Aaron J. Crowley

Stone Industry Consultant

Last week I was honored to be speaking in sunny southern California, extolling the virtues of a “Process Dependent” management approach to a great crowd of ISFA members at Cosentino’s Anaheim distribution center.

In a conversation post-presentation, a seasoned management veteran remarked that processes are fine, but counter-productive if taken too far.

He was right and his comment instantly reminded me of one of the largest management mistakes I ever made (taking processes too far) in responding to a personnel issue.

Looking back, it wasn’t “personnel” in general, but two persons in particular who were ignoring our dress code…wearing camo shorts and blue jeans to work instead of the required brown Carhartts.
Instead of confronting the two offenders directly with the dress code policies they had agreed to follow, I instituted a whole new layer of “processes” that were supposed to make it easier for our managers to resolve the issue.

The “NFC” Process (“Notice of Failure to Comply”) required the managers to formally document, notify, and report any deviations from already established policies, with the
punishment (or incentive?) being a pay reduction after the 3rd infraction.
It was a complete disaster!

It made life miserable for my managers because they became nitpicking policy policeman, it insulted the 18 or 19 other employees who were sincerely trying to follow our company protocols to begin with, and worst of all, my dress code-deviators were still showing up to work without their Carhartts on!

The NFC Process was destined to fail and it taught me that inflexible processes and micro-managing mandates (made even with the best of intentions) will backfire, often letting the offenders off scot-free while needlessly punishing those who are genuinely trying to follow company policy.

I wish our politicians could learn that the same is true with public policy.

Obamacare immediately comes to mind. Ensuring that 40 million uninsured citizens get insurance is a lofty goal and well-intentioned, I’m sure. But is “mandating” its purchase and then “punishing” those who fail to comply really the best solution? Who is going to enforce it, the IRS?

What about the TSA, FDA, and the EPA? These agencies were created to implement policies intended to fix very narrow and specific problems. But they have grown to become massive and intrusive bureaus that now mandate the behavior of the many (who are generally not causing the problem) through intimidation, regulation, and excessive taxation.

This begs the question, can political “managers” separated by thousands of miles and mind-numbing layers of bureaucracy really fix our country’s problems?

No! No more than my failed NFC process could get a couple of slackers to follow a dress code.
And if we truly value our liberty and the freedom we currently hold dear, we will take seriously our responsibility to study the issues, question the politicians, and vote on November 7.

Aaron J. Crowley is the founder and president of FabricatorsFriend.com, the exclusive promoter of Stone Sleeve fabricator sleeves and Bullet Proof aprons. He is also the author of Less Chaos More Cash. You can reach him by email at Aaron@CrowleysGranite.com