A note from Hugh
Gary S. Michel has run big businesses through big changes, and he started our conversation with a word he made up years ago: complify. It means making things more complicated than they need to be.
What struck me is that complifying is never one decision. It happens slowly, through people trying to help. And the cure is not a new system. Gary says it is learning to ask better questions, because we spend our whole lives being rewarded for having the best answer.
That is the work for this week. Ask instead of answer, and give the answer room to land.
Hugh Hornsby
Blue Collar Smart
01 / The real problem
Busy is not the same as better.
We add one more report to catch a problem. One more meeting to get everyone aligned. One more step in the process because it feels like it adds value. None of it looks unreasonable on its own. Stack it up over a year and the work drifts further from the customer, further from the people doing the job, and further from the purpose that was clear when you started. Then we measure ourselves by how full the calendar is instead of what actually moved.
02 / What experience taught
A capital request that never needed signing.
Gary told a story about a big, expensive capital request that came across his desk to fix a throughput problem in a factory. Before approving it, he and his team went to the floor and walked the process. Only half the equipment in that area was running. They asked the people doing the work what it would take to get more out of it. The team had ideas, went after them, and got nearly all the equipment operating while keeping up with maintenance. They even moved product through faster than before. No capital needed. When Gary asked what changed after all those years, the answer was simple: nobody ever asked us.
- 01
Go see the work before you spend the money.Gary's team walked the floor before approving a large equipment purchase. The floor told them the truth in about an hour. Before you write a check to solve a capacity problem, stand in front of the problem and talk to the people living with it.
- 02
Use the simplest litmus test there is.Gary says asking a team what they are working on today tells you whether they share a purpose. If everyone gives the same answer, you have alignment. If you get four different answers, you have a clarity problem, not an effort problem.
- 03
Pick the tallest bar and put your weight there.Gary described two groups chasing the same problem. The one that slowed down, talked to the customer, and attacked the single biggest issue finished faster and better. Solve the big one and the small ones often shrink to nothing.
The conversation
Gary Michel
Author of Decomplify and The Founder's Mindset
Gary S. Michel has led businesses through transformation at JELD-WEN, Honeywell, Club Car, Trane, and Ingersoll Rand, and was named Most Admired CEO by the Charlotte Business Journal. He joins Hugh to talk about the made-up word complify, why clarity beats activity, and why the best thing a leader can learn is how to ask a better question.
Listen to the full conversation 03 / Your Yellow Pad challenge
One question. One crew. One answer you didn't have.
Take out a yellow pad. Write down the name of one team, one truck, one counter, or one crew. Under it, write this question: what are we working on today? Then go ask three people on that team, separately, and write down exactly what each one says.
If all three answers match, you have clarity and you can go build on it. If they do not, you found your real problem. Either way, follow it with one more question before you leave: what is getting in your way that we could fix? Write down their answer and one thing you will do about it this week.
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What does your crew already know how to fix that you have never asked them about?
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