Where Did he Go?

Yesterday, September 23, was the first time there was no post on a weekday since we started on January 21. All of the September posts up until then were written in July and August and were automatically being posted as I was in Italy and Croatia until just a few days before. Since returning I have been making major format changes (and some content upgrades) to Leadership Skills, Managing People and Participative Management. These changes were implemented in the last few days for week 1 of each program. Yesterday, the day of the missing post, I left RI at 6:00 AM and put 250 miles on the car visiting facilities of a new consulting client.

Considering the time required to post daily versus all the other things I need to do including program updates, client service and business promotion, as of today I will no longer commit to a daily post. There are several drafts posts in backlog, and I'll start getting them out to you soon. But I also realize that checking a blog daily and not finding something new can be a drag.

Luckily, the Blogspot programs include a mechanism whereby I can send you an e-mail each time a new post appears on the blog. Unfortunately the capacity of that feature is limited to only 10 e-mail addresses. If you would like to be one of those 10, please click here to send me an e-mail to let me know or give me a call. If you are a current or former participant in my programs you should have my telephone number. Beyond the first 10 e-mail addresses, I will try to find an alternate way of letting you know.

For all others, I hope to post relevant information as it becomes available. If you've enjoyed the blog so far, I recommend you check in from time to time to see what's new.

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Topics include handling difficult employees, leadership, counseling, coaching, problem solving, lean thinking, motivation and time management. We welcome your comments on this post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Here's a thought that sounds a note of caution whenever we believe our opinion, our position, our approach or our decision is right.

"We routinely disqualify testimony that would plead for further extenuation. That is, we are so persuaded of the righteousness of our judgment as to invalidate evidence that does not confirm us in it. Nothing that deserves to be called truth could ever be arrived at by such means."

by Marilynne Robinson in "The Death of Adam"

About Pelleyblog: Pelleyblog is designed to be a resource for supervisors and other first line managers. Currently most of our readers are from Rhode Island (RI), Central Massachusetts (MA) and Eastern Connecticut (CT). But everyone interested in management topics is welcome. We also welcome your participation. Feel free to comment on this or any other post.

Resistance to Change Can Be Good

Not all resistance to change is bad. That's because not all changes are good. People who resist change serve a useful purpose by raising questions and objections that cause us to take a hard look to make sure our changes are useful, cost effective and beneficial. It's possible the end result of the resister's challenge may be an improved change as potential problems are identified and removed before the change goes into effect.

So be thankful when people challenge or criticize your proposed change. After all, if your change is well thought out, you'll be able to show the critic how your change handles their issue. On the other hand, if your change is deficient, be thankful that the critic is taken the time to call it to your attention so you can improve it. Perhaps the critic can help you with the improvement as well. Whenever you can incorporate a critic's suggestions for improvement into your change, you'll begin to make them an owner of the change, and they'll be more likely to accept the change rather than resist it.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches ways to effectively implement changes as part of his "Proactive Leadership" program, one of five programs leading to a Certificate in Supervisory Management. 137 companies in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York have one or more people who earned this certificate.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

For Your Ears Only

I’m sure you are familiar with the concept of “talking out of school;” the idea of discussing something in the presence of others who really shouldn't be allowed to hear the comments. “Talking out of school” is generally not a good thing to do in any situation. When you are on the management team of a company “talking out of school” can get you into serious trouble.

I encourage managers to be friendly with the employees. To take the time to get to know each employee, build rapport, a solid relationship and open lines of communication. With certain ground rules and guidelines in place, I think it’s great for a manager to be friends with their employees and, for those who care to, to socialize outside of work as well.

The more friendly we are with employees, the more we must bear in mind the ground rule of being very careful about what we talk about with employees, especially when we are in a social setting. Don’t talk about other employees, except perhaps for a short word of praise. Don’t bad-mouth people or other departments or functional areas. And never ever talk about things you were told in confidence because you are part of your company's management team; things for “your ears only.”

These confidential items are never to be discussed with anyone outside of the circle of confidence. Never. Not to anyone. Not to your friends. And certainly not to your employees.

Interestingly, many managers will not even discuss these confidential items with their spouse. Their belief is that these things have nothing to do with their relationship to their spouse and, accordingly, the spouse does not have a need to know.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches communication skills as part of his "Leadership Skills" program, one of five programs leading to a Certificate in Supervisory Management. 139 companies in Connecticut (CT), Rhode Island (RI), Massachusetts (MA) and New York NY have one or more people who earned this certificate.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

No Return on Delegated Work

Some managers delegate work only to later discover the work isn't getting done on time, or the employee is hesitant about what to do, or there are errors, missing pieces or less than satisfactory progress. Some managers then take the assignment back and do it themselves, and often reminding themselves that this is exactly why they don't like to delegate work. What they fail to realize is that taking the work back does not solve the problem. In fact it can make the problem worse as some employee's learn to return delegated work back to the boss, especially delegated work that is difficult and/or delegated work that the employee doesn't like to do.

When delegated work is not being done the way it should, the manager must get involved as a teacher and a coach. Give advice, counsel, additional information and even retraining as needed. Show and tell if required. Pitch in and work alongside of the employee as necessary. But never take back the delegated assignment or the responsibility for getting that assignment done. This approach allows the employee to gain knowledge and experience so that they are in a better position to do the delegated work in the future. And employees also learn to ask questions, clarify instructions, and seek help sooner because they know that wasted time and effort will place more burden on them.

Also note that this approach can work well for normal assignments as well. If an employee encounters an exception to a routine job, avoid taking the exception away and handling it yourself. By helping you handle the exception, the employee will learn from the experience. And that will put them in a better position to deal with (or at least help with) similar situations in the future).

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Topics include handling difficult employees, leadership, counseling, coaching, delegation, making work assignment, professionalism and time management. We welcome your comments on this post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Include Your Employees in Decisions

Within a set of guidelines or boundaries, most companies empower employees to make certain operating decisions on their own. Decisions beyond those boundaries are typically referred to the manager who then makes a decision (up to her or his authorization level of course).

Most managers are good at making these decisions at their level of authority. What many managers fail to do however is to involve their direct reports in the decision making process or to even tell their direct reports the reason or justification for their decision.

By leaving direct reports out of the process the manager fails to educate them and leaves them to speculate, guess or surmise why some decisions tend to go one way and other decisions tend to go another. The employee may guess correctly, or not, but in any case they don't know for certain the business policies and philosophies that underlie their manager's decision.

By explaining the higher level decision-making process, the manager expands the employee's knowledge of the factors involved in making those decisions. This positions the employee to have their own decision-making boundaries expanded in the future, as the manager confidently delegates additional decision-making to an employee who knows full well what the correct decision is and, more importantly, why.

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Topics include handling difficult employees, leadership, counseling, coaching, problem solving, lean thinking, motivation and time management. We welcome your comments on this post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Like Father Like Son

You'll enjoy this post better if you read yesterday's post "You Never Know Until You Try" first.

As a teenager dad flew an airplane. As a teenager I raced a stock car. In one of my first races, the car popped out of gear in turn three. Let me tell you that situation gets your attention real fast.

The track where I normally raced was very high-banked. You normally had the gas pedal to the floor on the straightaways, held it as long as you could, then slipped your foot off the gas pedal (back off) and cut the steering wheel hard as you entered the turn. Halfway through the turn and completely off the throttle, you did a tap on the brakes (spot brake) and then slammed the gas pedal to the floor to come off the turn.

That works very well assuming of course that the car is in gear. If not, the engine races to red line RPMs (and its hard to hear that above the noise as none of our race cars had mufflers), and the drivers behind you are already banging into you and pushing you. While the shift lever looked like it was in normal position, I gave it a quick slap, it moved slightly and I was back in gear. Soon I was driving that turn with back off, spot break, slap the gearshift, mash the gas. Not a particularly good way to go, but we did qualify for the feature (final) race.

Most short tracks (ours was 1/4 mile) do not have pit stops, so there is no pit area visible to the spectators. Unlike what you see on television at the larger tracks where the pits are parallel to the pit road, our pits were located behind the track and parking was perpendicular to pit road. As you came in to the pit you could nose in or back in. Normally I would back into our pit. This time, excited from being bumped around and having to slam the shift lever every lap, I nosed into the pit and advised the crew.

With little time until the feature race, the crew decided to wire the gearshift tightly in position to see if that might hold it in gear. What did we have to lose? We only ran in second gear anyway and if it didn't work I could always slap it back into gear as I did in the heat race. So wire it up they did, with no time, effort, or amount of wire spared. Rube Goldberg would have been proud.

Imagine our chagrin when they called the race cars for the feature race and thirty three cars fired up and headed out to the track. I climbed in, fastened the belts, fired the engine and went to shift into reverse so I could back out of my pit (remember I had nosed in). There was the shift lever solidly wired into second gear. While some crew members searched frantically for wire cutters, others simply pushed the car back out of the pit stall. And interestingly enough, the car stayed in gear through the entire feature race.

When it comes to problem solving "Ya never know until ya try."

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Topics include handling difficult employees, leadership, counseling, coaching, problem solving, lean thinking, motivation and time management. We welcome your comments on this post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

You Never Know Until You Try

I love creativity. Innovations. New ideas. And I love hearing about things people try to do to solve problems, things that range from the deceptively simple to the Rube Goldberg contraptions. Some that work. Some that don't. Here's one that seemed logically simple, but in practice didn't work out.

In 1929 my dad was the youngest person in New Jersey to earn a private pilot's license. He was just 16 years old. He wore a leather flying suit, snoopy hat and goggles as many of the planes were open cockpit. The mechanicals were fairly primitive and the instrumentation was minimal at best.

One difficulty in flying these primitive aircraft was to know the orientation of the plane to the ground, especially when landing. Was the nose up or down and by how much (Pitch)? Were the wings level or was one lower than the other (Roll)? Gyroscopes for aircraft were available, but not in widespread use. Someone at the airport decided that two carpenter's levels could be used as a simple and inexpensive substitute.

One level was placed on the floor of the cockpit lengthwise to show pitch, and one was placed crosswise to show roll. Great idea except it was dark on the floor of the cockpit and the level bubble was difficult to see. A flashlight solved the problem.

Dad said it was a great idea and worked well when cruising along. But not good at all for landing when needed most. On the first landing attempt using the levels, the pilot found he needed one hand on the control stick, one hand on the throttle and one hand on the flashlight. Oops! The quick thinking pilot put the flashlight in his mouth and when he tilted his head to see the levels the light would go that way as well.

Well everyone probably had a good laugh. But I don't believe the system got much use. Anyway, Dad said the gyroscope soon became widely available and solved the problem.

When it comes to solving problems, "ya never know until ya try."

About me: Dan Pelley teaches problem solving and continuous improvement techniques as part of his "Proactive Leadership" program. Click here to see the program learning objectives. You can learn more about all of Dan's program by clicking here to visit our website.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

A Dark Day

I've started to write this post many times. Then I get angry, frustrated and upset about how we have responded to this day. And how little we have accomplished. Osama Bin Laden -- still out there. The Freedom Tower (now renamed 1 World Trade Center for some politically correct reason) -- still not done. The War on Terror (oh right, we can't call it that anymore; as if that makes the terrorism stop) -- ineffective; innocent people still die at the hands of uncivilized barbarians. See my problem? This paragraph was to be two sentences, and already it is building momentum and turning into a rant. And taking away from today.

On September 11, 2001 nearly 3,000 innocent people were slaughtered going about their daily lives. That's what we need to remember today. The children without parents. In some cases the parents now without a child. The first responders fallen in the line of duty. The wasted talents and skills of so many people. The hopes and dreams snuffed out. The weddings, graduations, birthdays, christenings, retirement parties and other celebrations that will never be. From the highly successful to just plain folks, innocent people blasted into eternity without even the possibility of a common mass grave. That's what we need to remember today. In prayer if you are so inclined (and many Americans are). Or in other ways of recognition if you are not (as this country allows you to -- unlike so many other countries).

December 7, 1941 was a day of infamy. September 11, 2001 will always be a dark day for me.

About me: Dan Pelley is an educator specializing in management training and development programs for supervisors and other first-line managers in Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA) and Rhode Island (RI).

Too Much Checking?

I was called to a company to do a program in "Team-Oriented Problem Solving." The request for training in this subject area came about because of a quality error involving hundreds of thousands of parts and tens of thousands in dollars.

The eighteen hour problem solving program spans a nine week period with a two-hour class each week. Part of each class session is devoted to problem solving principles and practices and the other part of the class is devoted to discussion of real-world application problems. We also devoted some time attempting to diagnose the root cause of the quality problem that caused the company to have the program.

As we delved into the problem, failure to follow procedure was found pretty much every step of the way. But human error is a forbidden root cause because it is not a controllable or solvable condition that can be completely eliminated. Problem solvers confronting human error are encouraged to look for root causes in areas such as hiring practices, training, morale, motivation, and so forth.

The company had good people, many of whom had been with the company for years. It was a company that spent a lot of money on training. It was a good place to work and morale was high. There were well written procedures to cover everything. Quality was given high priority. So why did people fail to follow quality procedures virtually every step of the way?

As it turned out, the process had quality checks built in every step of the way with much redundancy including double and even triple checks. Since everyone was supposed to be checking, some people simply assumed that their checking role wasn't necessary, seemed to be redundant, and it wouldn't matter if they didn't check because the person before and after them would. While that may be true in a single instance, it certainly isn't true when it becomes widespread.

My advice was to reduce the number of checkpoints to a minimum, but enforce them to the maximum. People charged with checking needed to know that there wouldn't be others close by in the process to catch what they missed. That meant that mistakes would be costly and people who failed to perform required checks would be held accountable.

Moreover, these minimum checkpoints needed to be placed where work that could impact quality was performed, and the people performing that work had to be charged with responsibility for their quality (Quality at the Source).

Clearly my suggestion for less checking was not particularly well received. Indeed I hesitated to make it because it was unconventional. Yet the problem cause clearly seemed to point in the direction of too much checking.

I suspect the company "solved the problem" by hammering home the need for people to "do their jobs," and "follow procedures" and "pay attention" or else. And I believe that approach will work over the very short term. But I am still convinced that when everyone is made responsible for something (especially something redundant and boring), we ultimately end up with a system where some people leave the responsibility for actually performing the duty to someone else. If enough people do that, the system fails.

About me: Before becoming a full time educator, my career experiences included being vice president of a consulting firm, vice president - finance of a publishing company, vice president - sales support services for a manufacturing company and vice president - operations for a distribution company. As a full time educator working principally in Rhode Island (RI), Connecticut (CT) and Massachusetts (MA). I am pleased to share my experiences and business philosophies with managers at all levels.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

He's Just a Polisher

As part of a customer visit, I was charged with arranging a tour through our facilities. As we toured the shop, the person actually conducting the tour was pointing out various operations and introducing our guest to some of the employees. But we bypassed a work area where an employee was polishing jewelry, a very messy operation involving water and compounds. The employee had to wear an apron to keep the "mud" off his clothes and I imagine the tour guide didn't want the customer to get dirty.

Polishing is a very important operation in certain aspects of jewelry manufacturing. It takes a good eye and the right technique to "kiss" the jewelry just in just the right way to bring out highlights and make the jewelry piece attractive to the consumer. Our tour guide neglected to mention this detail or to even tell a customer what operation was being bypassed.

The customer took note and asked: "Who is that?," since he had already been introduced to many other people. The tour guide responded: "Oh, that's Paul, he's just a polisher."

I cringed. He's not just a polisher. Paul is an important part of our jewelry manufacturing operations. His job may be dirty, but it involves a good eye and a sense of artistry. Much of the attractiveness of the finished piece to the retail customer involves Paul's work. And more than that he's a human being with a family and children and hobbies and interests. In fact, when he left work on the day of this incident (and thankfully I don't think he heard the remark), Paul headed for places where he is well known. In many different locations throughout this area Paul gets on stage as a member of one of this area's leading country-western bands.

I tell this story because it illustrates a mistake I hope I'll never make, demeaning the workstation in life of another human being. And I also tell his story because I hope you too will never make that mistake.

About me: Dan Pelley is a Rhode Island-based educator with a diverse background. He has been a warehouse man, delivery driver, machine operator, janitor, soldier, cost accountant, system analyst, consultant, money dealer, marketer, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, and member of several boards of directors. He attributes his success in educating first-line managers to the fact that he always remembers where he came from. He also believes that most people are capable of professional growth if they are willing to learn what they need to know and do what is necessary to advance their careers.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

About my logo

My first job out of high school was in a machine shop. Being paid piecework, we hustled all day. But the work was routine, repetitious and boring. As factory workers we lived by the time clock, and were pretty much faceless entities, a pair of hands to feed a machine. My primary job required 15 different hand movements every 17 seconds. (See "The Room" for a more profound description of factory life).

I like to be recognized. I like to be a little different. Hard to do wearing a uniform and being known by a clock number.

We had a time card for each job worked. We wrote in our name, job number, checked off boxes for department, operation and so forth, posted quantities, and punched in and out on a time clock. It wasn't long before I stopped writing my name as "Daniel Pelley." I combined the D and the P into the one symbol you see centered in my logo, and I used that symbol while working in that shop three years full time and then four years part time while I was in college.

I don't know if anyone else in the company ever really noticed my symbol or cared, but it mattered to me. Because I wanted to be somebody other than a pair of hands, a faceless clock number in a uniform.

The years went by, and the road of life took me far away from the factory. To being a manager. An executive. To the boardroom. And the speaking platform. But I've never forgotten where I came from. And that's why my blue collar time card symbol with the addition of a diamond as a border became my professional logo.

My logo reminds me where I came from. I've never forgotten that. I attribute a large part of my success as an executive, a consultant and an educator to having as much respect for people who come to work and do routine repetitious work every day as I do for the most innovative professional or the most successful executive.

Oh, in case you were wondering: Why a diamond instead of a circle, square or rectangle? I chose the diamond simply because isn't as common as the others. I wanted to be a little different.

About me: Dan Pelley's career experiences range from the production floor to the boardroom and the college classroom. He has worked in companies as diverse as metal stamping, foundries, pharmaceuticals, computers and electronic components, hospitals, nursing homes, motor carriers, distribution, retailers, social services, government, quasi-government agencies, a major art museum and an airline. He shares his experiences through programs and seminars for companies in New England and through this blog.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Hand It Back

Some companies have a great way of preventing quality errors from being passed on person to person as a job travels downstream. What they do is charge each operation with checking the quality of work incoming from preceding operations. Any defective work they catch can be returned to the previous operation for correction. But once they pass the work on to the next operation, they now are responsible for any defects or errors they didn't catch. If the next operation finds an error and sends it back to them correction, they are not allowed to pass it back upstream even though the defect was caused by a preceding operation.

For example: Operation A makes a mistake, doesn't catch it when it happened, and sends the work to Operation B. Operation B looks over the incoming work, doesn't catch the error, proceeds correctly with its operation and sends the work to Operation C. Operation C looks over the incoming work and catches the error made by operation A and passed on by Operation B. Operation C sends the work back to B, and now B (to its chagrin) must correct the error. Operation B is not allowed to send the error back to the originator, operation A.

The purpose? To ensure that people thoroughly check incoming work. In this case, you can bet that Operation B will be checking what it gets from Operation A very closely in the future. You can also bet that this model ensures that all downstream operations are very careful about what they accept from any upstream operation.

In case you were wondering, if Operation B doesn't have the know-how or equipment to fix Operation A's error in the example above, Operation A will fix the error. But the cost of the repair will then be charged to Operation B!

About Pelleyblog: We are striving to be a communication device for managers where many people can share their thoughts, ideas, opinions, perspectives and points-of-view. We focus on topics of interest to supervisors, group leaders, foremen, department managers, project managers, team leaders, assistant managers, associate managers, office managers, nurse managers, crew leaders, unit managers, and other first-line managers. But managers at all levels, and people interested in management topics are welcome and are encouraged to join us both as readers and participants.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Oh My My My

Aren't these talking devices just wonderful. My car talks to me. One of my pc printers talks to me. And the other day, after avoiding it for some time, I finally got on my electronic scale. It said just four words: "Get off of me."

Hmmmm. Just what we need - electronic nags.

Seriously, my visit to the scale prompted me to visit another long lost friend, the treadmill. Amazing how dusty its become since I last visited. Fortunately it doesn't talk. If it did, I'd probably hear a lot of sarcasm: "Well, the prodigal son returns." "Forgot where I live did you?" "You better get started - this is going to take awhile."

So here I am, working off those indulgences that tasted so good. Exercising those muscles that rest while I work with my mind. (Posting to a blog burns very minimal calories.) And taking a moment to write this post to remind all of you that we need to constantly attend to body and soul as well as to our mind.

Now if you'll excuse me. The scale just called to tell me the treadmill needs to see me.

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Occasionally we include topics of general interest, topics about Dan Pelley's background and experiences, and a rare occasional rant. We welcome your comments on this or any other post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

She Retired

On May 10 I blogged about some of the recognition I've received and cherished in the past. ( Click here if you would like to read that blog post titled "Long Distance Participants.") Today's post deals with a quite unique form of personal recognition.

I did a program on "Work Team Participation Skills" for a company in Milford, NH. The program involved several sections of employees with each section meeting for two hours per week for eight weeks. All told about 80 people attended the program.

When a program ends, it's common for some participants to thank or compliment an instructor before they go. This company was no exception, and I was pleased to chat with several participants at the close of each section. But one situation nearly floored me. After one participant shook my hand, said a few kind words to me and then said goodbye, another took her place. Before a handshake and a few kind words she said: "You see that person you just talked to? Well she liked the program so much that she decided to keep attending, even though she actually retired after the third class! She asked for and got permission to come back to our classes each week."

I think I can safely speak for many educators, and certainly for myself, when I tell you that people like that make it all worthwhile. Many thanks to the more than 8,000 people who have attended my programs over the years and the more than 600 companies that supported their continuing education efforts.

Dan Pelley offers "Work Team Participation Skills," a 16 hour program designed to introduce team concepts to non-management employees. He also offers Team Facilitation Skills, a 16 hour program for managers and other team leaders. Click here to learn more about these programs.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Quality at the Source

Any person skilled in quality control disciplines knows that checking cannot prevent quality problems. Checking only catches quality problems after they've happened. When the error is caught we still have to fix it or re-do it and that costs time and money.

Quality problems can only be prevented at the time the original work is done. So the only person who can prevent a quality problem from happening is the person doing the job. If the person doing the job can do it perfectly every time there will be no problems to catch. No need to fix or re-do. That saves time and money.

Quality at the Source is the management technique of placing responsibility for preventing errors on the only people who can prevent errors in the first place -- the people who actually perform the work. When a person can perform a job perfectly every time, we can usually eliminate the need for checking.

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Topics include handling difficult employees, leadership, counseling, coaching, problem solving, lean thinking, motivation and time management. We welcome your comments on this post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

It Shouldn't Be That Hard

Over the past many months I've been making changes to the way I do things here at Dan Pelley Educational Services. I've discontinued my rarely used in-bound toll free number and expanded my on line presence. I parted company with my primary e-mail provider and added a more user friendly one. I've begun to accept ACH transfers as payments from customers. I'm also re-evaluating our use of fax, email and other tools as well.

Because of this, I found myself needing new business cards. Ordinarily I would go to Image Printing, a company I have been pleased to work with for many years. However, since I've already changed my primary email address twice in the last three months, and because I'm still not convinced which email system is best suited to my primary email needs, I didn't want the expense of professional printing for cards that may become obsolete very soon.

After seeing business card blank forms in a catalog, I decided to try them. They are made by an office supply company that is well recognized. I've used many of their other products over the years. They offered free on line templates compatible with my word processor, plus three other ways to design and print business cards. So I bought a pack of 200 cards to try it.

I then spent many, many miserable hours trying to do a simple layout and print job that ended up ranking among the top ten aggravating frustrating computer experiences I've had over the years (and I've had a lot of them). I should have known I was in for trouble when most user evaluations of the template I needed were 1 star or less. "Trash, junk, garbage, useless" is what most of them said. Except for one who talked about successfully using the tools and conventions for tables.

Okay. That made sense. After all I thought, five rows and two columns of business cards is most likely organized as a table. Besides, I've successfully used this company's templates for mailing labels in the past, how hard can this be? I downloaded the template. The download process wasn't seamless, but it wasn't all that bad to get through. And of course it included the obligatory collection of my email address as well as a routing through a page of other products, just in case I wanted to buy more things while I was in the process of learning how to use what I just bought.

Yes, I got a table. And a very strange one indeed. When I clicked on select table I got one cell. Some table functions seemed to work. Other table functions did not. Adding graphics was extremely difficult (but I find adding graphics in my word processor often tends to be difficult). Cut and paste gave me very strange results. Hours had gone by. I actually had one cell complete with a business card the way I wanted it (including my logo graphics), but just couldn't get all 10 cells of the table to replicate perfectly.

In frustration I went back to the company website from whence the template came. A second option was to use their "wizard" which (they said) would work with all their products and would be compatible with my word processor as well as several other programs. I could easily add logos and graphics to all their products. Download was free. So I did it. More routing through pages where I could get distracted by other offerings. the obligatory email address again, another not quite seamless download and nearly 100 Mb later, there I was .

And there I dropped. Turns out their easy-to-use system was a stripped down version of my word processor that lacked such tools as edit text box or edit picture. Complete waste of time.

Well, I then reasoned, I think I can just use my word processor tools to create a table to the specifications I needed. And I did. With much frustration and aggravation due to the exactness I needed and the tendency of software systems do things (by default) that that you really didn't want. But I did it. I printed the first sheet of business cards six hours after throwing away the "wizard" and going it alone.

My friends it just shouldn't be that hard to create a business card.

One last thought here. This situation is an example of how a good brand name gets tarnished. I have known and trusted this brand name for years. In the past I would purchase their products without question. I trusted them on the quality of their products and services. Today I look at them somewhat differently. And that's the lesson for today. Too many companies are so busy gathering your email address, routing you through product offerings, and trying so hard to get you to buy more that they fail to properly deliver the product or service you paid them for. ( Click here to see a related post).

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Occasionally we include topics of general interest, topics about Dan Pelley's background and experiences, and a rare occasional rant. We welcome your comments on this or any other post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.