Bart Erwin's Random Thoughts

Engagement, Values, Change

erwinba — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 04:22:18 +0000

Over the past 2 months, I have been on a team at work to improve employee engagement, values and change. Every year surveys are completed and employees rate certain questions related to these three items. What is interesting is that the items that have scored very are directly related to leadership. The very things that we are learning in J506 and saying this is common sense are the items that management is failing at. It seems that the culture has shifted from people first to numbers first. Many of the comments on the team center around management not caring and not being consistent. One team member even said he could tell the people who worked for a good leader because their attitude was much better, their quality was much better, they got more done that others, and seemed to enjoy coming to work more. I think this just goes to show the value of J506 and the value of the ‘soft’ skills.

Recalling personal best leadership experience

erwinba — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 04:11:54 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to lead a team of highly motivated individuals in improving a shipping process. The team consisted of myself and 4 others. We were working to move the shipment of prove design material from one facility to another. The area that shipping was moving into was empty, so we had the opportunity to set it up to be safer and more efficient. The team spent a whole week in a conference room working out the details and I have never seen a team so engaged. Each member contributed equally and gave 100% to improve the process. When it came time to present to management the status of the project, each team member took part in presenting. After the presentation, I received a lot of feedback of how great the team did on the project. I forwarded on the messages to the team and let them know the project couldn’t have been possible without them.

Ethical Company Presentations

erwinba — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:56:44 +0000

One of the themes that seemed to be repeated during the ethical company presentations was getting the right people. One group even had a slide that said, ‘get the right people on the bus’. This was the first item discussed in good to great and the presentations further reinforce this idea. When leadership selects the right people for the company it really helps create a culture where success breeds success.

Global Tech Part 2

erwinba — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:50:05 +0000

After completing part 2 of the Global Tech simulation it was clear that we should have done things differently to score higher. One of the tasks we should have moved up higher in sequence was benchmarking. Gaining an understanding of how the industry makes changes before making changes would have been very useful. Other than that, I think we did a great job even though we didn’t score 60 points. I don’t feel our score gave a very good assessment of our strategy. The simulation only accounts for one set of answers. In the real world you could follow the answers that the simulation said was the best in two totally different situations and get two totally different results.

Global Tech Part 1

erwinba — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:07:23 +0000

After completing part 1 of the Global Tech simulation, we could see that there clearly were drivers and resistors of changes. The biggest driver of change was the change in the marketplace from military to commercial. The second driver of change was competition. The competitors were taking Global Tech’s ideas and repackaging them to sell to customers on the commercial side. Some of the resistors to change include the fact that the company had previous bad experience with consultants, there was mistrust between departments, distrust between labor and management, and poor communication.

I think these drivers and resistors to change are very common in all companies. For example, my company is driven by the voice of the customer, so the marketplace drives new product design and improvements. We also face the same resistors such as poor communication and trust issues.

Southwest Airlines

erwinba — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:08:56 +0000

The part that stuck out the most from the Southwest video was the comment about hiring for attitude and training for skill. This is exactly what my upper management does. I have heard them say they would leave a position open longer and continue looking rather than hire someone just to quickly fill a position. It has really worked well. My department is full of people who all get a long great and have similar interest. The relationships formed have helped us achieve a lot as a team. The thing that stuck out the second most was how the CEO kept kissing all the cute girls. He reminded me of Hugh Hefner. This would never happen where I work. I’m supprised someone hasn’t filed a lawsuit yet.

John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success

erwinba — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:39:13 +0000

It seemed like John Wooden’s pyramid of success was a very complex and involved several building blocks. That’s why he took 14 yrs to create it and over a hour to briefly explain it in the video. I agree with with what Wooden had to say, however I was fighting the sandman after the first 15 minutes of listening to him. What ever happened to keeping it simple? It’s easy to build a complex pyramid with 15 blocks to live by. The challenge is selling those 15 blocks to others. Wooden is the second most successful coach behind Bobby Knight, so we know his techniques do work on basketball players. But how would they work on the general public? My guess is people randomly selected would quit paying attention after the first 5 minutes. In summary, keep it simple. Pick a few building blocks and learn to excel at them.

Time Use Analysis

erwinba — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:19:40 +0000

In J506 it was suggested that we take a look at how much time we spend doing leadership activities vrs management and other activities. I went back over the last 5 years and estimated how my time has been spent.

2008 50% Leadership 40% Management 10% Technical

2007 15% Leadership 70% Management 15% Technical

2006 10% Leadership 70% Management 20% Technical

2005 0% Leadership 65% Management 35% Technical

2004 0% Leadership 35% Management 65% Technical

Ford Pinto = Dangerous

erwinba — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:11:52 +0000

After seening the video from the rear crash testing of the Ford Pinto, I find it hard to believe Ford ever released it into production. Even if the car met the government standards for a 20 mile hour rear impact crash, it could still be considered unsafe by many. Ford went into production with a design that they new was flawed, and I’m not talking about their I4 which made 75 horse power and had a 0-60mph time of 5 minutes. They went into production with a design that that had potential in a wreck to leak gas, trap a driver inside, and cause death. What’s worse is they new a $5 dollar gas tank bladder would prevent the fuel leaks. Then after reports came in from people dying in crashes, Ford never recalled the Pinto. It looks like they failed to take into account the fact that the crashes were ruining their reputation. The Pinto situation is one of the reasons I won’t buy a Ford even today.

Trait Leadership Theory

erwinba — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:58:58 +0000

Trait leadership theory has been around for over 100 years. It’s theory is based on great leaders being born with certain traits that enable them to be effective leaders. For example, these traits include the ability to relate to people, communicate, motivate, inspire and accomplish goals. The theory is easy to understand and is backed up by statistical data. However, I would argue that great leaders don’t need to be born with these traits, they can learn them. I would also argue that the traits a leader is good at changes over time. Finally, what about all the people who have these traits, but are not leaders? People can have these traits and be an effective contributor and team member.