Seeds Require Search and Decision

I had a few things going for me leading into the interview for the behavior-based safety facilitator role: a tremendous work ethic, a willingness to jump at any opportunity that was even mildly offered, and a hunger to advance. That said, there was very little polish to any of it. Couple my rough edges with my lack of actual skills that this particular job required and it’s a wonder I was even offered an interview. Who knows, maybe I only got that because I was so involved in other aspects of the process and the interview team didn’t want to risk losing that involvement by brushing me off - because it likely would have.

Dennis and Terry each provided me with solid feedback on how I performed in that interview, but neither would have chased me down to offer it. Nor should they; had I not asked for it, I probably would not have digested it. I don’t remember as much about the specifics Dennis shared, possibly because we’ve interacted very little since, but Terry’s suggestions stand out to this day. While these aren’t his exact words, here are the three things that resonate more than twenty-five years later: be ready and willing to detail my three top strengths, be prepared to discuss what I see as three weakness and how I’m working to improve each - but only offer one at a time, and consistently work to sharpen my saw (my words, not his). He emphasized the importance of constant growth; reading books, studying business principles, interacting with anyone I could who was where I wanted to be. I’ve worked at each constantly since, owning my role in that minor failure early in my career and I’ve been able to grow through those steps.

But even when we’re willing to accept full responsibility for the role we play in our failures, and hopefully find the seeds within them, those seeds still require search and decision. As Ron moved into the facilitator role, I was forced to decide how I’d respond. I could have just as easily allowed rejection and bitterness to control my actions, stepping aside from the behavior-based safety process altogether. In complete transparency, I’m not sure why I didn’t. Looking back, praise God that wasn’t what I chose to do! My primary responsibility was still operating a 250-ton stamping press, but I looked for every opportunity I could find to support Ron in his new role. He had many skills I didn’t, but my familiarity with the process helped him get his feet under him. The support I was able to provide him, helping with training where I could and being even more active than ever in all other aspects, also helped sharpen my saw! 

As Napoleon Hill emphasized repeatedly throughout Think and Grow Rich, seeds exist in every setback, but making the best of bad situations demands active reflection to find those seeds and a definiteness of decision to nurture them. For whatever reason, I latched onto a seed from the bad situation and decided to nurture it however I could. Just a few months later, I had the opportunity to interview for my next opportunity and all that I did to support Ron helped prepare me for that. Even then, I still had a few habits that were indeed barriers to long term success. I’ll detail some of that soon. Before that, I want you to think about a setback you’ve experienced. What seeds might (still) be hidden? Identify one step you can take right away to begin nurturing a seed from that bad situation.

When Habits Become Barriers

Less than two months after the let down of not being offered the behavior-based safety facilitator position, I noticed a new opportunity posted on the internal job board. This was for a “5S Trainer” position, one of four throughout the facility, that would have responsibility for implementing a foundational part of the overall lean manufacturing strategy the corporate office was embracing. Equipped with the input from Terry and Dennis on how I could perform better in the interview process and supporting Ron heavily in the time since he took on the BBS role, I was even more confident. While I had no real understanding of 5S or Lean manufacturing, all my other qualifications were stronger - except for any actual experience beyond my home department or behavior-based safety. I still had no computer experience to speak of, and the job description was very specific about what the ideal candidate should be capable of.

Never one to allow details to get in the way, I pushed forward. I remember going to a friend’s house the night before my interview so he could show me what PowerPoint and Excel were. He helped me create a very simple example in each and saved those to a floppy disc that I could take to work the following day. By “helped” me, I mean he did it while I watched… The Excel file was maybe five or six rows by four or five columns with one simple formula. I understood what it showed but there’s no way I could have re-created it at that point - and this was well before Google could have helped (which should be obvious by the floppy disc reference). The PowerPoint had around five slides with cheesy clip art images, but that was what my three-minute presentation would be based on during the interview. Sitting around the table and answering questions was a breeze, even the ones I had to BS my way through since I was ignorant about 5S and had no real understanding of how spreadsheets worked. Those three minutes standing up to present in front of the same few people felt like a hostage situation. I knew each of them, having interacted with them routinely for months or years prior to that, but actually presenting something in front of them was nearly paralyzing. My knees were shaking and my mouth was painfully dry; the paranoia was like having smoked a whole bag full of weed.

Somehow, though, I survived the interview. A week or so later, I was surprisingly offered the position. Again, four spots were filled so I’m still not sure if only four people applied or if I actually out-performed anyone else. Regardless, this was my shot. While everything I learned about 5S and Lean leading up to that point made perfect sense to me, I had not yet learned just how much my peers, the supervisors, or managers would actively push back against every step that followed. Still being relatively new to the company, and the manufacturing world as a whole, I wasn’t all that familiar with the idea of the “flavor of the month”, the term used for all the initiatives a corporate office shoves down the throats of folks at the plant level. Even then, how bad could it be? I wasn’t afraid of work, and what could possibly go wrong in rolling out a new way of doing things with folks who had worked there longer than I had been alive, with no authority or support from the ones who had authority?

My first day in this new position was the day I returned to work after our honeymoon. Talk about cramming multiple life changes into a short period of time, wow! Buying our first home, planning and going through with a wedding, and taking on a new job that I was barely qualified for, all within six months… In this case, ignorance truly was bliss. I didn’t recognize how significant any of those really were - let alone all of them together - to experience the fear that I probably should have.

The first few weeks in the role were filled with training and preparation. By early June of 2000, the rubber had to meet the road. In Leveraging Leadership Growth: Strength Through Great Professional Relationships, I included a full chapter on the importance of “Influence Over Authority” and shared a story about one of the first sessions I attempted to lead rolling that 5S initiative out with a small group of folks I had worked side-by-side with just weeks before. One of them was clowning around, like he did every other day I had been around him, and I flexed the authority I mistakenly thought I carried in this new position. The moments that followed, let’s call them a learning opportunity. While so much of my new responsibility was outside my comfort zone, this was the first real adversity I encountered. Although brief, our exchange was more than a little heated. But that gave me the chance to own the role in my failure, search for the hidden seed, and identify a few decisions I’d need to make to have a shot at being successful in this new role and grow beyond it in the future. All too often, cumulative unchecked habits turn minor bad situations into major roadblocks. Recognizing the pattern is key to extracting leadership lessons in accountability. Recognizing the pattern is just the starting point, though. Then we have to execute on our decisions. We’ll dig into that next. Before that, identify one habit you can track over the next few days and note its specific impacts on your work or life to build awareness.

A Pivotal Decision

The weeks and months that followed that heated 5S implementation session encounter involved less direct confrontation but they were far from smooth and rarely achieved the results or impact the corporate office expected. To that end, few were achieving the results even I expected - and I didn’t know enough yet to have terribly high expectations. The initial exchange with the fellow I had worked beside for a couple years prior was a wake-up call; the “because I said so” approach just wouldn’t work. I had to learn as much as I could about earning influence and communicating effectively, and I needed to do both as quickly as possible. That was my only hope to gain the buy-in I’d need for those senior team members to be willing to make the necessary changes for the 5S process to even remotely take shape.

Terry’s mentorship was a big help and he had been suggesting different books for me to read for quite some time. Just like during high school, I hated sitting still - and it’s really tough to read unless you’re sitting still - so I wasn’t doing as much of that as I needed to. But I soon found the world of audio books. In those days, nearly all of mine were on cassette tape (because the CD player in my vehicle was broken and I didn’t want to spend the hundred bucks to replace it). To squeeze those audio books in, I had to essentially give up the 80s hair bands I enjoyed listening to in my daily commute. 

While that seems like an insignificant trade off as I look back, it was monumental at the time. Prior to meeting Cindy, a few of my roommates and closest friends played in a rock band. In addition to seeing them play whenever and wherever I could, a small group of us went to as many concerts as we could get to - all of which involved extreme shenanigans. As my relationship with Cindy grew, and our lives and careers ramped up, I had less time for all that mess, but there were certainly still opportunities to engage in the occasional drunken stupor. 

As time went by in the 5S implementation role, I noticed that few of the folks who were in their careers where I was hoping to get to were participating in such nonsense - and definitely not with the intensity I was, even on occasion. I realized that this bad habit that had consumed so much of the ten years leading up to that point was indeed a barrier to getting to where I wanted to be. I’ve often heard the story of Hernán Cortés burning the ships after making landfall in Mexico, effectively removing any option of retreat. 

On February 3, 2001, I sucked down a six pack of beer as I grilled dinner before going to my neighbors house to watch the first-ever XFL football game. As I stood by the grill hammering beers, even though six was barely a starting point for me then, a six-year-old Matthew watched me intently. I didn’t think much of it then, it was something I had been doing for as long as I had known Cindy. By the end of the evening though, I realized that getting to where I wanted to be would require letting go of who I had been.

Before I go any further, please know that this is in no way an attack on anyone who drinks. In complete transparency, I’ve never been able to do anything in moderation. Hell, I’ve never tried. In the words of Ricky-Bobby, “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Seriously, I knew that it had to be an all-or-nothing decision. And that pivotal decision required me to make a bunch of tough changes, ones that impacted nearly every area of my life. 

Pivots demand brutal self-honesty and firm action; that moment of Matt watching me guzzle beers like it was normal served as a turning point that helped me turn a personal adversity into a leadership foundation. That definiteness of decision, albeit one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, has been one of the most fruitful seeds I’ve ever found from any adversity. We’ll look at that in more detail next. Before that, I’ll challenge you to identify one habit or pattern needing a pivot. Commit to one decisive first step, one where you burn the ships, and track it for just the next week.