"We are not obnoxious, but we are persistent". A quote from an old TV series, I don’t recall the name, from a long time back. A male salesman in a woman's clothing store, explaining his smooth, effective, technique to a new trainee.

Persistence for some reason is a word we don’t see often these days in management advice. Runs pretty much counter to our seemingly, now required Attention Deficit Disordered management style, and sound bite approach to the world in general. (Can you even imagine trying to watch a TV that has less than 40 channels?).

One of the biggest reasons improvement initiatives fail, is simply that management seemingly gets bored with them, stops asking about them, and folks get the impression that improvements are just no longer important.

Persistence came to mind when reading lately about Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, considered by many (including Lee and Sherman) to be the best of the Confederate (and Union) cavalry generals of the Civil War (or any war). A true military genius, without the benefit of schooling in the military academies, (Never learned how to make those massive, tragic frontal assaults) he was really known for fierce, persistent pursuit.

He was "that Devil Forrest." So called by Sherman, who sent major forces to keep Forrest occupied in Mississippi, and away from his supply lines into Georgia. Sherman was inadvertently helped by Jefferson Davis, who resisted his general's requests to turn Forrest loose in Tennessee. It's said that Davis didn’t think that Forrest, without a formal military education, could really be that effective. (Sounds somewhat familiar in how some managers regard shop floor folks). Sherman knew better, that Forrest with sheer dogged, persistence and creativity, could really hurt him.

One famous persistence feat of Forrest’s was his relentless chase of a force of some 1500 Union raiders intent on destroying railroad supply lines in Northern Georgia. Forrest’s force was much smaller, around 600. He kept after the raiders constantly for four days, fighting through their ambushes, cleverly rotating and resting his troops and horses, (and disguising his true numbers) while preventing them from doing the same. (In one part of the chase, the Federal troops burned the bridge across a good sized river behind them, and felt like they finally had a break. But Forrest found a cattle ford a few miles away where he was able to cross and keep up the pressure). He eventually caught up with the raiders, so exhausted by then, that even the best soldiers among them fell asleep in their defensive positions, and had to surrender.

Persistence has to be one of the key attributes of any successful manufacturing plant leader. If there's no constant push for improvement, things just stop getting better. And it's not that people don't want to continue improving, it’s just that there seems to be no point if their management doesn’t express much interest anymore. Why would you spend time working on something that nobody seems interested in?

The best manufacturing managers always care passionately about every day, every shift, every production minute, every quality problem, every item wasted, every safety issue, every housekeeping opportunity, every breakdown, every repair, every person’s issues, etc, and it’s their job to communicate that passion, so that everyone who works there knows their efforts are really important and appreciated.

There is no cost benefit analysis managers can make as to whether this effort is worth their time or not.

Every single day, every single shift, we have to talk about what went well, what didn’t, and what we can do to make it better. There are no unimportant days; there are no unimportant shifts when there really isn’t anything worth talking about. People put out effort everyday, encountered situations everyday, and that needs to be discussed good and bad. (We don’t tend to think that way, but lots can be learned from exploring why things went well. Maybe some wider reinforcement of good practices). We have to care about everything. Otherwise the importance is lost and the impetus for improvement wanes.

Looked at another way, it is actually disrespectful to dismiss the efforts put out by individuals, as not warranting discussion.

If follow-up is ongoing, and expected every single day, focusing on issues and action, not blame, people become routinely forthcoming with information and solutions. If it tends to intermittent McCarthy like hearings, seemingly to identify and assign blame, then no one willingly says anything.

"We are not obnoxious, but we are persistent"

Just as a note: A very enigmatic figure, Forrest’s feats are often clouded by his association with the Ku Klux Klan. He maintained that its original purpose was to resist radical Reconstruction (former Confederate soldiers not being allowed to vote) and protect Southerners in the disordered, violent years after the Civil War. Forrest repudiated the Klan and called for it to be disbanded in 1869 when it had degenerated into violent, racist groups. He later made speeches, many years ahead of his time, calling for racial equality.