Structure: Build Muscle on Strong Bones – Part 12

Staying on Track

This is the last post in my series about structure. We’ve been talking about creating the structures, or healthy bones, that support organizational muscle. I’ll wrap up the series today with structure for accountability. 

We train our leader-employees to be direct and friendly when giving feedback to their direct reports. Like most companies, we do have a progressive warning system for violations. We have a dedicated email to log all HR issues; it’s a structure to promote accountability. 

An email is sent to HR@nolanpainting.com to document an employee arriving late, missing work, and missing production rates. They also document positive behavior and skills development. I get these emails about the 140 employees working for us and read them daily. Generally, the news is not as good as it is bad. I often think I would just get off that email list if I wanted to avoid problems at Nolan painting.

How We Do It

Yet, it’s a very effective way to keep track of the employees. Their name is put in the subject matter, so if I want to find out how an employee is doing, I search for their name in my inbox. If they have been written up, I can find out if they’re late or missing work. We have a no-call/no-show policy; we don’t tolerate somebody missing work without calling in. I’ve never done it, so I expect a phone call.

Everyone knows about this structure and understands how it works. All organizational muscle is built on a solid skeleton made of healthy bones. This sturdy frame positions my company (and yours) to hold growing and durable muscle.

It’s taken us a long time to get strong at Nolan Painting, so don’t expect to get buff tomorrow. Instead, start by asking how you are stuck in the hourglass, then work through the series of this blog to help you get out. I suggest you start by developing your vision, mission, and values. Then, identify the structures that will help you move closer to that vision. The MVP of my company structure is the Wednesday morning Operations Meeting, so I’ll go into detail about this in the next series.

See you Thursday. Build muscle.