Read the Introduction
and First Chapter of
Who Will Do What By When?

By Tom Hanson, Ph.D., and Birgit Zacher Hanson, M.S.

Introduction

Your personal reputation and the success of your organization depend on your ability to make and fulfill promises.

Mention integrity in the business world today and Enron, Tyco and other multi-million dollar criminal wrongdoings come to mind. But millions of dollars are lost daily in acts that don’t make the newspapers, mainly because they aren’t crimes.

It isn’t a crime if you say you will complete a report by 2 p.m. Friday and you don’t do it,nor is it a crime if a boss makes her staff wait 20 minutes before showing up at a meeting. But in each case a multi-layered cost is paid by all involved.

Your word is your most important business asset. Leaders say they want their people to operate with integrity, but few operationally define it or have a clearly defined system they teach to improve it.

According to Edward R. Deming, 94% of failures result from not adhering to an effective system.

In the following story we introduce an effective system for operating with integrity. Drawing from the work of many of our teachers and coaches (see Acknowledgements at the end of the book), the system is a series of familiar actions, such as request, promise and acknowledge, applied in a more rigorous, clearly defined way.

We call the actions Integrity Tools because they help build, maintain and restore integrity to any interpersonal situation.

Just like your computer, your work team has an operating system -- a pattern of norms and practices usually not expressed formally -- which governs interactions between team members. The power of your operating system determines the reliability, speed, and bandwidth of your team’s performance.

Installing the system we offer here upgrades your team’s “interpersonal” operating system.

Creating a culture of integrity and accountability not only improves effectiveness, it also generates a respectful, enjoyable and life-giving setting in which to work. This is a welcome alternative to the typical suffocating environment where employees feel forced to choose between their own values and success at work.

We focus on integrity not because it is our favorite subject, but because it is the foundation of interpersonal excellence and most teams and individuals we coach are unaware of its power and how to capture it.

Returning to the computer analogy, if the operating system is faulty, none of our other programs can run effectively.

Although the ideas in the system may seem simple, they usually are not easy to apply. But rest assured, if you only remember to say the title of this book several minutes before the end of your meetings, the book will have been a great investment!

We hope that you also see the value of these ideas beyond the business world. The same tools enhance performance, accountability, and trust in all areas of life including family, friendships, sports teams, and, as we see in this story, love.

Prologue

It was Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season and Jake wanted to be home watching the lineup of games on ESPN. Instead, he was having another bad day at work.

He had no idea that for him, today would be an "opening day" of a different sort.

Part 1: Opening Day

Jake Blows Up

Jake was late for his Wednesday staff meeting, but that’s not what infuriated him. The file he promised to send to a customer two hours ago was stuck somewhere in cyberspace. Although his error had created the problem, Jake cursed and blamed his computer’s newly upgraded operating system.

Ten stressful minutes later he stormed into the conference room with lightning in his eyes and a vice-tight jaw.

Frustration spun his mind too fast for him to notice the dirty looks he got from his five-person staff. They’d been waiting for nearly 20 minutes -- and this wasn’t the first time.

“You people are driving me nuts,” Jake began sternly. “I just don’t understand why you aren’t producing. Last week’s numbers just came in, and once again you are all well below your quotas. I just don’t get it, what is going on?”

No one knew if he expected an answer, but they weren’t going to risk giving him one. Instead, they boarded up their emotional windows and braced themselves: Hurricane Jake had just come ashore.

In his mid-thirties, Jake McKay had the kind of athletic frame men respected and women eyed. He stood tall (a bit over six-feet-one-inch) and still had all of his signature wavy black hair.

But his look was changing: his face was a bit fuller, his cheeks a bit redder, and his clothes a bit tighter than just a few months ago. His buddies now teased him about getting a “manager’s body.”

Jake’s dark good looks had always helped him close sales. A gifted athlete, his dream of playing professional baseball was snuffed out by a knee injury in college. A family friend introduced him to the insurance business and it was a perfect match for his abilities and goals.

With ten years of successful sales under his belt, he had recently been named Washington, D.C. regional sales manager of Freedom Mutual Insurance Company.

He had never been in a management position before and he wanted to stay. But reflecting on the first four months in his new position, he wondered how that would be possible.

The team's insurance sales had floundered since Jake took the helm, and the total office sales figures were in the bottom 40 percent of all regional offices nationally for Freedom Mutual. Jake had tried to be patient, but he wasn’t used to losing, and today a storm surge of emotion erupted.

“Bill,” spewed Jake, addressing the 53-year-old, silver-haired veteran sitting with rounded shoulders to Jake’s right, “you’re my senior sales rep. You used to be a top performer. Now you’re on cruise control going half speed. You should be leading this team—setting the example. Actually, I take that back. You are setting an example — a poor one. Keep in mind you still have a long way to go to retirement, unless you want it to come early.”

The other four staff members winced in unison and nervously waited for their turn in Jake’s path.

“And Tad,” Jake rolled on, “I really don’t get you. You have everything going for you –you look like a million bucks in your fancy clothes, but you produce more like a two dollar bill.”

Except for his solemn face, Tad did look good. He was an affable, young thirty-something fashion plate who wore Gucci loafers and Armani suits. He really looked the part of the successful insurance sales rep, but he worked off other people and took credit for their sales whenever possible. Why he didn't just forge ahead and create more sales by himself was more than Jake (or anyone else) could figure out.

“Jean,” sighed Jake as the gale continued, “Jean, Jean, Jean. I can’t tell you what I want to tell you because I’m afraid you’ll start to cry. When I was in your position I just did what I had to do, and I have a hard time understanding why you can’t do the same.”

Her colleagues called her Drama Queen Jean. She knew her stuff well enough, but her two teenage boys kept her hopping, and she complained about one personal crisis after another. Lately she had been taking everything Jake said too personally, always getting emotional and upset. Jake wanted to help her, but didn't know how to handle a 45-year-old woman who acted like a child!

True to form, she was fighting back tears now, so Jake moved on.

“Nathan,” said Jake, “you have the lowest numbers on the team. I really don’t know what to do with you, and to be honest, I don’t expect a whole lot more, but I would appreciate it if you would surprise me sometime.”

Everyone knew Nathan landed this job through a family connection to the C.E.O. of Freedom Mutual. Everyone also knew the skinny, geek of a young man had no aptitude or enthusiasm for the insurance business, but because of his political connections no one would discuss this topic. Nathan sort of coasted along on his shy but pleasant personality, and people usually didn’t mind picking up the slack for him.

“Crystal,” Jake said to the tightly wound intellectual woman in her late-twenties. “You are the only one really performing anywhere near your potential; but even you can do better, especially if you would learn to work with instead of against the other people in this room. If I had you as a student, I would write ‘doesn’t play well with others’ on your report card.”

Jake paused, took a deep breath and exhaled through pursed lips. The staff wondered if the storm was over, or if this was the eye of the storm and more destruction would follow.

During the calm, the thought crept into Jake’s head that he was being an ass. It wasn’t like him to thrash people like this, but he was at a loss for what else to do.

“Listen people,” he finally said, “I’m in no mood to even talk this through with you right now so I’m just going to let you go. Use what’s left of the afternoon to think about what I’ve said here today. I know you are all capable of so much more. I’ve tried being nice to you so far, and now I need to hold your feet to the fire. If you’re having trouble with something in particular, stay and talk to me, otherwise I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Although their heads were filled with sharp comebacks, Bill, Tad, Jean, Nathan and Crystal all shuffled out of the room without saying a word. None of them had escaped unscathed, and they were all smart enough to know this was not the time to discuss anything with Jake.

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