by Gary Mintchell | Oct 28, 2015 | Automation, Safety
The EHS Today Safety Leadership Conference is this week in Greenville, SC. I’m there following the Safety Technology track sponsored by Rockwell Automation. I’ll have reports on information from the sessions in a later post. Rockwell used this opportunity to recognize the winners of its Safety Excellence Awards for leadership in manufacturing safety.
Rockwell Safety Excellence Awards Winners 2015
Four organizations received awards at this the third annual Manufacturing Safety Excellence Awards. The company recognized The Clorox Company, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC) for their leadership in applying a holistic approach to safety maturity across their organizations.
“This year’s recipients display a true commitment to safety maturity across their organizations,” said Mark Eitzman, safety market development manager, Rockwell Automation. “They’ve gone beyond approaching safety as a means to maintain compliance, and are embracing it at every level to achieve overall business goals.”
The Manufacturing Safety Excellence Awards honor companies that make workplace safety a core business value by building a comprehensive program based on three key pillars: a strong safety culture, well-executed compliance procedures, and effective use of contemporary safeguarding and automation technology through capital investments.
Following are the details about the award winners:
The Clorox Company: Tracy Glover, Jeff Deel, Rockwell’s Mark Eitzman
The Clorox Company
Clorox makes collaboration between engineering and EHS inherent in every safety project. Safety has become ingrained in the company’s culture. “Safety became part of our global company culture when we labeled it a core value, instead of just a priority,” said Jeff Deel, electrical instrumentation and controls engineering manager, Clorox. “Priorities can change over time, but our values remain constant. While we’ve seen improvements in productivity, throughput and competitiveness, the real focus is on ensuring that our partners and employees are well taken care of.”
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company: Dennis McGavis and Rockwell’s Mark Eitzman
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Global tire manufacturer Goodyear has taken a proactive approach to safety by creating a corporate culture that values the wellness and safety of its employees. It continually drives toward a goal of zero incidents and injuries. To help achieve this, engineering and EHS teams in manufacturing facilities around the world collaborate during all stages of introducing any new or retrofitted equipment or plants – from the design phase until final sign-off by the EHS team.
“When it comes to safety, compliance and regulations are certainly important. But in order to reach our target of zero incidents and injuries, we believe it is critical for our associates to make safety a personal value in their lives,” said Mike Porter, director of global EHS, Goodyear. “We’re very proud of the progress we’ve made with safety, but know that it’s a journey, and we’re committed to getting better every day.”
Kimberly-Clark: Peter Shen with Rockwell’s Mark Eitzman
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Kimberly-Clark has a long-standing commitment to safety improvement and the health of its employees as one of the founders of the National Safety Council. “Safety is fundamental to our organizational DNA,” said Dennis G. Averill, CIH, CSP, global director of safety and hygiene, Kimberly-Clark. “We achieve success with everyone in the organization working and learning together, including engineering, EHS and operations. This collaboration is not only done conceptually, but also during the actual execution of risk assessments, safety standards development and more.”
The company also continues to achieve safety improvements through its R.E.A.L. strategy, which addresses safety from all angles, including risk mitigation, EHS management systems, accountability and leadership.
The Paper Converting Machine Company, Jill Thiede, Jason Stover, Rockwell’s Mark Eitzman
Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC)
As a manufacturer of tissue converting, packaging, envelope, nonwoven and flexographic printing technology and machines, PCMC has made functional safety an integral part of its machine design process. “We differentiate ourselves from competitors by guiding our customers through the safety process and educating them on the opportunities safety presents,” said Jason Stover, senior electrical project engineer, PCMC. “Some might not recognize safety as a fundamental part of the equipment, but by the time we’re done, they see the value.”
Past winners
The 2015 Manufacturing Safety Excellence Award recipients join a distinguished list of companies that have been recognized as safety leaders. Past winners include Bevcorp, Corning Environmental Technologies, General Motors, Procter & Gamble and the PepsiCo divisions of Walkers Crisps and Pepsi Flavors.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 2, 2015 | Leadership
On my other blog, I write about leadership regularly on Fridays. I saw an article that came through an email newsletter that spurred some thinking. See if you relate to this.
You got shipped off to some type of leadership training. Maybe it was for work. Maybe for church. Maybe for another type of organization.
You attended the training. It was long. The coffee was less than satisfactory. The pastries were stale. The leader was pumped up on something that made him or her optimistic to the point of causing gagging. You recorded a bunch of cute sayings from old leaders in your conference notebook. The talks seemed like they belonged in some sort of old-fashioned tent revival meeting.
You went home. The boss asks what you learned. You show her the notebook with notes.
Nothing changes.
I have been to so many of these that I’m lucky to be able to lead a kid to a candy store!
So the article title on the email newsletter caught my eye. Why Leadership Training Is So Much BS. It is in a manufacturing trade journal called Industry Week written by an acquaintance, Steve Minton. He interviewed Jeffrey Pfeffer author of Leadership B.S.: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time (Harper Business, September 2015). I’ll have to buy the book, now. Maybe I can score an interview.
Minton writes:
“But a steady diet of inspiration fables, Pfeffer warns, also misleads and does little to improve organizations.” He contrasts the state of leadership training with medical education, which strives to base its teaching on carefully measured studies and their results.
“No wonder medical science has made significant strides in treating many diseases while leadership as it is practiced daily all over the world has continued to produce a lot of disengaged, dissatisfied, and disaffected employees,” he writes.
What can businesses do to improve their leadership development efforts? Pfeffer told IndustryWeek that companies first need to change their evaluation criteria. Too much development work either is not evaluated or evaluated on the basis of enjoyment of the course.
“What are we trying to accomplish in leadership development? If we are trying to attain higher levels of employee engagement, higher levels of trust in leaders, higher levels of job satisfaction, lower levels of turnover, more people succeeding and having more people ready for leadership positions, then those are criteria you ought to use to evaluate your efforts,” he stresses, “not whether or not people had a good time, whether or not they liked the donuts, whether or not they thought the speaker was inspiring.”
Companies must also have people teaching these programs who have at least some expertise in leadership, he adds.
I continue to see people go off to leadership training only to memorize stories and tips. Putting the knowledge into practice is left to chance.
Thinking about various leadership training experiences I’ve had, I’d have to agree about using some sort of science. There was a class in 1981 that has stayed with me–and experience has proved it over again. The trainer displayed a 2×2 matrix. Feel for people (good, poor) versus Intellectual control of emotions (good, poor). Top performing leaders? Feel for people didn’t matter much. Intellectual control of emotions was the key ingredient.
Other than that, I’ve found that better leadership training is done in smaller groups over time. This allows time for trial and error and feedback.
Think Yoda teaching the young Jedi Luke Skywalker.
Find your Yoda. Or, find your Luke.
Me? I’m looking for another Luke to bring along.
by Gary Mintchell | Sep 11, 2015 | Leadership
There is leadership for a brief season. Then there is sustainable leadership. Take a look at Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church or Andy Stanley at Northpoint Community Church for example. Forget theology for the moment. These guys have staying power as leaders. I’d suggest checking out Stanley’s Leadership podcasts. There is one a month that always contains at least one thing you can incorporate into your leadership.
This week’s big leadership news is on the other side of the coin. I follow United airlines. I’ve been a Continental/United frequent flier for about 12 years. I’ve seen it in good times (when Gordon Bethune was CEO), sliding to mediocre times (when he was replaced by Larry Kellner a bean counter), and then straight downhill under Jeff Smisek (a mergers & acquisitions lawyer).
Suddenly this week, Smisek is out. Along with two other senior executives.
It’s been building for a while. There have been technical glitches. Employee morale is in the tank. Now there are discussions in the New York Times about ethics problems.
Bethune at Continental and Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines both focused on the customer and the employees. They did things to boost morale. They focused on customer satisfaction. This month’s Leadership podcast from Andy Stanley features Frank Blake retired CEO of The Home Depot. He also discussed customer focus first, employee focus next, and CEO self-focus last.
Sometime you get the idea reading the news that CEOs spend more time negotiating their own pay and perk packages than on thinking about how to lead the company.
Ethics problems continue to bring down high level executives, yet, many think they are immune. Until it all hits the fan.
Have you seen leaders flit from one program to the next. No sustainable initiatives. Worse, no focus on the customer or focus on the employee. You might get your millions, but how do you and your wife face the folks at the country club in the morning?
Solution? Focus on your customer. Know what business you’re in and what value you provide. Then provide it–with a loyal staff that feels supported and empowered.
Ethics and focus on others. Gee, that sounds familiar. Ancient wisdom that is still appropriate.
by Gary Mintchell | Sep 1, 2015 | Leadership
Some of my work is with leaders who wish to develop further as leaders, people who should be leaders and want to be, or with leaders who are frustrated building teams.
Patrick Lencioni was recommended as a must-read author several years ago. Finally got around to reading Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Recommended.
The first part of the book unfolds his ideas as a story of a new CEO charged with leading a highly dysfunctional team. I think I may have been on one similar to that in my life. Maybe you, too.
The model builds like a pyramid.
The underlying problem is lack of trust. That inhibits free and open discussions. So, there is a fear of conflict, meaning good ideas don’t make it to the table. Team members are not committed to the common good since decisions are not bred in an atmosphere of trust. Without commitment, it’s hard to nail down the specifics to hold people accountable. Finally, there is inattention to results of the company while everyone scrambles to preserve their own backsides and pad their resumes.
By the end of the story, Lencioni describes the new team in a way that almost overlooks the key word of the entire fable–energy. Because the new team had worked through the dysfunctions, its meetings were filled with a positive, vital energy. Individual members were energized to go back to their teams and breathe energy into them.
If you are building a team or need to get your current team back on track, read and live out this book.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 31, 2015 | Leadership
Every week (almost) people who subscribe to my special email newsletter (you can do that by entering your email on the right side of the Web page) get an additional insight either on the industry or something relating to leadership.
Recently I shared thoughts from Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, by Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation.
This book could be called a creativity course, leadership guide, or a history of Pixar. Another take would be “working with Steve Jobs.” The heart of the book really contains a story about how to build and maintain great creative teams.
I use the term “story” on purpose. When a bunch of computer graphics geeks decided they wanted to make animated movies a new way, they discovered they needed to learn the elements that lend power to story. And then came Toy Story, Cars, and the rest.
Most of you are leading teams of engineers, or you are engineers, or you may think that the kind of creativity necessary to make a great movie has nothing to do with you. You would be wrong. Even engineers who are made fun of in the press as narrow-minded, geeky, focused problem solvers must be creative or they will fail to solve the important problems.
On the other hand, many of you are bringing new products to market. You live in obvious creative cycle.
Let’s look at building and managing a team. I can think of the times in my life where I was building teams and failed. If I had read this book then….
I’ve led or been a part of some fabulous teams. We accomplished much and had fun doing it. Then there are the painful experiences. There was the time I brought in a too-young admin, an insecure salesman, another salesman who spent more time plotting about how to replace me than in selling. Talk about dysfunction. And it was all my fault. Ouch.
Catmull discusses valuing people as the core practice. Candor and transparency are key interaction values. When the executive team sensed something was amiss at Pixar after many years of successes, the diagnosis was that people stopped taking risks and they stopped giving rigorous feedback to the creators.
Success during the creative cycle requires open and honest collaboration. The type of interactions that, when a status meeting is called, people are free to point out anything that looks like it needs fixing—as long as the criticism deals with a problem and not on a person.
The conclusion of the book includes an afterword talking about the Steve Jobs that Catmull worked with for 26 years.This is worth reading far more than all the biographies I’ve read. He also leaves us with several pages of bullet points of values and learnings. I’ll share just a couple to whet your appetite.
- Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. Give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. If you get the team right, chances are that they’ll get the ideas right.
- When looking to hire people, give their potential to grow more weight than their current skill level. What they will be capable of tomorrow is more important than what they can do today.
- If there are people in your organization who feel they are not free to suggest ideas, you lose. Do not discount ideas from unexpected sources. Inspiration can, and does, come from anywhere.
- There is nothing quite as effective, when it comes to shutting down alternative viewpoints, as being convinced you are right.
- If there is more truth in the hallways than in meetings, you have a problem.
Want a more effective team? Read this book, think about it, share and discuss it with your team.
