Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:04 Make it right. The manufacturing podcast, we're living in what's being called the age of distraction, so how can leaders keep their focus and help their teams do the same and are always on always connected world. It's incredibly challenging, but it is possible as some of the most successful businesses are proving. I'm Janet Eastman and on this episode of the make it right podcast, I continue my conversation with leadership advisor, Kevin Snoop, who is also the author of make it right, five steps to align your manufacturing business from the front line to the bottom line. Last week on episode 85 Kevin explained why we're so tied to our electronic devices, this major distraction. It's a chemical addiction and it's having a negative impact on all of us both professionally and personally. To understand how, check out that episode this week we pick up the conversation discussing how Kevin uses his align manufacturing process personally and how manufacturing leaders can also do the same to get the most out of their lives, their businesses and their teams and that's where we pick up the conversation. How do you tie all this in with the align process that you've designed for manufacturers?
Speaker 1 01:23 Yeah. So, uh, the align process for manufacturing, um, manufacturing leaders. Yeah. Manufacturing leaders are our people. And so what we want them to do is to act like really, uh, effective people. And so that's a matter of, you know, a is aim from the heart, you know, set a very clear vision. L lead with the front line, make sure that everybody's involved in the action plan and who's taking you forward. You know, in plan steps, I, which is inspired with information. They show that people have the metrics that they need to follow to make sure they're on the right place on the journey. Um, G is give help and support. We mentioned that earlier as a key role of the leaders. Um, and then, and there's nurture with feedback and recognition. Um, so it makes sure that people, as they go through this journey, feel like they're being recognized for the work that they're doing.
Speaker 1 02:14 And that leads to that sense of fulfillment. So running an organization is like running an organism. It's a, it's a group of people that need to be successful, need to be motivated, need to be, or inspired, need to be, um, helped on that path forward. So that, uh, that aligned process that works for organizations, um, is very similar to the individual. You know, if you think about you as being the CEO of your own life, then you want to have a plan. You want to have an aligned plan for yourself. And, you know, um, my kind of, uh, feeling on this is that I want to be in a sense of, in a flow. I want to make sure my, uh, that my body is flowing and running, uh, as well. Oil does, it possibly could. And the same steps come to me then in my personal life.
Speaker 1 03:10 What is my vision? What's my goal? What am I, what am I trying to achieve with my family and my finances and my, you know, my fitness and everything. So setting a very clear goal for me as an individual, um, is the a and the align process. And then lead with the front line. You know, I am the front line. Um, and you could say that my family is a front line. So that's really about how do you get the family and friends and people involved in my plan. So the, the, the way that I'm running forward actually, you know, fits in with other people's plans as well. Um, and so it's a very similar process whether you're doing it for an organization or whether you're doing it as the CEO of your own life. You talked about inner flow. What does inner flow look and feel like for somebody who, who is, I have no idea what that means.
Speaker 1 04:02 Um, yeah, this is the way I see it is that, uh, in all of those different areas, you know, we get, we get bumps along the way. Um, you know, where we often get shocked by the things that hit us. Uh, and I, I, you know, if I could put a picture in your mind, um, imagine you've got this little, a person floating through space and they keep getting hit by you know, asteroids and bumping into PLA into planets and you know, each time they get bumped, they're getting spun around and we get those bumps along the journey of life. Um, they can be financial bumps, they can be relationship bumps, they can be, you know, health bumps. Um, we're going to continually getting knocked down. The inner flow is that even though you're, you're being bumped and battered and bruised around by life, by circumstances in life, there's a little light that is not your mind and it's not your body, but it's kind of like following you along.
Speaker 1 05:10 And that has this nice smooth flow to it. So it's avoiding the planet. It's right there with you. Your body and your mind might be getting bumped around and your financial situation might be getting, you know, uh, might be triggering you emotionally and things, but there's this little calm light that's following you all the way you go through. Now, for me, that's the visualization for my inner flow. I know that I'm not my mind. I know I'm not my emotions. I know that I'm not the body that's being beaten around. Um, I'm, I'm signed up the one that's watching the mind and watching the body and, uh, and in a state of calm flow. And to me that's very, it's comforting. It's also, uh, it gives me the incentive when I get those knocks to, to go with them, um, to allow the knocks to happen because they're going to happen anyway. And then always see what I can learn from them and see how they can help, you know, accelerate the momentum.
Speaker 0 06:13 Hmm. So can you, can you share some stories on, on how you've seen just the whole, that flow, whether it be business or whether it be personal
Speaker 1 06:25 actually work? Yeah. Okay, perfect. Is that the conference that I was talking about with you, um, that you mentioned from last week? Yeah. Um, I was in India, in, in Delhi, and I was speaking to a large group of manufacturing leaders there. And, um, and I decided to do the talk that I did, uh, without any script, without any, um, uh, I had just four, four slides that I wanted to show. One of them was of my family. Um, but I had a very clear objective and that was to talk about the age of distraction. That was a talk about how to take manufacturing companies forward through this. Mmm. And even the night before I was on the, you know, my brain was working, my mind was working and telling me that I ought to have more slides and more writing on the slides and all those sorts of things on this PowerPoint and things.
Speaker 1 07:29 And, uh, and I managed to just say, no, that's not the way I want to do it. I don't, I don't, I don't feel like that's the way that these people are going to be best at. And, uh, and so I went in there and I had a very engaged discussion with the organizer, with the, uh, with the people in the audience. I'm a really good engaged discussion. I was talking for about 50 minutes and then we had 10 minutes Q and a and, uh, and everything flowed beautifully. And I, I came off feeling like we'd had a really good deep engaged discussion rather than people had been fed a presentation. And if that went against a lot of my, um, a lot of my natural instincts from the past of what I've seen people do, you know, which is read a read slides off the board because it's easier. Mmm. Actually it's not easier. It's much easier to make a human connection and to trust yourself and to trust the audience that, uh, they will give you the energy that you need and the direction as you go through the presentation. So that's a small example of, um, of, of how once you get some mastery over that, uh, it can give you a lot of confidence in a lot of different situations
Speaker 0 08:47 and things did flow for you. You actually did something quite unique at this event. Can you explain what you did? Talking about the catering staff?
Speaker 1 08:55 Yeah. And that was, that was completely unscripted as well. And, uh, I only thought about it about two minutes before I went on and I went out to the a, I knew that the energy and the hole was a little bit, a little bit low. Um, and I went out to the catering staff and I had seen during one of the breaks that somebody had dropped a fork on the floor. And, um, the, the, the waiter had kind of like swooped in, very silently, picked up the fall, taken it away, gone and got another clean fork and, and, and a serviette and brought it back to the lady who dropped it. And, um, and it was just seamless. It was, it was just a beautiful flow. And, uh, and so I asked the, um, the leader of the, of the, uh, hotel staff, whether he could bring all of the hotel staff and that we're, we're serving our events, uh, at the beginning of the event.
Speaker 1 09:47 And, um, and I brought them on and I said, look, I wasn't planning to do this, but, uh, it's just occurred to me that these, these people, these frontline employees, uh, as so important to the way that a function like this works. Um, and, uh, I'd just like to get them all a standing ovation. And the, the whole room stood up and, and gave innovation to these, uh, these wonderful staff. And it lifted the whole energy of the room. You could see in the looks of the faces of the people that were clapping, they were getting energy from the situation. They were getting energy from recognizing the front line employees and the employees where were were very touched. And so it's a positive feedback loop. You know, when you, when you recognize somebody else's achievement and you, you celebrate it, it gives you joy also. Um, and so this was not a one way thing. Um, it's a, it worked beautifully. It was, it was great. Um, it was a good start to the, to the talk and it really brought attention to the front line employees, which is what I'm always talking about in the manufacturing business. Anyway.
Speaker 0 10:55 <inaudible> and you know what? I think that this is an interesting conversation that we started out talking about the age of distraction and how our handheld devices and whatnot are keeping us engaged with these electronic devices. And we've come right around to the very end. Whereas when we engage with each other, that's where the pure joy is.
Speaker 1 11:16 Absolutely. And that, that's the eye connection, right? If you walk down the street and instead of looking at your mobile phone, you're looking at people as they walk past you, you make eye contact and you give a little smile. It only has to be a very slight look of the smile. You are going to get that reflected back to you. Um, now there'll be the occasional person that looks at you like you're crazy, but in general, you're going to get, you're going to get what you give out. And, uh, if we can all give out more joy and positivity, if we can use that to build fulfilling lives for ourselves, then the people around us are going to be inspired and we're going to be able to build up, you know, a whole, a whole group of colleagues, uh, at work who are feeling in a similar way. And this emotional contagion that we share amongst each other is gonna be incredibly positive.
Speaker 0 12:09 You know, it's funny, I started a little project about a week and a half ago and I call it the smile project. And every time I go out, I just slap a smile on my face and I try and smile at everybody. You know, the person at the grocery store who's, you know, checking out my groceries, I'm chatting to them, I'm smiling, I'm trying to have a laugh. And what's happening is that they're slow to start talking, but once they do, then the next person who's standing in line, you find them starting to engage in the conversation. And then as you walk away as your groceries, you're going, okay, have a great day everybody. And they're all like chatting and having a great time. And it's just the funniest thing. But every time I do it, it works. It's called the smile project. You just go out and see what kind of reaction you're going to get. And it's great.
Speaker 1 12:53 It is. And that is, that is emotional contagion and the effect that you're having on other people. But what you're actually doing for yourself is deciding to live your life. And so you're living in the, now you're living in the present moment and you're making it, you're making it enjoyable for yourself. But when people feel that they can't help but have joy themselves. So, um, you know, you know, I know this was a manufacturing discussion. Um, but manufacturing companies are made up of people. And uh, what I often say is that, you know, you are, you're the hero as a CEO or as a production line manager. You're the hero to the people on the production line. You're the one they're looking up to. You're the one that they are looking at and seeing as a role model every minute of the day, you want to show it to them that life is joyful and life is an inspiration and that you can help them to find the same way. And when we find that everybody in our organization is, is switched on, everybody is fully functioning at their human, you know, their best human potential. That's when we start to get fantastic manufacturing results.
Speaker 0 14:04 Hmm. What's some key takeaways or thoughts that, that you can give to people who may like to take their own journey this way?
Speaker 1 14:13 Um, start on the path. You know, I think the critical thing is to be very clear on what your values are with your own personal values are and what your, uh, priorities are. Get very clear on those to start with. Um, and just be honest with yourself. It doesn't, there's no judgment on it. Like I said, it's not a moral judgment about what should come before, you know, what, um, just be, just be honest with yourself. And there's some ways to, uh, to <inaudible> to understand what your values are. And what your real priorities are and then schedule your time based on your priorities and be, you know, be structured about that. Um, decide how much time you want to spend with your family over the next year and then plan that in. Um, I know it's not, it's not easy for everybody to say I'm going to have this amount of time off.
Speaker 1 15:00 Um, you can gradually work towards that situation, but with the time that you do have, how are you going to use that most effectively? Um, make it, make it focus time rather than distracted time. Um, and then the, the other key is, you know, set up each day in a way that you're looking forward to the day coming this coming. Um, you know, whether that, uh, uh, an early morning routine that gets you into the right mood, whether that, uh, looking forward at your day and saying, okay, I know I've got another day, you know, at work, um, how am I going to make this a fun day as I go through it? And then see at the end of the day how fulfilled you felt. I find that if you use your joy is, is the direction you're heading in. You know, you want to have as many of those micro doses of joy as you can along the day. And uh, and then at the end of the day, look back on that, uh, with a sense of gratitude for another life in another day you've been given and uh, and then see how you want to, you know, progress on the following day.
Speaker 2 16:04 Kevin, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much for your insights. It's been great. It's been a lovely chat. Thank you very much, Janet. My pleasure. Kevin snuck is a leadership advisor. He's also the author of the bestselling book, make it right, five steps to align your manufacturing business from the front line to the bottom line and you can find it on Amazon. And it's thanks to Kevin that we're able to talk to manufacturing leaders and entrepreneurs on the makeup right podcast as these are sponsored and we have a copy of Kevin's book to give away to the first listener who sends us an email at make it bribe podcast. At <inaudible> dot com that's our show this week. Please check out our Twitter and LinkedIn paints that are on our podcast page and subscribe and share this podcast with your friends and colleagues through iTunes, Google play, Stitcher, Spotify, and YouTube. Until next time, I'm <inaudible>. Thanks very much for listening to the maker bite podcasts.
