No matter what we do, how do we get better? By challenging ourselves to go beyond our current levels and break into new uncharted territory.
Growth takes time. Too many people expect results now, which is unrealistic no matter what you're looking to get better at. If it's your career, fitness, knowledge, skills or anything else, you have to put the time into dedicated practice, practice and more practice. If there's something that you really want, then your going to have to look at where you spend your time and stop doing the things that rob you of the precious time needed to practice. I don't watch much TV, there are so many other better things you could be doing to grow yourself. How much TV do you watch? Are you at where you want to be in life?
Don't let fear or the negative impressions of others hold you back. In fact, these two things are great indicators that you're going in the right direction. Use them to drive you farther and faster to a better you.
You have all the motivation you need inside of you, it just needs to be let out.
It all starts with a decision, a choice to get better. Once you make the decision to get better you need to stick with it and focus on it. You will be successful.
Challenge + Hard Work = Success
Vision
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Instead of Watching TV, You Can...
Read, ride a bike, go for a hike, jog, see a play, play an instrument, read, meet a friend for coffee, call your parents, learn to play an instrument, go sightseeing, take up a hobby, read, visit a local attraction, go to the gym, go for a walk, rollerblade, go golfing, play with your kids, go to the Aquarium, check out the local zoo, write (journal, article, etc.), read, workout at home, and sooo much more.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
How to Change Your Attitude
I love attending the Sales Meetings at Ideon Packaging. I'm in Operations, not Sales (although I could easily argue we're all in sales at one point or another), but I've been attending the Sales Meetings since joining Ideon over 10 years ago. Why? Ideon's Sales Meetings have been the source of great discussions, ideas, innovation, training and have served as the foundation for the company that Ideon has grown into today. Not to mention continue to grow.
Today's Sales Meeting revolved around a book we're all reading right now called Rainmaking Conversations by Mike Schultz and John E. Doerr. Chapter two was the focus of our discussion, which is centred around having a conversation with yourself about wanting to achieve more. Specifically, six questions to ask yourself. I'm not going to give away what the six questions are, if you want to know then go get the book.
What I am going to share is our round-table discussion we had on what it takes to change your attitude, which stems from one of the six questions. These answers came from rookie Sales Team Members to others with years of experience and even a couple of us who aren't in sales. I wanted to share our answers because they're real, from real people who are on the front lines everyday.
So, how do you change your attitude?
Exercise - Exercise creates energy, energy to accomplish. If you can stare down that little demon in your head that tells you "it's too hard", "I'm too tired" or "I can't do it" to the point where the demon goes away, then you're setting yourself up to accomplish anything.
Catalyst - For many people (myself included) there's a moment or event that spawns a change in attitude, like getting fired from a job or receiving constructive feedback about your performance. Just be sure to acknowledge and use it to grow, don't dismiss it.
Glass Half Full - BE POSITIVE! Positivity is a choice. Last time I checked negativity and pessimism isn't fun, so why choose to be that way? I was told many years ago that if it won't matter in 5 years then it's not a big deal. Read up on Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern, this will help you.
Inner Reflection - Take some time every day to sit down and reflect on how the day went. Celebrate the wins and treat the challenges as gifts, to help you get better.
Reading & Listening to Positive Stuff - Surround yourself with positive attitude influencers. Watching and reading the news is NOT POSITIVE, so why do it? You are what you repeatedly do.
Listening Deeply to People - Practice empathic listening skills with others and show them that you understand their point of view.
Surround Yourself With Positive People - Have you ever fired a friend? I have. It's not fun to do, but friends have a HUGE influence on your attitude.
Constantly learning - If you don't know how to be positive of change your attitude then go find a book on the topic. There is an infinite amount of information in the world on self improvement, development and attitude. You're not the first person who has wanted to improve their attitude or lifestyle, and chances are someone has already written a book about it. Read!
Set Goals - Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, career, personal, family, etc... Write them down and look at them constantly. Make them stretch. When a goal is reached set a new one.
Believe What You Do - If you don't believe in what you do it will come shinning through in your attitude.
Attitude is a choice, change is a choice, success is a choice, hard work is a choice... What do you want out of life? What's you choice?
Strive Towards One-Piece Flow
Many people have a belief that batch and queue is easier and gets the job done faster. This couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, one piece flow is the ideal way to set up a process. Besides reducing the time it takes to complete a task, there are many other benefits to one piece flow, such as:
- Reduces work in process (WIP)
- Eliminates excess inventory
- Improves floor/space efficiencies
- Heightened morale
- And much more...
To help demonstrate one piece flow vs. batching, here's a video I found on Youtube. Take a look... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQThEIJhhNs
Try it for yourself. Whether your process is entering orders, filing, processing people through a doctors office, manufacturing widgets or stuffing envelopes, if you want to reduce the time it takes to complete the process then move to one piece flow.
- Reduces work in process (WIP)
- Eliminates excess inventory
- Improves floor/space efficiencies
- Heightened morale
- And much more...
To help demonstrate one piece flow vs. batching, here's a video I found on Youtube. Take a look... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQThEIJhhNs
Try it for yourself. Whether your process is entering orders, filing, processing people through a doctors office, manufacturing widgets or stuffing envelopes, if you want to reduce the time it takes to complete the process then move to one piece flow.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
How to Begin Your Lean Journey
When it comes to starting a Lean journey for a business, one of the questions I hear the most is where do I begin? Like building anything, you have to start with a solid foundation. For a Lean journey, the foundation is built on an environment and culture that embraces change. Here are some important points to remember when starting your Lean journey.
Support from Leadership - The most important piece of the puzzle to embarking on a Lean journey is support from top leadership. The President, CEO, CFO and everyone at the top of the organization MUST embrace, practice and lead by example when it comes to the core fundamentals and principles of Lean. If employees don't see that a company's leaders support Lean this will tell employees that it's not important and don't need to practice it either. If a Lean journey does not have support from leadership then the Lean journey is doomed to fail.
What leaders need to do... Embody the belief of go see, ask why and show respect. Encourage employees to get involved and sincerely ask for their feedback. Help to break down walls between departments to eliminate the silo effect. Most importantly, allow and encourage employees to take on improvement projects then give them recognition for doing so. Leaders have to walk the walk and talk the talk.
No Blame Environment - My personal belief is that people come to work to do a good job, yes there are some bad seeds out there but hopefully you have a good hiring/employment practice that can weed these people out. A no blame environment works under the impression that people don't intend to make mistakes and that when a mistake or problem does happen it is the result of something deeper. By blaming people for mistakes we turn them away from having them help to uncover the root cause to why the mistake happened. You want people to feel that despite being part of an error, with their help we can fix the root so that the problem won't happen to anyone else. The obvious result of this is making the company as a whole better.
Trust - Allow people to try new ideas. Lean is defined as continuous improvement and if new ideas aren't embraced, no matter who they come from, then the tap of innovation will be turned off. In a business, if you continue to do the same you will continue to get the same results. With this message passed to everyone at Ideon Packaging from day-one, I recently had one of the newest and youngest members of my production team come to me with an idea to increase capacity by 10-20%. The ideas are there and the people who are doing the work have them, so trust them to run with it. What's the worst that could happen? You go back to the old way? Not a big deal in my books. All I know, is that if you don't try, you'll never know.
Don't let failure stop you - Do you remember the Nike commercial with Michael Jordan about how has failed over and over again in his career, and that's why he succeeds? I do, it's part of my Lean/FITT 101 presentation I give to new employees. Or how about the Honda video on how they failed when they brought their engines to the racing world, only to become the sole engine supplier to the IRL. Check both of these out on Youtube. Even if you haven't seen these videos the message is the same, don't let failure stop you or slow you down. Rather, learn and reflect on your mistakes, use them to get better and try again.
Make it part of your everyday - Lean can not be something you dabble in, it needs to become part of your everyday work. The entire company needs to be aware and understand what Lean is. Regular training and communication to all employees is a must. Constantly update staff on your Lean strategy, completed projects, savings achieved and new projects on the go. Don't hide anything.
Make Lean your own - One of the first things we did at Ideon Packaging was to give our Lean Journey a name, we call it FITT. FITT stand for Finding Innovation Through Teamwork. We had a company wide naming contest where everyone could submit as many names as they could come up with, then at one of our Town Hall meetings (whole company attends) we voted on all the names and FITT won. Lean as a term has been misused by many companies, and if not explained well enough people will think that Lean equals losing their jobs, which is not what Lean is fundamentally about at all.
Support from Leadership - The most important piece of the puzzle to embarking on a Lean journey is support from top leadership. The President, CEO, CFO and everyone at the top of the organization MUST embrace, practice and lead by example when it comes to the core fundamentals and principles of Lean. If employees don't see that a company's leaders support Lean this will tell employees that it's not important and don't need to practice it either. If a Lean journey does not have support from leadership then the Lean journey is doomed to fail.
What leaders need to do... Embody the belief of go see, ask why and show respect. Encourage employees to get involved and sincerely ask for their feedback. Help to break down walls between departments to eliminate the silo effect. Most importantly, allow and encourage employees to take on improvement projects then give them recognition for doing so. Leaders have to walk the walk and talk the talk.
No Blame Environment - My personal belief is that people come to work to do a good job, yes there are some bad seeds out there but hopefully you have a good hiring/employment practice that can weed these people out. A no blame environment works under the impression that people don't intend to make mistakes and that when a mistake or problem does happen it is the result of something deeper. By blaming people for mistakes we turn them away from having them help to uncover the root cause to why the mistake happened. You want people to feel that despite being part of an error, with their help we can fix the root so that the problem won't happen to anyone else. The obvious result of this is making the company as a whole better.
Trust - Allow people to try new ideas. Lean is defined as continuous improvement and if new ideas aren't embraced, no matter who they come from, then the tap of innovation will be turned off. In a business, if you continue to do the same you will continue to get the same results. With this message passed to everyone at Ideon Packaging from day-one, I recently had one of the newest and youngest members of my production team come to me with an idea to increase capacity by 10-20%. The ideas are there and the people who are doing the work have them, so trust them to run with it. What's the worst that could happen? You go back to the old way? Not a big deal in my books. All I know, is that if you don't try, you'll never know.
Don't let failure stop you - Do you remember the Nike commercial with Michael Jordan about how has failed over and over again in his career, and that's why he succeeds? I do, it's part of my Lean/FITT 101 presentation I give to new employees. Or how about the Honda video on how they failed when they brought their engines to the racing world, only to become the sole engine supplier to the IRL. Check both of these out on Youtube. Even if you haven't seen these videos the message is the same, don't let failure stop you or slow you down. Rather, learn and reflect on your mistakes, use them to get better and try again.
Make it part of your everyday - Lean can not be something you dabble in, it needs to become part of your everyday work. The entire company needs to be aware and understand what Lean is. Regular training and communication to all employees is a must. Constantly update staff on your Lean strategy, completed projects, savings achieved and new projects on the go. Don't hide anything.
Make Lean your own - One of the first things we did at Ideon Packaging was to give our Lean Journey a name, we call it FITT. FITT stand for Finding Innovation Through Teamwork. We had a company wide naming contest where everyone could submit as many names as they could come up with, then at one of our Town Hall meetings (whole company attends) we voted on all the names and FITT won. Lean as a term has been misused by many companies, and if not explained well enough people will think that Lean equals losing their jobs, which is not what Lean is fundamentally about at all.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
I've Heard That Before
I like to read, my belief is that reading is a very powerful tool for personal growth. However, the more I read the more I see the similarities in all the different books and articles that are out there. Not too often does a book come along that changes the game. For me, one of those books is Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it. I'm sure you too have read a book that you think is a game changer.
Why do I bring this up??? As my profile on this blog states, I've always wanted to write, but with so much information out there it makes it hard to be unique. The Internet has made getting your thoughts out for everyone to read very easy, where before you had to get published to be in a magazine or book. Since the Internet age began, all you need is a free blog and away you go.
All that being said, I'm not going to stop writing because I find it therapeutic. I'm just going to focus on writing about the topics that mean something to me, topics that I have experienced, topics (like Lean Manufacturing) that I have knowledge about.
Thank you to everyone who has read what I've written, your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.
Why do I bring this up??? As my profile on this blog states, I've always wanted to write, but with so much information out there it makes it hard to be unique. The Internet has made getting your thoughts out for everyone to read very easy, where before you had to get published to be in a magazine or book. Since the Internet age began, all you need is a free blog and away you go.
All that being said, I'm not going to stop writing because I find it therapeutic. I'm just going to focus on writing about the topics that mean something to me, topics that I have experienced, topics (like Lean Manufacturing) that I have knowledge about.
Thank you to everyone who has read what I've written, your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
My Favourite Quotes
"You always have a choice, no matter what. And it is by the choices we make the define who we are." - Me
"This is your world. Shape it or someone else will." - Gary Lew
"Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever." - Lance Armstrong
"Aim for service, not success and success will follow" - Toyota L&F (Japan)
"Go see, ask why, show respect." - Fugio Cho
"If you continue to do the same you will continue to get the same results" - Unknown
"“Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” - Unknown
What are your favourite quotes?
"This is your world. Shape it or someone else will." - Gary Lew
"Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever." - Lance Armstrong
"Aim for service, not success and success will follow" - Toyota L&F (Japan)
"Go see, ask why, show respect." - Fugio Cho
"If you continue to do the same you will continue to get the same results" - Unknown
"“Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” - Unknown
What are your favourite quotes?
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