Field Report: Juggling mashed potatoes and getting lean at Leadership Jam 2006

Jim Paluch

COLUMBUS, OH — Jim Paluch doesn’t mind if you think he’s a little crazy, as long as you listen to what he has to say. And if he asks you to do things that seem a little odd, like rub the shoulders of the complete stranger sitting next to you, you do them, because Paluch has more than 15 years of success as an author, speaker and motivator with JP Horizons.

Paluch had a few other unorthodox suggestions at Leadership Jam 2006, one session of which was held in Columbus, OH, Feb. 20-21 under the theme of Working Smarter. “One day at the dinner table, stand up and say to your kids, ‘Watch this!’ Pick up a scoop of mashed potatoes and start juggling them,” Paluch said. “They might think you’re crazy, but would you rather they think that, or see that you’re so tense after coming home from work they’ll never want to get a job?”

Other tips included:

• If you are in an elevator, tell the other riders, “This is the smiling elevator. Everyone has to smile.”
• If someone asks how you are doing, say “Awesome,” and clap. “I’d rather they think I’m crazy than just, ‘Fine,’” Paluch said. This idea is a must at JP Horizons. No one in the organization will ever tell you they are doing “Fine.”

For Paluch and the rest of the crew at JP Horizons, the key to business is having fun and positive thinking. “We want you to have a positive impact on everyone you meet, in everything you do,” Paluch said. “How you act every day reflects on others. If you have a good attitude about work, so will your employees, and everyone will benefit.”

Getting lean

Loren Richmond

Loren Richmond, Lean manufacturing manager for Leadership Jam sponsor Ariens, said that 95% of what businesses do adds no value to the customer. These are things like taking and processing orders or transporting and storing materials. To work smarter, Ariens had looked to streamline its processes through “lean management.”

Lean is a systematic process of cutting waste and increasing a company’s profits. Richmond identified seven kinds of waste: overproduction, waiting, transportation, extra processing, inventory, motion and defects.

One way Ariens has reduced waste since implementing lean is through Kaizen events. For these events, Ariens takes employees away from their usual jobs for a full week and has them inspect different departments around the company looking for ways to cut out waste. Even though those employees are not doing their usual jobs, through Kaizen events and lean management, Ariens has doubled its productivity in five years and eliminated debt in the last five years.

“We’re not eliminating people. We’re not telling employees to work faster,” Richmond said. “We’re making their jobs easier so they don’t have to rush, and enjoy the jobs more.”

Based on the size of your company, Richmond recommended one Kaizen event per 10 employees per year. These Kaizen events will help change mindset around the company from “Gotta get this done,” to looking at the business in the long-term.

Put me in coach

JP Horizons’ Bob Coulter described leadership like coaching a team. “Leadership is about a journey — taking people from where they are to where they want to be,” he said.

The question business owners must ask is whether their employees see them as someone who is helping them achieve their goals, taking them where they want to go, or just as someone who is looking to see what they are doing wrong.

What a leader needs to do first is model the right behavior. Just as Paluch said how you act reflects on others, Coulter said as a leader you should show your employees what an “A” player looks like. Come in on time, be positive, do what you're told, work safely and take pride in your work.

It also helps if you can connect for your employee what they are doing with why they are doing it. Allow them to inspect their own work. Many times they will be harder on themselves than you will be. And be sure there are consequences. Whether good, bad or indifferent, people need to know that their work has an impact.

By working together, both sides can achieve their goals. “Employees will succeed when we prepare them to succeed,” Coulter said.

“The needs of the company and the employee are the same thing,” he added. “If the company doesn’t win, what are the chances that the employee is going to win, and vice versa?”

Leadership Jam participants created a process schedule for landscape design and maintenance projects, then found ways to improve that process through lean management.