The intensity of being a contributor versus a consumer brings us to moments of challenged ability. Be one that is able in the moment needed and others will entrust greatness into your hands.
2Tm:2:2: And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Winners Make Commitments.
Losers Make Promises.
In these few short words to Timothy, Paul revealed a tremendous portion of the key to his winning life. Look at the word choices. Among Many Witnesses. The Same. Commit. Faithful Men. Able Also.
Among many witnesses.Paul was not afraid for his life to be tested against witnesses. His words were true and he stayed with them. What witnesses heard years before still was true of his life. Timothy was charged to make sure solid teaching, life, and words passed on to other men of commitment.
The same.Paul was open in his life. He committed himself to being like Jesus. The same yesterday, today, and forever.
Commit. Paul was not noncommittal. He made commitments and expected others to do the same.
Faithful men. These are hard to find. Paul never gave up. Betrayed continually, he never gave up looking for faithful men.
Able also. We can be an “able also”. An “able also” does the same in making commitment, sticking with it, being faithful, following through, endures all things, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things.
Promises are cheap. “I’ll be there.” MEANS “If it fits the pressures of the moments right before.” OR “Whatever it takes to get you to quit asking.” . “Til death do us part.” MEANS “Until I redefine what I meant.” OR “Until I don’t want to handle the pressures anymore face to face.”
Commitment is expensive. “I’ll be there.” MEANS “Whatever the cost, I’ll rearrange life to get me there.” “Til death do us part.” MEANS “I will stick it out though I may not feel like it. “I will take control of my feelings and bring them to submission in Christ.”
Psalm 15:1: LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 2: He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. 3 : He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. 4: In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. 5: He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
Take Inventory
What does it mean to be an “ABLE ALSO”?
What changes do I have to make?
Are there repairs that need to be done to broken commitments?
When am I willing to start?
Make Application
Write what you are going to specifically do in the next 30 days about this.
Pray To Be An Able Also
Father, make me an “ABLE ALSO”. Change the way I promise to commitment. Instill in me faithfulness. When I am faithless, You are faith-full. Make me like Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11: Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12: Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13: Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Every progressive effort starts with a step toward change and a holy dissatisfaction with status quo.
Phil:3:13: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
A winner …says, “There is a better way.”.
A loser…. says, “That is the way it has always been done around here.”
Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
Life is full of opportunities to continue to do the same things. One man defined insanity this way: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Expectations, persistence of others, voices from the past, and other forces impugn on our ability to think new, creative thoughts about what we do.
How do you get into the “better way” mentality? A favorite saying of mine is, “If it ain’t broke, break it.” What? Don’t you mean, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” No, I meant what I wrote. “If it ain’t broke, break it.” Many times we build traditional barriers around an activity structured on preference and our limited understanding at the time. A man displayed curiousity about the way his wife cooked a roast beef. She would always cut the ends off. Thinking there must be a great culinary secret to this method he asked her why. “I don’t know,” she replied, “my mother taught me that way.” Pressed for information on the private process he went to her mother. “I don’t know,” she replied, “my mother taught me that way.” Perplexed he drove to the matron of the family’s home and asked again. “Oh,” she quickly responded, “my roasting pan was too short to hold the full roast.”
Most processes need to be repaired regularly. Now, you don’t want to tear up a good thing, so there are many other rules of change and improvement like: Always give a change time to go through the curve of lagging productivity until people learn the new way and become adept before implementing the next change. AND Any change will be resisted in strength in direct proportion to its’ potential for improvement.
Life is full of processes and a “better way” mentality will protect you from foolish failure. A computer tech went out to resolve a problem one day in an executive secretary’s office. Seemed that every time she printed a letter she first had to print all the letters she had ever printed. It took an half a box of paper to print a letter! The cost and time of doing her job that way finally overcame her embarrassment and she asked for help. The fix was simple. She was simply doing what she had been shown. Open a file, go to the end, type the letter, print it. Problem was she had only be given one file name and all the letters since she began her job were in one file that she printed each time according to explicit instructions. Absurd? Real. Fortune 500 company. Executive secretary doing something that needed to be broken.
What about the way we converse with others? What about how we walk into a meeting? What about how we greet our friends? Are those processes that could use some “better way” mentality?
Jesus broke the mold for some in the way they treated their parents in a story related in Matthew 15. God gave a principle. Honor your fathers and mothers. They made a rule that discluded them conveniently. Tradition overruled wisdom and principle, and Jesus saw through the smoke. Matt 15:6: Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12: 1-2 NIV.
Principle is principle is principle. Relationships, work issues, projects, and hobbies all present problems. When you allow others to help in the process, you prosper quicker. Sometimes they have the solution you need. Always, Jesus has the solution you need.
Take Inventory
Where do you have a process, a way of doing things that really could use some improvement by being broken?
Are you ready to give up personal preferences and do what it takes to “break it and make it better” ?
Can you think of a scripture to apply that can help you into “better way” mentality?
Make Application
Write what you are going to specifically do in the next 30 days about this.
Pray To Be Changeable
Father, quicken my mind and heart. Life is full of processes. You know the one that needs breaking and bettering at this moment. God, I can get so confused with all of the items in life. What item can I work on today? What am I doing that really does more damage than good? Where can I get a lift seeing you touch a new area of my life and give me a creative fresh approach? Cleanse my thinking, Lord. Jesus, be my wisdom, be my source, be my life giver. Holy Spirit release the fresh wind of Your brooding. Brood over my thoughts and bring order to their chaos that I might see clearly what You want to create.
To go through a problem is to conquer it and create new paths. Go through. Don’t go around it.
Ps:95:8: Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: .
A winner goes through a problem.
A loser tries to go around a problem.
Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
Problems are life. Sound like the last chapter? You are right. It is not the same though. What makes a winner a conqueror, an overcomer, is the problems they face and conquer. You will have problems. 1Pt:4:12:” Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:”
The question is will you go through or around?
Going around. The children of Israel spent 40 years going around their problems. When they were offered the land of opportunity, they chose to stay away and not deal with their problems. What was their problem? Discord, lack of submission to leadership, unbelief, selfishness… basically just a lot of reliance on themselves and little on God.
Going through. After that 40 year phase, a new set of children rose up and went through their problems. They stuck together, defended each other, and took the blessings by going through their problems.
Going around. The United States is full of men and women going around their problems. Insecurity, lack of knowledge on how to be a dad/mom/husband/wife, lack of commitment, irresponsibility, self fulfillment keeps them from sticking with their families and spouses and friends. It’s easier to go around.
Going through. My heroes are the ones who overcome their insecurities, lack of knowledge, lack of commitment, irresponsibility, and self fulfillment, replace it with security in Jesus, knowledge from the Word, commitment to what counts, responsibility even when it hurts, and other fulfillment, and stick with the program. It is not easy. It is incredibly rewarding.
Hebrews 4:14: Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.15: For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.16: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Principle is principle is principle. Relationships, work issues, projects, and hobbies all present problems. When you allow others to help in the process, you prosper quicker. Sometimes they have the solution you need. Always, Jesus has the solution you need.
Take Inventory
Where do you have a problem that you have circumvented but not solved?
Are you ready to do what it takes to solve it?
Have you ever felt like getting mad at God because of a problem? Did you go around the problem or through it?
Overcoming. As I write this I am praying for five relationships where someone has come to me in the last week and asked for prayer. They are GOING THROUGH!. Anger, alcohol, and accusations make for hard lives. You can GO THROUGH. You can overcome. It takes both involved in the relationship, but it can be done. Who are you praying for?
Make Application
Write what you are going to specifically do in the next 30 days about this.
The life of a manager would not be complete without that wonderful day where she finds herself stumped as to why a staff member acted in a certain manner inconsistent with policy. After several months of training a colleague, you find them going a different direction than guided. It is inevitable. It will happen.
The next surprise is when they tell you it was your idea. What? My idea? What incredible bump do you have on your head that caused such a thought? Have you lost your mind? Where did you get that idea?
Then you remember. You remember the question you answered last week in the middle of a major emergency. A customer needed an exception to your normal policy for a critical project. You authorized the team to process the job in a different manner. It was an exception needed and specific to that day and that job and that customer. Now, it is a rule. Now, it is embedded in the minds of staff as the way to cut a job short.
Of course, if you take this exception route on a routine basis you will lose all your profits, mix up customer work orders, and generally destroy the business. One time on a special project is okay with manager discretion. Any time on normal jobs with a staff discretion is chaos.
Every manager must understand exceptions, communicate them clearly, and contain expanded usage.
Understand Exceptions
The impact of an exception on the minds of team members is big. They watch you, manager. They take clues for action from your action. When you step out of the normal, they believe it is okay to do the same anytime they so choose. Get it? Get it! Guard it.
Understand your own decision. You cannot simply make an exception without understanding and being able to explain to someone else.
Exceptions are not meant to be rules; however, if you don’t take the next two steps, they will become rules.
Communicate Clearly
Exceptions will cause a problem. They will. You have order and rules to prevent problems. Okay, accept that and be prepared to contain the problem. Of course, you accommodate for that in your decision. Explain the problem. Explain the accommodation. Explain why this is a onetime decision. Be prepared for questions and distrust. Yes, you worked hard to communicate why you would never do what you just did and then you did it. But, it was an exception, right? You really did have a reason other than you just wanted to do it? Right?
Let your leaders and decision makers know this is an exception, why you made it, and how they might follow your logic in their next decision. Logic? You had some, right?
Contain Expanded Usage
After an exception, reinforce the rule. Take time to pull documentation if necessary and explain why this is a onetime decision and why not to do it with any regularity. Be honest. Did you do it for political purposes? Then explain the urgency of the situation and protocol you followed. Did you do it to prevent Don’t hide behind, “Because I said so.” That is weak and lacks open communication to the team.
Summary: Do these three things when you make an exception and they won’t become a rule.
Be attentive and cautious when making exceptions that they really fulfill your direction.
Always enjoy managing the exceptions and the disciplines.
Be Busy Building Business Have a Great Day!
Phil
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I need your help. I need you to join me for lunch. (It is okay if you want to just give to the work also if you can’t come.)
On Sept 16th at 11:45am join Carey Casey, CEO of the National Center for Fathering, Hon. James Lankford, U.S. House of Representatives, Chuck Bowman, Larry Campbell, Imagenet+ Consulting, R.K. Black, Kimray, Tom Hill, keyevado, Shepherd Consulting, Willow Creek Golf and Country Club and others.
Your registration goes directly to works in progress at Tulakes Elementary in North OKC, Epperly Heights Elementary in Del City, East OKC, West OKC, Dad’s University, and Matamoros families. Through the support of a friend, lunch expenses are covered. That means your registration goes directly to the work.
You can join for golf afterwards, if you would like. But, I need you to join me for lunch.
You can sponsor more, but, I need you to join me for lunch.
Controlled chaos is a normative term in the management of change. Change is never straight. Change defies a linear constraint. Change is messy and change is curved. Leaders must be curved people.
Mentoring a growth team, we reviewed normal impact of change on the growth leader. In this model vision leads to planning and implementation leads to problems and pressures leads to perseverance leads to accomplishment and success leads to celebration and rejoicing leads to increased vision. Or you can choose crisis instead of perseverance which leads to exhaustion and withdrawal can lead to restoration can lead to increased vision. Or crisis can abort the progress. There are hundreds of divergent paths that may happen. Change is messy and curves a lot.
Change is not for straight line people. They are good at regular performance and processes. Change bothers them. A leader must learn to be a curved person. Change is inevitable and needed. Leaders lead through the curves.
There is one major curve in change you should explore and master. It is the curve between your starting level of productivity and your landing level of productivity. In that curve lies all the potential for disaster and triumph. In that curve many leaders lose sight of vision. In that curve success is assured and failure is certain. Master the curve and master change.
Starting Level: Preceding productivity curve is your present level of productivity and accomplishment. How successful are you? What are your measurements? Know them and get them recorded.
Plan: Now, plan the change that you intend to take your business or other endeavor into the next level of productivity. Go from 100 widgets a day to 200 widgets a day. Add a new product line while keeping current production levels on others. Penetrate a new market. Implement improvement in service. Change for growth.
Launch: Launch the change. Communicate, take action, and plunge into the change. Paralysis by analysis is deadly. There is a moment and point of demarcation. Take it. Fall off the mountain. That’s right fall off the mountain of your current productivity level.
Freefall: Change causes freefall. Problems come from change. Teams get confused. Productivity decreases while people absorb new information. The right screw becomes the wrong screw. Questions abound. Production plummets. This was in your plan, right? You made allowance for this, correct? No? Whoops. Fingers get pointed. Doubt crawls up the ladder to challenge the change rationale.
Adjust: Light shines. People push through learning curves. The services straighten out on the planned track. There is smiling in the camp instead of groaning. You knew you would get here, you just wished it had happened on schedule and without the problems. The changes begin to push productivity above your starting level.
Landing Level: Why endure the pain of change? Reach new levels. Plan diligently. Execute well. Adapt strong. Obtain outcomes. Receive reward. Of course, it does not always look so pretty. You might drag onto the landing level scarred and scattered.
Summary: This conversation is one I’ve had with hundreds of learning leaders. Every new leader expects smooth change, gets into the curve, panics, and needs some encouragement. Have your eyes open when you enter the change curve. You still might get blindsided, but you will be ready. Adapt with good and frequent communication and intentional feedback points. Go ahead and fall off the mountain. The landing spot is higher than where you stand.
“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” Phil
Engage others in creative and synergistic endeavors. Purposefully find ways to force team member interplay for power results. Be sensitive and firm. This is not a day at the ropes course. This is in the work place on real tasks that have real risk of failure and real potential for success and reward.
“Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential. They experience synergy only in small, peripheral ways in their lives. But creative experiences can be produced regularly, consistently, almost daily in people’s lives. It requires enormous personal security and openness and a spirit of adventure.” Steven Covey
It takes a LEADER: Good executive leaders understand this rule. Leadership is required. Manager thought tends to avoid this risky behavior. Lead.
Personal Security: The workplace should ooze with personal security and powerful self esteem and a sense of individual dignity. Of course it might not be happening where you lead. Then you need to work on it. People need to understand accountability and responsibility and the safety of making mistakes from which we learn.
Accountability means I understand my actions and results impact all those around me and I account that into my decisions. Others will hold me accountable for what I do. They will rejoice in tandem, forgive forthright mistakes, and hold me responsible for results both individual and together.
Responsibility means my action will impact me directly. I get it. I understand it. I welcome it. Good or bad results, I am responsible for my actions.
Personal security can only be reinforced in such a dual environment. Many lack personal security and are looking for everyone from mom and dad to the government to supervisors to take responsibility for their success or failures. Those people cannot thrive in synergy at optimum levels. But they can start where they are, grow, and experience more daily.
Openness: Every team has to find the place of what Jim Collins calls, “brutally confronting the facts.” It is not negative. It is a direct and non-personal approach to dealing with the blips, glitches, misstatements, wrong turns, customer complaints, and missed deadlines. Dancing around the issues because a team member is overly sensitive inhibits synergy. You have to want synergy. You have to desire synergy. You have to yearn for synergy to get past covered conversations into open, intelligent discussion.
Spirit of Adventure: A community leader speaking at a business leaders’ lunch asked for a show of hands. “Who loves to do things with uncertain results and a high risk?” Only one hand among 450 went up. “Well”, he said, “that is the definition of adventure.” Among all of these senior executives, bankers, lawyers, CEOs, and wizened warriors of the workplace, the sense of adventure had died. For synergy to happen every day, the third ingredient is a spirit of adventure. Individually and together the team needs to led into a continual spirit of adventure.
On a powerfully synergistic team, a client came with a bothersome technical improbability. Theoretically, what they were doing should work. But, it was failing at several levels of production and the supporting vendors had sent them to us for resolution. After some frustrating attempts, one of the team just would not let it go. He tested and tried and worked with the other members to come up with a solution. At first, we discovered how to force it through our production engine, but only with effort. Then synergy exploded. A simple solution was implemented that allowed the originating production shop to perform without having to upgrade their equipment or outsource the job to us. Our team invented themselves synergistically out of a job that was highly profitable. Openness means honesty. Sense of personal security means do the right thing for the client. Spirit of adventure means taking on the improbable and finding a way to do it anyway.
Five Leadership Tips for Tough Times Every Mature Executive Needs to Learn.
Working as an agent of change in support of executives comes with scars and stars. The stars are the memories that have power to change us for the better. The scars are best left as lessons learned and give time and attention to heal. But, wow, when you work beside a star boss or on a star team, your life is never the same.
There are five top performing bosses and the teams that surrounded them that have taught me powerful lessons in living and management. Let me share these with you. You can grow in a minute under the right coaching. It would take a book to list all the lessons each of these leaders taught me, so I’ll just highlight five lessons that I believe every mature executive should learn.
Schille’s All Stars: Hard Times Bring Growth: John Schille is an incredible coach and leader. In 2004, John was distinguished as the number one CIO in the United States and his organization received the same accolade. At the time, I wa honored to be a director on John’s direct report team. The performance level of the organization was tops. The responsiveness to technical disruption was specific and on target. The vision for the future, while working with John was unending.
During one incredibly hard season of growth of a department I had been assigned to improve, I remember sitting and discussing with John. He looked directly into my eyes and said, “Phil, you’ll find that under the hardest times you look back and realize you grow the most.” He was right. I’ve remembered that lesson among many others ever since.
Guida’s Good Days: Reward When No One is Looking: John Guida has a hard compassion about him that molded me. He believed in me in extreme circumstance. We had some tough discussions as we worked alongside a great team to pull a company out of chapter 11. In 18 months, it was accomplished through amazing team effort. After a pressing year, John came into my office with a sizeable surprise bonus. By company regulation I was not eligible for bonus. It was just not that company’s style. But, here it was. John had gone up the chain for me when I had no idea what was happening.
McCreery’s Mountain: Be Gracious In All Seaons: Mike McCreey is one of the most grateful men for whom I have worked. As CFO of a struggling company, he exampled kindness and gratitude. Every Friday, when the key operational management team would meet, Mike was first to have the coffee made and served. He exemplified servant leadership.
One afternoon, I was in Mike’s office waiting for the third person to join us in a decision. His secretary came in to serve us. Mike made sure he thanked her for her act. I’m sure he must have said thank you many times a day. He turned to me and spoke in a calm and deliberate voice, “Phil, this world would be much better if people just learned to say thank you.” It was a real strength in his life.
Heil’s Salvation:Build the Man With Care: Bob Heil was a mountain of man. Heil means salvation in German. Bob lived to serve others and assist them in rescuing themselves from themselves. For two years, I was honored to study under Bob in a school he and Linn Haitz started to develop young men into movers and shakers. It was leadership intensive.
At one point, Bob and I crossed swords. I was young and impulsive and wanting to run out on my own and take the world. He was mature and sensitive and giving me ample rope to hang myself but not so much to die doing it. When I realized how stupidly I was acting, I went to Bob and asked his counsel. He immediately understood, forgave me my stupidity, and gave me great counsel. He could have responded in many ways to my mistakes. He chose to respond with wisdom in order to allow me growth. He chose to build the man in me with care and firmness.
Dryden’s Dynamics: Rest Stop Ahead: Ron Dryden has a sense of compassion and marketing and team dynamics not seen in many. I think of many of the great coaches of national champion teams when I think of Ron. Keeping a stable of stallions in motion is an art and a craft. He did it well.
Our team took on an amazing challenge. How do you take a white non-profit organization and move it to become multi-cultural while tripling the size? This was a hard task. There were many days of pains and problems. The community in which we served was racially divided and antagonistic to these ideals. My office was full of complaints and finger pointing as were the offices of the other team leaders. As the Director of Operations, I handled everything from plumbing to prisons.
Big events were common, time consuming, exhausting, and rewarding. Ron taught us to be rested going into a big event versus thinking we would rest on the other side. That wisdom has served me well over the years. Our tendency is to believe we can push to the max and then rest. Yet, what if the big event works and we harvest big on the other side in sales, people, whatever we looked to accomplish? Then we will be exhausted and unable to work the harvest of our efforts. Rest up ahead of a big thrust.
Summary: These five lessons can serve any leader. As a change agent for most of my career, I’ve been called upon to work through tough situation after tough situation. In each I’ve been able to act with growth, reward, graciousness, care, and rest. It was these leaders that developed that into me by example. Leadership is example. That is another lesson.
Contact Phil Larson, Director of Shepherd Consulting phil@shepherdok.com 405-388-8037…
Phil is a dynamic speaker, author, mentor, and agent of change. His organization works to help executives and managers achieve their goals and dreams through decisive dynamics. he is available to help you achieve your dreams.
These two gentlemen represent a great event in a production shop. What really is the beginning of such powerful events? Oh, the event? The team had kept key equipment up and running and productive for 30 days with no vendor calls. Amazing. Especially considering the fact that prior to this the equipment required calls every 2-3 days for many years. They are holding an award for the historic event. Now, back to the question. What really is the beginning of such powerful events?
Think about why you need these events? A friend used to call them “Big Days”. Big Days build strength in an organization, overcome defiant obstacles, and release energy of the team in a positive manner that is brooding in a negative manner. For those reasons alone, you need to engage the next three points.
One: Get dissatisfied. Yes, that is the beginning of all great change. If you are comfortable and content, change is a threat. You must engage vision for the future with passion and be dissatisfied with the status quo.
Two: Spread your dissatisfaction. Now, you don’t need to get people upset over nothing. But if the people you are serving can’t get their jobs done or their product delivered or their services received on time, you need to get some partners in your dissatisfaction. Other managers, co-workers, staff, key customers, executives and others probably are already dissatisfied. Let them know you understand and listen to their view points.
Three: This is where real change starts. Pick a key point over which everyone is dissatisfied and attack it with passion and purpose. Dig for a root cause that will help everyone in the process. The theory of constraints explains that when you dig out a major point of constraint, you loosen up other constraints to become visible so they can be resolved. In other words, break the dam!
You will be amazed. This team went into overdrive for customer satisfaction when they found this one barrier to productivity resolved. They annihilated this bothersome downtime issue on key machines, developed new procedures for maintaining the equipment, gained independence from the vendor, improved production turnaround times, and improved the entire shop morale.
Just a thought today for those looking to do something good for themselves and those they serve.
Product Optimization: Six Core Area For In-Plant Cost Optimization for Executives
Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. Steve Jobs
Love the Product. Love the Customer. Love Each Other. Phil Larson
That mantra has served me well for decades. Loving your products and services builds professionalism and excellence into all you and your team produce. Loving your customer causes you to find inventive ways to serve. You listen and adapt to their needs. Loving the other members of your production team causes you to believe in them and work to see them grow. It works together.
Ingenuity inside a performing enterprise takes dedication to the voice of the customer in product optimization.
One shop had worked for years on shifting priorities of several companies. A particular product needed in a particular manner eluded their capabilities. Both the people in the company needing service and the people in production were stumped. Eventually, a bright-minded setup tech invented a plan. With some modifications in production and some workflow adaptation in order intake and online systems, the product was brought successfully into plant production. The department saved thousands of dollars a month and reduced lag times on orders. They also moved from a static mode to a dynamic mode. They also eliminated the need for a complete position and the person in that position moved up into a higher contributing spot. What a win-win-win-win! The production team loved servicing the product line and it filled in for a dropped product line.
Product Optimization is getting the right product mix that is profitable and fit to the location, equipment, and people. Make it important. Pricing has to be right. Prioritization has to be right. Process has to be right. Effective turnaround on the products that are bread and butter and keep the shop running day to day has to be protected.
Let’s look at those components of product optimization.
Props: Tools and Technologies
Adding a new product or service can entail huge shifts in people skill base. There has to be time to build the new skills and knowledge. Plan it in. Make sure your budget planning includes expanding tools and technologies and integrating training across teams ahead of product launch.
When implementing UV coating, it became apparent it was not as simple as we thought. Finishing techs were excellent at folding, perfing, bookmaking and other areas. UV is almost an art of temperature, paper type, speed , thickness, machine, and coating. It is certainly a craft where skill, expertise, and art combine. There were many trials and errors before we could brag about capability. However, once launched, the demand was continual.
Pricing
Custom work means custom pricing. Many in-plants are not set up for custom anything. People who have used the service are used to pay per piece or pay per page or pay for nothing just make the budget work. That can be limiting when products and services need to be customized for one area though not all need them. Budgeted hourly rates, production turns, machine setups, people time in workflow, and supplies all have to be put into pricing calculators to then match to market bearing numbers. This is tough work and necessary. No one can operate on cost alone. A fully loaded cost contains many factors including profit. Profit for an in-plant means allocated dollars for increasing equipment and skill training to always improve for the people you serve.
Pricing reflects value. Value reflects dignity. Dignity reflects ownership. Ownership makes for great results.
A client was ready for custom one-off book production. Anyone who has ordered a photo book online understands the high dollars charged. This client balked at even a low charge. Entitlement thinking had prepped them for simply not having to pay any extra for custom, labor intensive work. Negotiation and clear-headed thinking prevailed and a new product was co-invented for the client that revolutionized sales results for one company. The sales teams received access to custom proposals in high quality book form that set them in much higher esteem with prospects. A simple pricing negotiation between the in-plant and the creative released power for an entire sales team.
Prioritization
Every shop has a mix of people served. Every business unit served and every department has different business demands and workflows that have to be met and matched. This balance keeps the symbiotic excellence for a performing enterprise that is so necessary for complete productivity. New product and altered product requires prioritization changes communicated at every step of the process.
Blow out of your mind the thought of levels of the process when considering priority. Thinking of levels of people will get you in trouble. Every person in the process chain needs to understand prioritization of performance in relation to the other items on which they work not “the president wants this right now”. That form of prioritization is surely necessary at times and managers have to adjust to make it happen while keeping the flow of all the business considered. An open channel for emergencies has to be in place. But, the normal flow of product and service has to have a regular prioritization all can understand.
Process
An in-plant with good service means a busy in-plant. Move one item and five others are affected. In one plant, we had over 250 steps for each print order. From file prep to print to finish to distribute to allocate $$, it all had to be done and communicated.
This is a good place to make a note about humanizing services. A great lesson for me was finding a way to allow the people we served to look into our processes without turning control over to them. One person loved to walk up to the production team and shift their priorities either through smoozing or scowling. Neither helped anyone. I’ll never forget a twenty year professional broken down in my office, nerves shot, and eyes red from trying to serve this person. The person needed influence, but not in the middle of production processes. We altered our customer service approaches to be more inclusive of them and others along with spending time communicating our process methodologies. The interruptive visits went away.
Protection
Our votes(decisions) must go together with our guns (force of need). After all, any vote we shall have, shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should remain its security officer – its guarantor. The people’s votes and the people’s guns are always inseparable twins. Robert Mugabe
Executives and directors, I encourage you to protect what you value. You don’t have to pull out a gun to protect prior decisions, but you certainly should think protection. Decisions have been made with great thought and foresight. There was force of need that implemented past decisions and force of need that makes new ones. When you implement change, you need to address protecting prior decisions so the team understands value of loyalty and service. Otherwise you look petty and political and might make some costly mistakes.
Okay, that is enough thinking on this subject. The online book can give you more insights.
Next up will be online support and pdf workflow optimization. If you have an in-plant, Mr/Mrs/Ms Executive, you must make this happen.
SOLUM SERVICES 