ESTP - The Doer and Entrepreneur

Today I did one of those tests that bumped into me on Facebook. And this is the result: 

As an ESTP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in via your five senses in a literal, concrete fashion. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things rationally and logically.

ESTPs are outgoing, straight-shooting types. Enthusiastic and excitable, ESTPs are "doers" who live in the world of action. Blunt, straight-forward risk-takers, they are willing to plunge right into things and get their hands dirty. They live in the here-and-now, and place little importance on introspection or theory. The look at the facts of a situation, quickly decide what should be done, execute the action, and move on to the next thing.

ESTPs have an uncanny ability to perceive people's attitudes and motivations. They pick up on little cues which go completely unnoticed by most other types, such as facial expressions and stance. They're typically a couple of steps ahead of the person they're interacting with. ESTPs use this ability to get what they want out of a situation. Rules and laws are seen as guidelines for behavior, rather than mandates. If the ESTP has decided that something needs to be done, then their "do it and get on with it" attitude takes precedence over the rules. However, the ESTP tends to have their own strong belief in what's right and what's wrong, and will doggedly stick to their principles. The Rules of the Establishment may hold little value to the ESTP, but their own integrity mandates that they will not under any circumstances do something which they feel to be wrong.

ESTPs have a strong flair for drama and style. They're fast-moving, fast-talking people who have an appreciation for the finer things in life. They may be gamblers or spendthrifts. They're usually very good at story telling and improvising. They typically makes things up as they go along, rather than following a plan. They love to have fun, and are fun people to be around. They can sometimes be hurtful to others without being aware of it, as they generally do not know and may not care about the effect their words have on others. It's not that they don't care about people, it's that their decision-making process does not involve taking people's feelings into account. They make decisions based on facts and logic.

ESTP's least developed area is their intuitive side. They are impatient with theory, and see little use for it in their quest to "get things done". An ESTP will occasionally have strong intuitions which are often way off-base, but sometimes very lucid and positive. The ESTP does not trust their instincts, and is suspicious of other people's intuition as well.

The ESTP often has trouble in school, especially higher education which moves into realms where theory is more important. The ESTP gets bored with classes in which they feel they gain no useful material which can be used to get things done. The ESTP may be brilliantly intelligent, but school will be a difficult chore for them.

The ESTP needs to keep moving, and so does well in careers where he or she is not restricted or confined. ESTPs make extremely good salespersons. They will become stifled and unhappy dealing with routine chores. ESTPs have a natural abundance of energy and enthusiasm, which makes them natural entrepreneurs. They get very excited about things, and have the ability to motivate others to excitement and action. The can sell anyone on any idea. They are action-oriented, and make decisions quickly. All-in-all, they have extraordinary talents for getting things started. They are not usually so good at following through, and might leave those tasks to others. Mastering the art of following through is something which ESTPs should pay special attention to.

ESTPs are practical, observant, fun-loving, spontaneous risk-takers with an excellent ability to quickly improvise an innovative solution to a problem. They're enthusiastic and fun to be with, and are great motivators. If an ESTP recognizes their real talents and operates within those realms, they can accomplish truly exciting things.

OEE - Overall Equipment Effectiveness and the New Project.

It is about time I am updating this blog again, as I have been managing a project in Austria since April. Since it is an active project, I cannot say who the client is and what he produces. But they are producing something MTO (Make to Order) which is made of metal and which one can find in most buildings. 

I think I should write about a few features of the project in the next few entries - what I am doing here, what I am learning, etc...

The project is about raising efficiency levels in the factory and the good thing about it is, it is a coaching project where I am coaching everyone from key operators to the managing director in efficiency raising techniques. 

We are tasked to do mainly 3 things - implementing OEE, doing some core SMEDs, and installing a "Lean Corner" (daily review meetings, action plans, etc). 

OEE Definition in German

 This poster about the OEE definition is in German but it shows the 3 areas OEE is looking at - Availability (V for Verfügbarkeit), Performance (L for Leistungsgrad) and Quality (Q for Qualität). OEE itself is calculated as a multiplication of all the 3 of them. 

The Perversion of the UK Labour Market

Example: There is a company in the food production industry who is in need of a new Operations Director. This director is supposed to have the following qualifications and experience:
- 20 years of experience in the food industry of which 10 years in a management position
- Not older than 45 years
- Having a black belt in Six Sigma
- Speaking English plus at least 2 further European languages fluently
- And who goes once a week to the hairdresser to colour his/her hair in pink. 

The perversion about the UK labour market is, and possibly any other labour market, a headhunter will find exactly this person, and not only one specimen but at least 5 for a shortlist. 

I do see the point from a headhunter's view - "client wants, client gets" and of course, being in the service industry myself, that's the leitmotif of all of us. What I am concerned about though is that this is a sheer tick box exercise. I have had so many phone calls from headhunters who literally tick off their list and then they send your CV off. Nobody ever asks about the candidate's personality or what he does in his spare time, what hobbies he has, etc. And the result can be, that a robot who fulfils all those criteria, but who has the personality of a Bernadine dog gets the job rather than someone who is also suitable, but who probably does not exactly match all those requirements. 

If someone wants to change his career and do something completely different, it will be a drag to find any job, because ticking the box does not leave any room for manoeuvre for any candidate. There is always someone who ticks all those boxes and the one who only meets a few criteria does not stand a chance. 

I am currently in a similar position. Say, I wanted to apply for the role above, and taking away the pink hair bit, I would never get the job even though I know everything about production, tick off many of the criteria, and am sure I would do a great job. In the end, I have "only" been a consultant but never done the management bit of the position, hence I will never get the chance of even getting invited. 

This is clearly frustrating and sometimes I could scream, especially when getting a short e-mail from a headhunter telling me how great I am, but unfortunately not great enough. But okay, that's how things go and I don't want to sound like a frustrated housewife. Rant over! 

Freelance vs Employment

It is "in between project time" again and I am looking for something new. To get me started, I think I should use my blog again, as type of self-coaching tool, where I would sit and write about my steps in the process to look for a new job or project. 

One of the problems I have faced so far is: What on earth do I actually want? Headhunters call and tell me about some job they have and then ask whether I like it. I would say "yes" or "no" but in the end, I feel I am missing a list of things I should look out for more categorically rather than imagining I could do something or not. 

The first step today is to think about freelancing vs employment. What do I want? 


THOUGHTS ON FREELANCING:

I have been freelancing for the last few years and for me it works pretty well. I would be hired for a project and these assignments can last from a few weeks to a few years. I like freelancing, as it gives me lots of flexibility which I appreciate so highly. It also allows me to do my voluntary job whenever I want to do it and not necessarily on a weekend (I am not allowed to write about my voluntary job but I mentioned it on my blog somewhere. Let's say it involves the terms "law and order"). 

Recently, I started to wonder whether I should go back to employment, as there are also negative sides to freelancing: It is not so much those few weeks or months in between projects, it is also that one reaches a glass ceiling and the jobs out there for freelancers can all be a bit "basic" at times. Lucky me, mine were good so far, but I know what's out there. I am ready for more in my life and feel I need to push my career a bit more. Nonetheless, I would still go ahead with freelancing and projects as I find it satisfying and rewarding to help my clients to be successful. 

Typically, these are the areas where I would see myself working in:

- Management Consultant/Project Manager/Programme Manager/Project Director/PMO for a consultancy company that specialises in operational excellence, efficiency and performance improvements, coaching, change management, manufacturing and supply chain.
- The same as above, but contracting directly to the end-client rather than through a consultancy company.

Freelance heaven would be, if I had a list of all sorts of clients who I could call or who would call regularly for shorter assignments and keep me busy. 


THOUGHTS ON EMPLOYMENT:

Employment is a different beast. Even though flexibility seems gone, this does not mean that I would enter a life of boredom and being restricted to the daily treadmill. Employment is still an essential way to climb up the career ladder and put more long-term meaning into one's work life, rather than hunting from project to project. 

What would I like to consider where I could use my skills the best? That would be of course any position where one is needed who can detect causes of all sorts of problems arising in companies and deal with them effectively. I can imagine this to be a board or "reporting to board" position, possibly in Operations. 

It would be an industry job, somewhere manufacturing or supply chain. Or in the internal consulting branch of a major international player that is looking to strengthen their continuous improvement efforts. 

I am a bit hesitant to work for another consultancy company. Somehow I have done that during the first few years in my life and it feels I have done it enough. I would not like to rule it out though, as I could possibly like a Regional Operations Director role or anything similar to that. 

Last week I met a headhunter who is looking for 2 positions: The one is for a company that looks to get outsource contracts from the national security industry and the other one is one of the major international property services companies. For the first I am interesting because of my voluntary job AND my knowledge of performance improvement, for the latter only my consulting knowledge would be of advantage as I would come in to ask all the right and difficult questions which would then enable them to think "improvement and change". 

What I like about these 2, those are completely new areas for me. I never worked in either, the security nor building industry. What a challenge to tackle!


EXPERIENCE AS FREELANCER:

If my conclusion is that in the end I should possibly consider another full-time position, would that mean I have to automatically say freelancing was not worth doing? Absolutely not! One learns so many essential skills as freelancer; the best thing for me is that I know I can rely on myself and can do it all alone. I learned to ask for business and find opportunities, as in the old days I always expected work would be there for me one way or another. I am responsible for whatever I am doing and there is no organisation in which I could hide and wait till the storm is over. These are all extremely good skills and I am very proud of having them.  

In the end, freelance work or employment, it does not really matter. Once I commit to an assignment or job I do it full-heartedly. So yes, let's get this job hunt going and see what I will come up with.

How to Implement a new Shift System

Changing the shift system is a major task and much bigger and intense than ever anticipated by me. In order to do so, a company needs to evaluate their existing shift system operationally, financially, and from an IT system point of view. 

First of all, I would always ask what is wrong with the current system. There might be all sorts of interesting findings coming from this question. And I'd ask this question throughout the company up and down the hierarchy tree. 

Once I have an overview over people's opinions, a more thorough analysis has to be undertaken. What I did in a project once was to write down every single minute of a day on an excel sheet and mark off the minutes during which a respective production line was busy and not. This gives a nice picture of the situation - it shows break times (which are not covered), change-over times where the machine is stopped, and generally times when the plant is shut down. This is a nice base for a capacity calculation. After this, I'd observe the line to verify break times and other non-productive times. Maybe a new shift system is not needed but only some management tools? 

Now, one thing is very important, for capacity reasons a day has 24 hours and not just day time hours. And a week has 5 or 7 times 24 hours; ideally both for comparisons. This is important to know as 7 x 24 is the maximum capacity available (5x24 in case of weekend closure). From that, cleaning and maintenance times need to be subtracted in order to get from a theoretical to a practical capacity. Once we know the amount of time of availability we are well prepared for a later scenario calculation. 

The next thing I would look at are financial indicators. How much overtime did the company accrue and pay in the last year? What is the pay rate of the workers? How much does the company pay for temps and what is their rate compared to the ones of the employees? How high is the productivity of a temp as opposed to an employee? 

And then, the IT evaluation: Are our systems ready for a switch? This is a discussion to be done with the IT department. Never assume IT is not an issue, it always is! And IT issues take time and money to solve. 

Once, the analysis of the current situation is done I'd sit down and work on possible scenarios. This has to be done line by line and we need to answer the following question: How many people do we need in order to get a certain amount of output? This is particularly important when the company is faced with seasonalities. Any new shift system needs to be able to adjust to any seasonality without making financial losses. 

Here, one needs to bear in mind how much staff a line needs in order to achieve maximum output. There must be some scenarios of what happens outputwise if less people are manned at a line. Those scenarios must cover high and low seasons, and a middle season, too. This is quite a nightmare and takes so much time! Be prepared!

What comes along with those scenarios is the question whether all staff is trained to accomplish such a shift change. How flexible are the employees and can they work at different lines? How much flexibility and cross-training does a new shift system require? 

And finally, HR need to add their comments informing Operations about the legal situation of whether and how contracts can be changed, whether there are any strikes to be anticipated, etc. HR need to know who is loosing out and who is gaining from a new shift system. 

The Finance Department needs to sort out the budget for the new year bearing in mind the scenarios in combination with any expected output. This has to be done with Operations. 

After all the preparation the workers need to be informed and the bomb is going to burst.....  But it is a good bomb and a good and modern shift system is worth going through the initial pain of preparation. 

Training, Training, Training

After I survived that training camp and returned to Europe I also switched from the operations to the training department and kept on doing training till I quit my job with that company 2 1/2 years later. For myself but also within the company guidelines I established a couple of rules. Below a few:

- Training can only be to accompany the implementation of changes and management tools by the operations consultants (remember, I was one when I did that purchasing department),
- Apart from team building events, I like training to be on site and not in some fancy location. Training is all about applying new management tools, and for that one needs to be surrounded by reality,
- Training should be around 2 to 3 hours every 2 weeks or so. In between every training session each participant must get a 1-2-1 coaching session of about an hour,
- Till week 10 of the project at least 3 sessions should have been held in order to ensure the desired behaviour change,
- Training has to be interactive and is not to be mixed up with teaching. Tasks will be given after every workshop and those tasks are the foundation for the personal coaching session.

In those years as trainer I led 200 to 300 workshops, coached around 200 clients in ca 1000 coaching sessions.

What you see is what you get

Talking about operations management consultancies there are generally 3 main products a client can get, at least as specified with my first company I worked for - performance enhancement, management training and skills training. The first 2 are interlinked and compulsory, the latter optional.

Performance enhancement or operations improvement:
This part of the project will get the benefits cashed in. Consultants are allocated to specific areas and ought to develop them and implement what has been promised/sold to the client. I already talked about activity lists and manloading. That's one part of it.

Management training:
In order to make sure that those performance improvements "stick" with the clients' management (supervisors, managers and above) training needs to be given. The training programme needs to be tailor-made (or at least sold as such) to what the clients' specific needs are. The first few parts of the training are always the same modules though. But that's okay, those modules are vital.

Skills training:
Staff and workers get skills training. Projects like these might be "sales enhancement" programmes or "throughput optimisation" initiatives.

More detail to be found in further blog entries...