Tag Archives: in-source

The Speed of Trust and the 3Cs

Good leaders surround themselves with good leaders.  Good teams submerge themselves in good practices.  Good people doing good action with good processes produce great results.   It works.  Great results flow. They don’t take onerous work. The people, the action, and the process make it happen.

So what does a great flow look like?  Trust builds on competency, chemistry, and character.  Trust greases the skids of great and right results.  Look for trust.  When it exists, the 3Cs are most likely in place.

There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world – one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.  Stephen M.R. Covey on Trust

What does trust look like?

Loyalty:  When trust exists the backdoor bickering is silent.  Ever have a cohort who constantly bickers?  Character prevails. Loyalty extends in every direction.  A disloyal worker will bring strife into every decision.  Loyal people listen and learn and run with direction.

Rapid Results:  When trust exists people are busy doing the next thing.  The constant questioning goes away.  Vision is caught and integrated into daily action. Chemistry is activated.

Right Action:  When trust exists the team knows they can run and make mistakes.  They are responsible to keep each other informed and know what to do.  Competency is not a question.

Do The Hard Thing:

Team Building:  A manager asked me recently, “Phil, what do I do when these three seem out of sync constantly?  I have solid processes.  The people are trained.  Communication is constant.  Yet, we just can’t get the flow moving?”   Answer:  Look for the weakened link.  Somewhere, someone has lost vision or never had it.  They are not with the team.   Check out my series of TEAM articles on Shepherdok.net .  There are some tips on structure, action, accountability, adherence, and alliance.   Find the person out of sync.

  • If they are in a slump and have been faithful in the past, see if you can discover their angst and help them solve it. You can’t solve the issues of the soul.  You can provide the right environment to heal if it has been damaged.
  • Do not attack them. Many managers make this mistake and lose quality team members. Not only will you lose a friend and supporter, this is an act of treason on your part.  The rest of the team will sense your disloyalty to one member and you have become the joint out of sync.
  • If they have never shown faithfulness, release them to follow their heart. They are not with you and will destroy the rest of the team.  Let me be strong here.  If you have done your best and a team player resists, release them.  They will not become happy because you are a great person.  They will tear at the rest of the team’s joy and trust and productivity.  Release them and your team can go forward.  Their passion is elsewhere.  Help them get to it.  Be graceful and firm.

Stand strong. Build a great team.  Build a better organization forward.

Marketing Within

Decades of working in corporate politics can leave you scarred and scattered.  There is no need for that.  In a series for American Printer, I’m reviewing tips for a specific service provision to large corporations.  Enjoy and apply to your endeavors.    This particular service is multi-channel marketing as an ongoing service.  Many print service providers are finding survival means adapting and becoming new.  Whether you are internal to an organization or serving the larger engine of an organization, the rules are similar.

Take a read and ask a question.  This is only one of a series of articles addressing this service.  Others cover staffing, workflow, conceptualization, and will move on to business model for effectiveness.

http://americanprinter.com/columnists/phil-larson/multi-channel-marketing-012315-ampr-phil-larson

The Five P’s of a Manager’s Portfolio Allow Right Building

The Five P’s of a Manager’s Portfolio Allow Right Building

Assessing a business operation takes scrutiny of the right five P’s.  Get it wrong and you can find yourself damaging more than building.  Get it right and the right stuff comsolum3des together.  Look to the heart not the surface.  Uncover riches.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.  Abraham Lincoln

First Things:  Begin with the end in mind.  This is another article, but you need to be reminded before you look into the P’s.  Every operation includes an objective to be measured and met.  Don’t look too deeply into the organization before you determine this item.  Otherwise, the P’s, which may be out of position, can lead you to wrong places.  If they were perfect, why would anyone need you?  They must continually be adjusted to measureable objectives.

People:  Take time to review the people set.  Are the right passions, personalities, and portions (skills sets) on the team?  Is this set to succeed or set to fail?  Has this team been intentionally built and honed or sporadically pieced together?  What will it take to realign and make productive?  What is missing?  What is unbalanced?

Props (Tools and Technologies): Examine the tools and technologies in the operation.  Are they current?  Are you trying to hit a big hairy audacious goal with skinny, smooth banana peels?  Has the shop been kept upgraded or held back with cost cutting for years?  What will be the investment?   Is the team “too techy” and loaded up with an oversupply so that no tool is really mastered?

Processes:  If you can’t document the processes clearly, you don’t know what you are doing.  Deming said something similar to that.  He’s right.  In one shop, it took two years to get process documentation settled.  Development teams kept changing the underlying processes without ever settling on the existing.  No one really knew what a good result at the end of the day looked like.  After documentation was settled, the team performed smoothly and on time every day according to company needs.   This is a touchy and tough area to address.  Don’t avoid it.

Projects:  Projects in motion reveal major needs if they are rightly designed.  The lack of defined  projects is a sure sign of a disparate, disorderly, and dying operation.  Are capital improvements in motion?  What services are being designed for future delivery?  Is there a training program?  Crosstraining?

Products and Services:  Well, why do you exist without these?  Service catalogue?  Do the focused customer groups know how to get great service and what service is available?  What of these are core critical to the overall organization?  Why?

Summary:  If you take these five P’s and write down three notes, you have the beginning of a great business plan.  1. What is the inventory or status of the P?  Make a list of the items and critical criteria, benefits, advantages, and demographics.  Assess alignment to objective and need. 2. What needs changed?  3. What is the impact on the other four P’s when I change it?

That’s enough for now.  Business is building.  Never stop building.

Exec/Direct In-Plant Thrive – Online Optimized

ImageOnline support and pdf workflow stabilization:

The fallacy still exists in the print services industry that you can get by without big feature online services.  You can’t.  Any executive or manager that is looking to improve performance must attend to this item.

A good online and pdf workflow system with right features for customers and production and administrative can drive significant costs out of reworks, job loss to competitors, and lag times on projects.  It also can bring in a constant flow of repeat business and give you a competitive advantage.  You can establish a clear differentiation from competition and integrate your production workflow with the customer workflow.  When they order, you can be the only option on their mind.

Inside the shop, there is an amazing turnaround improvement as wasted hours of looking for information are reduced and the status of every job is known at every moment.

For the administrative team invoice and chargeback information accuracy improves and historical analysis of product mix performance by customer and product type becomes available.

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

Why would you not move into this world?  Confusion over what you need leads the biggest fear factor.  Fear of a long project implementation that fails is another uncertainty area.  Doubt that your team can pull off the project correctly is another block to productive adaptation.

What online support is not.

Online support is not an ftp site with a little file information.  That is primitive and is what most print providers call online ordering.  If that is all you have, you need to move forward rapidly to find a more featured solution.

Online support is not job costing with file attachment.  Again, some have moved a step up the chain and adapted to at least give customers some added information.  However, most of those serving and most of those ordering are fully aware, the price at the delivery rarely matches in these type systems.  Customers need accuracy.

Online support is not an order system that resists integration with the other major processes of a production shop.  This can be frustrating.

What is going on in most shops?

In many shops those three represent the extent of online ordering support for the customer and the staff running the shop.  Every executive and manager can improve services for the organization and for the customers by going into a big feature online ordering support.

What does real online ordering and pdf workflow look like?

Okay, get your pencil out and begin to go over the checklist.  In the next ten years, you will be converted to this way of thinking or you might just not be in the business anymore.  It amazes me how much we resist the power of good ideas.  You need to demand your online software vendor support what you are getting ready to read and you need to demand your in-plant find a cost effective implementation for you.

  1. Online ordering requires acceptance of file upload of supported standard file types.
  2. A good system will archive prior files ordered and allow reorder without reupload.
  3. Catalogue collection and customization by client group.
  4. Variable customization of certain orders for dynamic build of post, brochure, business cards.
  5. Look and feel by client group ordering.  Make it personal for the client.
  6. Tight security and separation of file storage.
  7. Dynamic status of order reflecting whether the order has been moved to press, finishing, or shipped.
  8. Content lockdown with marketing, legal, compliance, and any other customer required approvals.
  9. Great systems have fulfillment for non-print items and high demand print items.
  10. Great systems are integrated into automatic invoicing.
  11. Great systems are integrated into shippers like Fedex and UPS for single reference from order point to receipt by the customer.
  12. Great systems have production integration for the shop so internal service can monitor all orders from a single console.

So, what is keeping the industry from running forward?  Automation leaders like VistaPrint and Shutterfly have proven value of powerful online systems.  Of course, an in-plant is not purposed to serve the world with such product, but they can certainly improve the purpose they serve.  There are some tremendous in-plants that have brought incredible value to their customers and owners through adopting online.

Get with it.  Find a way to implement and milk the value out of online and interactive custom ordering services.

FUD Removers

Yes, you do need to deal with the fear, uncertainty and doubt.

  1. Develop a list of criteria.
  2. Talk to key stakeholders in the customer areas.
  3. Build a shortlist of acceptable vendors with an RFI (request for information).
  4. Produce a product list that would be supported with expected sales growth by product.
  5. Calculate waste reductions with a LEAN DOWNTIME approach.  That is another article.
  6. Go for it and make your customers happy.

Light Bulb Moments – Empowered In-Plant Printers

What was that “light-bulb” moment that had the greatest success on your operation?

People serve people?

Online really does work?

I can help others grow?

What Makes A Successful In-Plant Printer Successful?

Finding the right mix of product and service alongside an appreciative customer base helps every in-plant prosper.  Listen as these successful managers tell their stories.  This is one of an insightful series filmed at GraphExpo in 2012.

How can you make the changes needed?

Where will you get the people?

How will you train them?