them on beyond the terms of
the contract. One such temp was really competent and everyone loved her. I
thought we were going to have a rebellion when we had to let her go.
Woody: I guess that means there won't be any recommendations for economies
that result in job losses.
Andy: You got that right! And a lot of times, job losses mean the loss of great
people and their experience, and that kicks morale and loyalty right in the ass. It's
usually a stupid decision by people with limited vision and who need to feel
powerful. Wasting people usually is a bull feathers move that will cost an Embassy
more than it will save.
Woody: But if you get an order to cut costs…?
Andy: There are lots of ways to cut costs. We got such an order a couple of years
ago, and the recommendation that we RIF a dozen people. I went to the
ambassador and the deputy chief of mission for approval to cut other costs instead
of laying off our people. They agreed, and we cut out some planned travel, some

training, a little bit here and there, even reduced the electric bill with the help of
our staff. We were all pulling together, and morale was high!
Woody: Because they knew you were protecting them?
Andy: Yeah, and we were all in it together. Then, a new budget cycle finally came
and their jobs had been saved.
Woody: And they all knew that if they worked for another management officer,
they could have been fired?
Andy: Something like that, but the ambassador and the DCM really made it
possible. But staff knew they did something important, even powerful, and in a
way, they beat the system….
Woody: And that drove morale sky high!
Andy: Absolutely, and not because of me, but because we—the embassy
management—cared about our staff enough to do the unexpected, to make
exceptional efforts, and that told our men and women that they are important,
valuable, necessary, needed, and that's the message that drives morale.
Woody: But that's not all of it, is it?
Andy: No, you've got to allow employees to feel good about themselves for the
quality and quantity of work they do against targets and objectives they helped to
set and believe in. Most of our guys don't expect to be entertained. They want to be
treated as responsible adults with contributions to make.
Woody: You mentioned loyalty earlier.
Andy: Yeah, that's one of the things you lose when management does something
stupid to kill morale. It's not that most of the people can leave the Embassy to go
to a better job, because they can't. But if they feel management is screwing them,
there's a hell of a lot they can do as pay-back—like stuff they don't have to see or
hear or volunteer. Like, ‘Manager, you're so smart, you go find it and figure it out!’
Woody: I've heard that song before.
Andy: I'm sure you have, and you know that if there's bad morale, look at the
managers, not at the working people. Poor morale is a symptom of bad
management.

~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #8
If You Want to Hear God Laugh…
Woody: That's what I learned in Slovakia a decade ago—if you want to hear God
laugh, make a plan! God, local people, and bosses always change their minds,
change the specs…
Andy: Yeah, and I spend a lot of my time cleaning up behind people who don't
plan. It's like they can only do one thing at a time, and that time itself doesn't
matter.
Woody: You see a lot of that in everyone's organization. What is it? Priorities, and
confusion about them? Or the repetitive nature of the work? Or that there's no
penalty for not working smart? Or just indifference?
Andy: It's for sure the reason why some people aren't promotable. You tell them,
show them, check on them, offering them more responsibility if they'll just get
themselves organized, and you might as well be shouting down a well, beating your
head against a wall. Thank God there aren't too many of them.
Woody: Most people, you think, really want more responsibility?
Andy: Sure they do, and it's good for me when they make the decision to stretch
themselves. They give me more things to thank them for doing, and the more
strokes you give them, the harder they work.
Woody: Are you saying that receiving praise makes people plan their days and
their work?
Andy: Not exactly. Hell, I don't know what it is, other than that people start to
think about their jobs in different ways and maybe they see relationships between
thinking ahead, finishing work on time, and getting appreciated for it. Then, maybe
they remember the stuff they've heard about planning. I don't know. What do you
think?
Woody: I've never heard it explained that way, Andy. Maybe you've come up with
a new theory about teaching planning and getting people to take more
responsibility.

Andy: Bull feathers! I don't do theories. I just want people to grow out of the boxes
they're in when I show up. People can always do more, if they want to, and I keep
finding that too many people have never been asked to do more than the narrow
definitions of their jobs.
Woody: So they don't learn, they don't grow, they don't get promoted, and they
get bored and do less and less work?
Andy: Yeah, that's a good picture of the cycle, and I love breaking it. I can get
demotivated by my bosses or bureaucratic bull feathers, but not about the people I
work with. That's the part of the job I love—getting my people involved in solving
problems and seeing them surprising themselves by how good they are.
Woody: I've met some of your people, and I see how they look at you. I can
imagine how much energy you've invested to get that kind of response.
Andy: Nah, I'm just doing my job. But you know they're really getting it when they
start seeing improvements in the time it takes to get things done and can relate
that to the plans they developed.
Woody: How much do they improve as individuals and as a group?
Andy: Some of them, quite a lot. Some not so much. But as a group, they work
better together and get to the point I don't have to worry about them covering my
back. My current crew has been recognized by the Department for their
performance and their contributions, so I guess it's time for me to move to another
challenge, and that's going to happen in the next six months.
Woody: Will you miss them?
Andy: A few of them have become really good friends, and we may run into each
other at meetings. But it's the nature of the job—and the strength of the system, I
guess. And moving means making new friends and helping a new group of people
to see how good they can be.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #9:
Planning is Easy, but Scheduling is an Art Form…
Woody: Anyone can learn to plan in a half-day, but when they start organizing

tasks and scheduling resources to get the most out of them, people begin to see
that scheduling is practically an art form.
Andy: It's also a way to see who's able to think and who's got their brains
scrambled. Even simple things like getting someone picked up at the airport can
become confused and I have to give someone a direct order to get their ass in the
car and go.
Woody: And it's not always so-called dumb people. I remember a case when a
group of college-graduate engineers with project management training couldn't
organize getting parts produced, plastic packaging for the parts, and people to put
the parts and the packaging together at the same time.
Andy: What's the old saying? A day late and a dollar short?
Woody: Yeah, and it happens every day somewhere in most organizations—people
standing around with nothing to do while they wait for parts, pieces, vehicles, or
whatever should have been there. Part of it's about not looking behind plans to see
what has to be done so that planned work can be performed…
Andy: And part of it's because people don't own the work and aren't committed to
getting it done on time. But if you're five minutes late cutting their paychecks,
they're right on top of you.
Woody: That's why timelines, deadlines, and due-dates are so important, along
with consequences for missing them. Then, people begin to think about resource
constraints, about not having everything they need, and having to negotiate to
arrange to get everything they need to complete an assignment.
Andy: That's right! It's asking others for support that's the hang-up. Remember
back before printers were cheap and we used expensive copy machines and every
office wanted their own—so they wouldn't have to share?
Woody: When what they really wanted was not to be held up when they were
running late and needed to get a report turned in on time.
Andy: So a lot of this scheduling bull feathers is about having everything you need
all the time so you aren't dependent on others because you don't have the
interpersonal skills to be able to share stuff without conflict! And if you don't have it

all, then you can't be held accountable when things go south!
Woody: Bingo! I think you just had a Eureka! moment, connecting failure to
schedule resources with difficult interpersonal relations. That's really interesting! I
wonder how often that's the reason?
Andy: Probably more often than we think, because once you don't want to do
something because of the people involved, procrastination takes over and all of the
sudden you've got a delivery emergency and that makes the interpersonal bull
feathers even more difficult.
Woody: Wow! I like that. This isn't about scheduling three shifts 24/7 on an outage
in a nuclear plant. It's about stumbles and fumbles and delays on routine work in
everyone's organization everyday! I usually talk about identifying where there
aren't enough skilled people, materials, or special equipment to perform tasks as
planned, and that's when clever manipulation of variables can make a profitable
difference. But here, what you've done is to show that the major constraint in a lot
of places is lack of trust among workers and a basic inability to communicate, to
cooperate.
Andy: Glad you like it! Usually, we think schedules get blown by late deliveries, flu
epidemics, or other stuff, but as I think about it, delays are simpler than that.
Woody: Maybe what we need to do instead of training people in natural work
groups to work together better is to extend that training to people outside that
group, to involve those who have resources that have to be shared, and that means
they have to be scheduled…
Andy: And that means the training follows the work in real time.
Woody: Sure, because even the most complex work is based on stuff that's been
done before, so there's always someone who knows where work went off schedule
in the past, along with how long each activity takes, how much it costs, what kinds
of people, equipment, and materials are required. If we know all that, why don't we
get the people who will be involved to solve the sharing problems in advance? Or
permanently?
Andy: That makes sense to me!

Woody: Sure, because keeping work on schedule is so often a matter of
improvisation, and that's easier when you have great working relationships with
people outside your immediate work group.
Andy: I'll drink to that!
Woody: What a great idea. Let's do!
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #10:
Project Management is Easy—
It’s the Clerical Discipline That’s Difficult!
Woody: Of all the managerial skills, project management may be the most
important. It seems to involve all the qualities you want to find in a new manager—
you know, knowledge of planning and scheduling; being familiar with the
technologies involved; able to negotiate with functional managers and customers or
clients; and ability to collect and organize information. Really, it's a full range of
interpersonal, coaching, and meeting-management skills.
Andy: When you say it like that, it sounds like too much for anyone. I'd rather
keep it simple and say it's about getting stuff done on time and not causing any
problems.
Woody: Sure, it's that, but when you take what that individual does and look at
the component parts, it's an impressive array of skills. I tell my students that the
only two skill sets they absolutely must get are project management skills and
interpersonal skills. Those are the abilities that will get them hired and promoted,
no matter where they end up working.
Andy: That's probably true. I know that's what I look for when I go into a new job
—the people you can count on to take a project and run with it and not create a lot
of backwash that I have to clean up. Some people—it's like the bull in the china
shop, pissing-off everybody they deal with, and the clean-up takes so much time
and energy you might as well have done the job yourself.
Woody: So where do the good ones get the know-how to be effective?
Andy: I don't know. Maybe from their mothers…

Woody: I've been telling you, women are better at project management than guys.
Andy: Bull feathers! What I mean is that it's about being polite, minding your
manners, and paying attention to what you're doing. I think mothers teach that
stuff more than fathers.
Woody: I agree! And as you've heard me say, the reason participative
management isn't practiced more is that if you had to identify it as male or female,
it would come up feminine more than masculine, and that scares the hell out of
guys. That's not the John Wayne/Dirty Harry way of dealing with people.
Andy: Okay, but how is it that project management is a female business?
Woody: I've made a lot of male engineers unhappy by saying that women tend to
make better project managers for two reasons. The first is that they want to see
problems solved, not to solve the problems themselves, which is very much a guy
thing. Something breaks and guys have to jump in to fix it, losing sight of their role
as managers, not repairmen! The second is that project management is a lot about
tracking performance data, and no matter how you do it, data tracking is a pretty
clerical business. Can you see John Wayne or Dirty Harry walking around with
clipboards, recording performance data, writing down names and numbers?
Andy: Bull feathers! I track data all the time!
Woody: But you aren't insecure! You don't have to act tough because you know
you can be as tough as you need to be! You're not worried about getting out of
control, about losing face.
Andy: I guess that's true. Maybe it's age and experience…
Woody: That's part of it, but another part is what you said about what we learn
from our mothers, that there are ways to get things done without being tough, that
being an authoritarian is a Neanderthal way to manage.
Andy: And you can't go across the organization, asking for cooperation, by making
demands and giving orders to people who don't work for you.
Woody: Precisely! So when you see somebody who can do that, you know you've
found pure gold. Somebody you can develop. Promote into leadership roles. Send
off for training and know you're going to get your money's worth.

Andy: Yeah, I've got a couple of those now, and another couple who can't quite get
there. Maybe I should give them clipboards and order them to carry them with
them at all times. What do you think?
Woody: You'll know you've got it right when you ask for project updates, and they
look at their clipboards to answer your question.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #11
Managing Change—It’s an Everyday Requirement Now!
Andy: What do you like best about being a consultant?
Woody: That it's almost always something different—different organization,
different culture, different people, different locale. I really love the change and the
challenge of getting up to speed to identify issues and problems.
Andy: Some people would probably go crazy handling all that change.
Woody: Until they discover that it's fun.
Andy: Some of our people are so stuck, so resistant to change…
Woody: Because here, at work, is the really stable place in their lives. Outside,
kids grow up and leave or have problems, people die, friends move away, even
their favorite TV show goes off the air. But when Monday morning comes, they
come back to you, ready to do the same old stuff in the same old way and feel
safe!
Andy: And you can watch the pace of work slow down as they get comfortable.
Woody: That's when you need to bring some change down on them, to bump them
gently out of their ruts.
Andy: Like how?
Woody: Meet with those in a chain of activities to ask how to accelerate their work.
Set some targets with them, create an opportunity for you to check with them
daily, to encourage them, praise them. Really, they will respond, because you
become a change agent. You upset established routines and make them think about
the work they do instead of just numbly following routines. Maybe you never
thought of it that way, but that's the reason the military has major inspections, with

days or weeks to allow people to prepare. It creates some tension, gets everyone to
sharpen-up their performance.
Andy: I remember those, and we always thought they were total bull feathers.
Woody: But that's the way people always respond to inconvenience. They have to
think, shift gears, break the existing pattern of their days. They have to be alert
instead of relaxed, and what's wrong with that?
Andy: I guess nothing. But can you keep people in a constant state of being alert
when they're doing routine work?
Woody: Sure! You did it in the Air Force, where working on the flight line is always
a serious business. But for civilians, what you need is for your people to have the
ability to kick into another gear when there's a reason. One of the best examples of
this I know about is presented in Jack Stack's book, The Great Game of Business. I
heard Jack speak, had a chance to chat with him, and after a dozen years, I still
count that as one of the great conversations in my life.
Andy: What did he do that was so impressive?
Woody: Jack Stack figured out how to get his employees focused on solving
performance problems. He said his mostly high-school-graduate workforce can
solve technical problems that would baffle college-trained engineers. They don't do
that every day, because it's not needed. But when they need to shave time and
costs to be competitive on large engine re-build contracts, they can deliver the
numbers.
Andy: So it's about being able to change the pace, get people deeply engaged for
short periods and after the event, they feel good about what they did! Like when
you pass the inspection, everyone goes out for a beer!
Woody: Yeah! They survived the storm, they passed the test, they proved they
were professionals, and they feel good about themselves! That's when morale is at
its best!
Andy: And that's the basic step in building strong work groups, great teams—they
feel good about doing things together, about winning the contest, the contract,
acing the inspection.

Woody: Precisely! It's amazing how many people go to work and never experience
that kind of shared excitement. Instead, they get birthdays and engagements and
retirements, the kind of make-believe-we-care-about-you bull feathers that pass for
achievement in most offices. That's such a shame, because there are always things
you can celebrate, even in unlikely places.
Andy: What kinds of unlikely places?
Woody: Like a call center, where the boss lady complained about low morale and I
proposed Friday afternoon staff meetings with wine and cheese to compare the
worst-caller-of-the-week tapes. It could be a hilarious event, experiences common
to everyone, “Oh, no!” she replied. “We could never do anything like that!” But she
couldn't tell me who would criticize her or what she could do to engage with her
staff.
Andy: We get some people like that—no sense that work has to be fun some of the
time and that people have to have a chance to feel good about themselves and
each other. If you don't give them that, they will go flat and sour. They have to
have some change-of-pace.
Woody: Back to change, creating it and managing it, self-imposed, system-
imposed, or from “out there” as in the current economic crisis and related
downsizings. It's not that people resist change, as they used to say, but that
change has a strangle-hold on us, all of us, and we're going to cope or crumble.
Maybe learning to deal with change at work is going to prove to be a gift for some
people—something to hold onto in case their job is abolished.
Andy: It's a better, faster, cheaper, take-no-prisoners work world we're in. Maybe
it's sad, but people need to wake up to that fact.
~~~~~
Bull Feather Chronicles #12
Ouch! Ethics!
Woody: Ethics is a fun subject to teach, but it's tough to have to drop the hammer
on someone you know who's screwed you or your employer.
Andy: That's never a fun part of the boss job, but sometimes the rules are so clear

you don't have any decision to make. The guy who's screwed up has already made
the decision. If you do the crime, you've got to do the time!
Woody: But what about in some of these cultures where everyone is used to
working black, paying bribes, getting gratuities?
Andy: That's something you have to make clear in your first staff meeting! You will
have heard about sloppy work and shady practices, so you need to make sure
everyone understands that all of you live by the same set of rules. If you screw up,
I will do what I'm required to do, because we all are held accountable. By law. No
bull feathers!
Woody: Do you run into much of that?
Andy: Not really. If you're supervising your people, paying attention to how they
work and what they work on, and maybe what you've heard coming onto the job,
you can head them in the right direction before they screw up on your watch. And
you explain the rules, and most of the time, that's enough.
Woody: But what about the other times?
Andy: Mostly it's about misuse of government vehicles. I had to send a guy home
for two weeks because he was on a task in a government car, and decided to stop
to pick up some groceries for his dinner, which seems harmless enough. But
someone bumped into the car in the parking lot, the police were called, and a really
good employee got a suspension for doing something stupid.
Woody: Probably he saw somebody in the past doing some personal errands…
Andy: Maybe so, but people have to understand that there's no latitude, that
there's no such thing as a little bit wrong, like there's no such thing as a little bit
pregnant.
Woody: People do have to get it, but it's in the culture of every organization, I
guess, to know which rules to follow and which you can ignore. That's why I like to
use the Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale book in ethics classes. The Power
of Ethical Management is a small book, simply written, and its basic message is that
there's no right way to do a wrong thing, and that you can't fudge on the line
between okay and not-okay behavior.

Andy: The nice thing about that definition is that it covers hurtful gossip and bad-
mouthing people you don't have the guts to confront.
Woody: Sure, those are ethical issues, too. So are taking office supplies home,
using office phones for personal calls, abusing sick leave, excessive coffee breaks,
coming to work late, leaving early, careless filing, poor customer service, and on
and on.
Andy: There's a lot of stuff there most people wouldn't consider to be ethical
issues.
Woody: But they are, because they fall on the wrong side of the line between okay
and not okay, and between intentional and accidental. I used to run into that a lot
teaching ethics to cops. They would argue that's what they saw their field training
officer do, like accepting a bottle from the whiskey store owner who appreciated
having a patrol car in front of the store while he locked up and got into his car.
Andy: So what he saw his trainer do was accepted practice, okay no matter what
the rule book said.
Woody: Absolutely. For those young guys, there was less conflict following street
rules, common practice, than the bull feathers taught in the academy. On the
street, it was free meals, free movies, free dry cleaning…
Andy: Because everyone wants to be friends with the cops.
Woody: And the priests and the nuns and the parking-meter ladies so customers
don't get tagged in front of your store.
Andy: So everybody's in on the act.
Woody: Sometimes it seems that way. Who doesn't want that free bottle or that
complimentary dinner?
Andy: If you look at things that way, even a bad attitude is an ethical issue,
because it might mean your own work isn't being done properly, and you're
probably infecting others so their performance suffers, too.
Woody: Right on! That's why guys like you, managers and leaders, have to be
behavior-shapers, coaching people to understand that there's a higher level of
okayness than what local standards and past practice say is okay. If people and

organizations can't ramp-up their performance, there are people east and south of
here who want those jobs.
Andy: Yeah, it's a contest between the correct and the convenient and between
past practice and what's not okay anymore. That's tough for some people to get!
Especially in this part of the world.
Woody: One of my first surprises over here was learning that you were supposed
to bribe doctors to get appointments in a reasonable time or to get on a surgical
schedule. And once I was at the well-above-average summer home of a city
employee. I wondered how he could be so rich. Then I discovered he was the guy
who assessed traffic fines in the court, and I understood. Those hold-over values
from Soviet times are deeply rooted.
Andy: And it will probably take another two generations for Western ethics to take
hold. In the meantime, my locally-engaged staffs will march to a different
drummer, and wait for the others to catch up!
~~~~~
About the Bull Feather Chronicles Participants
Andy Graves has worked in three embassies and a consulate in Eastern Europe
and Russia, and is still at work out there, taking raw talent and turning it into
professional precision, just as he did on A-10 “Warthog” flight lines.
Dr. Woody Sears is an author, teacher, and consultant working in Vilnius,
Lithuania. Reach him at
• or
• or
• />In addition to his other ebook titles, Human Resource Development Press published
six of his books in 2007 and 2008. Other books and miscellaneous articles can be
found on his websites.
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