Thank God for Jose

Every business has a person like this.

The one who knows where everything is. The one who can fix the thing nobody else can fix. The one who, at the slightest sniffle, has you asking: “You feeling okay? Getting sick? Anything I can do for you? Can I start a vitamin C IV right now so you’re here tomorrow?”

At Trinity Builder Solutions, that person was Jose. For years.

Jose ran our saw. Not “was on the saw team.” Ran it. Programmed it, maintained it, knew every quirk of the machine and every quirk of the material. If a job needed something cut, it went through Jose. And at TBS, if you can’t cut, you’re done. You’re a donut shop without oil, a laundromat with the water turned off.

I filed that under strengths. We had a guy. Not everybody has a guy. And he’s great.

Then I looked at what it was doing to him.

Jose couldn’t take a vacation without the shop slowing down. He couldn’t be sick. Every rush job landed on his shoulders, because there were no other shoulders. The pressure never let up. It had nowhere else to go.

He was carrying weight we never intended for him to carry, and we let it build, month after month.

Here’s what should have worried me a lot sooner: if Jose had taken another job, we wouldn’t have been inconvenienced. We would have been in real trouble.

That phrase is more confession than compliment.

When you say “thank God for” somebody, you’re admitting that a piece of your company only works because one specific human keeps showing up. And honestly, if you’re saying that, or if I’m saying that, we’re putting lipstick on a pig. We’re covering up a weakness, key-person risk, with a compliment: “they’re irreplaceable.”

Concentration of knowledge feels like an asset right up until the day it becomes a liability. And it isn’t only a company problem. It’s unfair to the person holding it.

I’m working with an owner right now who has one of these. His guy holds most of the operation in his head. Pricing history, customer preferences, vendor quirks, the reasons behind decisions made five years ago. None of it is written down.

The owner talks about him with real gratitude. He should. But that man is one resignation letter, one health scare, or one better offer away from walking. Meanwhile, he’s fielding calls on the weekend and putting out fires left and right, tension building day after day.

Two people at risk. One root cause.

We cross-trained Ray.

That’s it. No software purchase. No reorg. We picked one other person and taught him to run the saw.

It cost us time we didn’t feel like we had. Jose slowed down to teach, so we gave up throughput for a few weeks. Ray was slow at first, so we gave up a little more.

Then something happened I didn’t fully expect. Jose got better. The weight came off, and he started thinking about the operation instead of just surviving his day. He had room to improve the process because he wasn’t the entire process anymore.

Two people who could run the job beat one person who ran it perfectly. And as I write this, it sounds silly. “Why didn’t you do it earlier, Scott?”

I know. I don’t have a good answer. It just crept up on me, until one day I realized how vulnerable we were.

Here’s your one question before you close this.

If your best person didn’t come in on Monday, what stops?

Be specific. Not “things would be hard.” What actually stops? Which customer doesn’t get called? Which machine doesn’t run? Which decision doesn’t get made?

Write down that one person and that one thing. Then pick one other human on your team and start teaching them this quarter. Not documenting it someday. Teaching it now, with a name and a date on it.

You’ll give up some speed for a few weeks. You’ll get back a person who can finally take a vacation, and a company that keeps running while they do.

That’s a trade I’d make every time.

As always, if you’d like to chat about topics like this, I’m here for you: scott@scottmonday.com.

One more thing. Nobody walks into your office and announces they’re carrying too much. You find it in the quarterly check-in, or you don’t find it at all. Here’s the exact framework I use with my team: Stop Doing Performance Reviews. Do This Quarterly Check-In Instead.

Things I’ve Enjoyed Lately: I just finished Inside Camp David by Michael Giorgione, and it was fascinating. I knew almost nothing about the history of the presidential retreat, and it was so interesting to read about how our leaders spent their downtime and how different the last handful of presidents have been from each other. It’s a quick, entertaining read, and perfect for anyone who enjoys a little presidential history.