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It's been a while
Just going to let you see what we’ve been covering. We finished Extreme Ownership. Wow, now the journey has really begun. Beyond that, we have been really reviewing how we look at improvement time. Always keeping on budget……and some thick skin. No, not poor lunchbucket.
July 13th to 16th, 2020 Prioritize and Execute
Rapid execution. It is important into today’s fast paced, internet world that as an organization, rapid execution is at the forefront. Obviously, as we have changed and grown as a company, issues arise in our ability to prioritize the work that needs to be done.
One of the big takeaways our people brought up, was target fixation. WE realized how we all get fixated on our own areas, own ideas, and often, it gets in the way of improvement and accomplishment. The higher priority orders or work might get missed or sequenced incorrectly
Additionally, the chain of command started to really take light as we read through this chapter. Having the ability of junior leaders to understand their roles and to speak up and lead when needed.
Setting simple, concise plans allows our people to look around and gain traction. We talked about how complex a workspace can be and we have a lot of work to clean up and lean up our complexities.
July 6th to 9th, 2020 Simple
The term excessive complexity came to light this week. As we read and shared our understandings of what “Simple” really is, we all learned that we keep making things harder for ourselves than they have to be. The idea that no plan goes according to plan is just how it really works.
Our team started to delve into the legitimate complexities that our simple jobs entail. I found people stating objectives more concisely. Also, our folks started to understand that things just do go wrong, and exhibiting ownership over that and coming up with alternative plans is just what has to happen. We talked about how bruised egos lead to more and more complexity. It is interesting how ego comes back into every chapter’s discussions with our team.
On Thursday, we watched Philip from Portugal’s 2 second forklift improvement and tied the Simple chapter into being a lean maniac. It was pretty mind blowing how simple solutions can reduce the struggle in everyday tasks. Philip and Torre rock. I look forward to keeping this journey going.
July 4th, 2020 Feeling Free
The 4th of July has become my favorite day of the year. I just simply get excited, the buzz is in the air. Freedom to celebrate, to gather, to exist as you want.
Each year, my family gathers and while Covid diminished the quantity of people, it didn’t diminish the fun. What a great long weekend.
July 1st: Baby Step 3
Team, Baby Step 3 delivered. We hit up Financial Peace Baby Step 3 video today as a team. It was interested to hear how folks felt about a security blanket and be content with what you have. I find it powerful and wanted to be sure that everyone understood that our both our company and personally Kari and i are focused on making this our way of life. No ish.
Step 3
Group Talk Was Very Interesting Headed into a Holiday Celebration
June 28th: Lean and Extreme Ownership
Today we pushed pause on Extreme Ownership to relate how this is important to be integrated into our lean journey. Honestly, the video is one of my go to’s. I review it quarterly, especially up to around the 6:40 mark.
Primary takeaways:
-People are the only appreciating assets in an organization
-Ego is a pothole to success
-Fear of Change and Fear of Failure are rocks to move
-The journey never ends.
This video is how every organization should run.
June 25 to June 29, 2020: The Laws of Combat: Cover and Move
Cover and Move is something we have taught the concept of in prior years, so our team was not completely foreign to the idea. Every once in a while, you can hear the term being mentioned walking through the plant or as an explanation or training to someone in a new area. Would our team take full understanding of it? In the past, it was understood more as running around and helping other areas. I felt the understanding was to have purposeful chaos. It is soooooo much more than just running up and helping a buddy.
The real core to cover and move is to understand the overall mission of which the team is engaged. That each move, whether in your own area or in another area is to move us closer to success. Right away, the initial understanding felt more what I felt before, purposeful chaos.
Then, in our Tuesday meeting, issues came up where folks had realized where in the past they thought they were “covering and moving” but took true ownership of what they had been really doing, making sure their silo was perfect first and then and only then worrying about another area. The idea of functional silos finally came to light. I think we made some progress here.
June 22 to 25: Check Your Ego
Wow. A deep and bruising chapter.
For all of us, understanding that from Extreme Ownership; “ Ego clouds and disrupts everything….the most difficult ego to deal with is your own.” is for sure the most bruising part.
Our discussions on ego has been interesting and eye opening. Many of our people opened up to the realization that ego was getting in the way of not only their work relationships but also their personal relationships. Changing the reactions and paradigm of how we respond in any situation is easier said than done. I applaud many of our people for starting to understand this and work to improving this mindset.
My favorite line from this chapter is; “Many of the disruptive issues that arise within any team can be attributed directly to a problem with ego.” I went on to tell our team, that this line runs through my head every time I run across a team inside Elite or outside that clearly is in the middle of a rift. The hard part is that conflict isn’t necessarily bad, but with the wrong ego and culture it is at best self-serving and at worst the crumbling foundation of which we stand on.
To begin to take real ownership in our lives, we need to start with our own ego.
June 15th to June 19th Believe
This week we read the chapter in Extreme Ownership about Believe. You must first believe in the mission you are set out to do. It is interesting because I had recently watched a presentation from Simon Sinek who had discussed how business is often infinite with no defined end. The best companies have their “Why” and everything is focused on that while others focus on things like their competition or their next order rather than define their “Why”. Because of the lack of why, those companies usually suffer.
In regards to sports, we talked about Chicago…..yes Chicago. We discussed the level of “Believe” in two of its famous or infamous stars. What is the difference between Michael Jordan’s believe in winning vs. Jay Cutler’s believe in winning the NFC Championship. We also read a story about New Zealand Buck Shelford’s story to keep the All Blacks undefeated vs. the French. Google it, but be prepared, its pretty wild.
It really brings our challenge of lean and being a lean maniac into focus. Do we really believe in daily 3S? Are our 2 second improvements focused or random? Do we connect processes or take the time to reflect or Hansei on our mistakes and failures? The “Why” can get lost from time to time in these activities because they go on in perpetuity. The challenge is real and I think we are up to the challenge.
June 10, 2020 No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders-Application to Business
Assume.
The word for the past two weeks that keeps popping up is assume.
Assumed you got the info.
Assumed you’d know how to do that.
Assumed you would follow through with that.
Assumed, Assumed, Assumed.
I have watched people in our company catch themselves saying that as they describe a constraint or issue at hand. It’s like a light switch moment. I assumed xyz……….light switch…….wait, …this is all my fault????!!!!!???!!!!
June 8/9, 2020 No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders
Well, today. I wasn’t the best leader out there. I sucked pretty bad. Won’t always be the best, missteps happen, but it does take a touch of humility to admit that you didn’t approach something quite right. Passion and direction, ok, execution not there.
How to respond to one of those days is really the key. Can it be a catalyst for a subtle shift in direction in a positive way or set us back weeks, months, or years.
Today we read the Principle of No Bad Teams, only Bad Leaders ironically. Setting the standard. Easier said than done. It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate…….sometimes from yourself.
June 4, 2020 Making things is Cool.
Blog: Lean Thinking
Post: The Beauty of Making Things
Link: http://blog.leansystems.org/2020/05/the-beauty-of-making-things.html
We read this blog in our meeting today. It was really interesting to hear everyone’s take on how making things gets a bad rap. We take essentially dirt and glue and create beautiful functional pieces.
The intriguing piece was how our folks talked about finding satisfaction in the little nuances of their particular jobs and that finding and creating quality in itself almost feels like art.
Seems pretty simple. Making things is cool.
Keyboard warriors with bad posture and a bad attitude, not so cool.
June 3, 2020 Application to Business; Extreme Ownership
Taking constructive criticism is one of the most humbling but needed actions taken to grow and gain knowledge. Our group has really gotten engaged and the highlighters are getting some heavy use.
My 3S time was spent taking care of yesterday’s storms. We started reviewing personal pictures and videos from our Whatsapp channel. I need to improve how we pull video content off Whatsapp for further training and usefulness.
Also, its been hot. Hot Hot. We’ve sent this to ours guys.
June 2, 2020 The leader must own everything.
The leader must own everything. We listened to the Principle section of Extreme Ownership.
When things go wrong, it requires extraordinary humility and courage. The whole course of business right now is messed up and this will be paramount to success.
June 1, 2020 Hard Cover and A Highlighter
Today we handed out hardcover books of Extreme Ownership and a highlighter. We listen to the book’s narration on audible as we follow along in our meeting. Extreme Ownership, Part 1 Winning the War Within. Chapter 1. Extreme Ownership
The Mala’ab District, Ramadi, Iraq: Fog of War
Fog of war hit home a bit as one of our team members whom rarely speaks up said, the fog of war happens here. When we are working to get orders out, we assume others on the team understand and it can get hazy. He stated, we each need to take notice of this and take ownership and make sure we aren’t "assuming” as much as we are.
I think we are on the right track.
May 28, 2020 Body Language
Taking a break as our Extreme Ownership books arrive tomorrow, we looked at Geno Auriemma and a press conference piece that centered on Body Language. It can be the key indicator of whether someone has it or not.
We discussed this as a tool as a leader to tell if someone gets it or not. Is engaged or not. Wanting to learn or not. Wanting to work for the better of the team or not. I visited over a year ago a company named Kaas Tailored whom had a lean culture with a diverse workforce. They stated, we speak 14 languages here, 13 different dialects from different countries and regions and one common language, the 14th is body language.
Good, Bad, or indifferent body language speaks loudest. We have work to do.
May 27, 2020 From a Humble Place
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we have listened to the Forward and Preface of Extreme Ownership. Today, the humble place was one item picked up on by one of our guys. Applying battlefield leadership in business was another. I believe strongly in the core of this book. I hope we find success in the simplicity of these lessons and apply them to our lives. It was fun to introduce Leif and Jocko to our team.
May 26, 2020 Southwest Airlines and #showmethemoney
Anywhere you look in business reading, you find stories about Southwest and their great customer focus. Recently, the COVID-19 deal cancelled a trip for a few of my employees and myself. We cancelled our flights earlier than when all the airlines started refunding airline tickets so our tickets sat in a travel fund (individually).
I called and got a little bit of the run around that the tickets could only be used by these two employees. I was frustrated, because our business had paid for them, not them. They don’t really travel so it wouldn’t really be seen as a perk if I just let them use it for personal trips, so the funds would have been wasted. Fortunately, an email and a day later, Southwest came through and sent a personal message with details of the refund. Now, they didn’t get it right at first, but they did get it right. It shocked me a bit that they didn’t get it right the first time, but they have a business system that get’s it right. Building a system that gets it right gets its true test it crisis. They like us, have been exposed a bit by this pandemic.
Building a culture of continuous improvement is at times arduous at best. A new hire started his first improvement project and announced in the meeting when he would finish his project. He then announced, when I am done, you can “show me the money!” Now……I just ignored the deal as we should be committed to the improving ourselves, but now a few of our folks in jest or not are posting their improvements with the #showmethemoney moniker. Might be the worst way to make that happen. Culture has a way to go here.
May 21, 2020 Owned It
Yesterday, we talked about what extreme ownership was. Today, we brought up the term, “own up to something.” Often, Extreme Ownership gets confused with admitting to or taking blame for something or “MY Bad”. It is entirely not that, it is about be Proactive in your approach to what you are embarking in. There is no need to own up to something when you have been proactive. True, you can still make mistakes, but who doesn’t. When you exhibit Extreme Ownership there is no needs for “My bad” and “owning up to…”
We showed this video about Extreme Ownership and the reason we have this long weekend ahead. Give Honor and Gratitude this Memorial Day Weekend.
