Welcome to Lean Leadership for Ops Managers, the podcast for leaders in Ops Management who want to spark improvement, foster engagement, and boost problem solving – AND still get their day job done. Here’s your host, Leadership Trainer, Lean Enthusiast, and Spy Thriller Junkie, Jamie V. Parker.
Hey, Ops Leaders, Jamie here. Just want to let you know that I am holding space for you and your families and your friends and the people that you love and care about this holiday season, thinking about you and truly wishing the best for each of you.
Now, the holidays are a season of giving. Without even looking at the religion or the origins of the various winter holidays, there’s this sense of giving in the air during this time of year.
And today, I have a gift for you.
One of our listeners reached out to me and he said that he listened to some podcast episodes, he watched the videos on my website, which you can find at processplusresults.com, and he said he loved them and wanted more. So he asked me, he said, “Can you share more?”
And that ask inspired me.
You see, I have recordings of some different trainings or conversations but they’re kind of out there in all kinds of different places. And here was this listener who was hungry for more. He wanted to own his development, and I wanted to make it easier for him to do that. And now you get to benefit. You get several of my Lean Leadership trainings, all in one place for free.
So let me tell you a little bit about how to get it and then I’m going to talk about why I’m doing it and what specifically is there. So write this down. To get it, you just go to processplusresults.com/free, F-R-E-E, processplusresults.com/free. Now, yes, you’ll put in your email address, and then you’re going to get a link to those resources. So just bookmark it and come back to it whenever you need to dig into one of those topics.
Now, I’ve pulled together more than six different resources to start and in 2021, I’ll add a few more resources to the collection. Everything is on-demand, so you can watch or listen or read whenever it fits into your schedule.
Now, before I share what’s included in these free training resources, I want to talk a little bit about thoughtfulness and generosity and where I think mine comes from. So one thing that I love about myself is my thoughtful generosity. And I don’t mean spending a lot of money for the biggest and baddest. I mean giving in a way that is thoughtful and meaningful. And oftentimes that generosity doesn’t cost much money at all. It might be a card with a handwritten note that just seems to say the exact right thing at the right time. It’s paying attention to the things people say and do over time, and then really bringing that in to the decisions of what to give and how to serve.
I have a friend who’s a divorced dad and his kids have everything. Whether it comes from him or their mom or from grandparents, the kids have everything. They’ve vacationed places I’ve never been, they’ve had VIP experiences I’ve never had. And all of that is great, except what do you get the kids that have and do everything already? Last year I got them an experience where we went and did escape rooms together. We went and did, I think two escape rooms together because it’s something that they enjoy and it’s kind of just this thing that we do. This year, I knew I wasn’t going to see them. I wasn’t going to be in person with them. And I’m like, “What could I do?” And I know this sounds silly, but over the summer, when they stayed at my house for a family trip, the kids were all about some popcorn. We’d do movie night or game night or whatever; they were all about the popcorn. And I was thinking about it and I was thinking about a lot of the things that they normally would go and do during the holidays like Disneyland or SeaWorld or Legoland, they’re not really things they can do during a pandemic. And I was also thinking about how my friend wants to build connection and memories through the every day, not just the fancy things.
And so for Christmas, I’m trying to figure out what am I going to do for these kids. And so I decided at first I’m going to give them a few games for game night. And that was risky because these kids are not normally game night kids. I mean, other than video games. But board games or family games, that’s not something that I think they would typically respond super well to. So I was super picky. I mean, I googled and researched like a mad boss, figuring out what they would actually enjoy. And then I got the gift card to Amazon so they could rent new movies for a movie night. And then here’s the super thoughtfulness part that came in. So I got them a Whirley-Pop, like a popcorn Whirley-Pop that I know they’d be able to do, and the popcorn kernels and the oil. And I got them the movie theater themed popcorn containers so they can each have their own. Because let me tell you, over the summer, they were fighting over the popcorn containers. But they can each have their own. And then I got those different flavored sprinkles, like the cheese or the caramel or those powder flavoring. So I got all that. So I got all these popcorn things.
And to be honest, I was a little nervous about how that was going to go over.
But I had it shipped to his house directly instead of me shipping it to him which means it wasn’t wrapped. So he got it and he opened it up and he called me and he texted me and he said, “Oh my goodness, this is perfect.” And in fact, he actually said, “Hey, can we give this early?” Because he didn’t have the kids for Christmas, but he has them all Thanksgiving week. So he was like, “Can I actually give this to them early? And that way we can spend this week enjoying it.” And it was a huge hit. And it was kind of silly and kind of small. The gifts weren’t expensive. I mean, I think it was like 100 bucks on three kids or something. They definitely weren’t fancy because I can’t compete with that, but it was thoughtful in the sense that I paid attention. I paid attention to the little things that mattered for them, and for what he was trying to do, and the kind of memories he was trying to build.
And my friend was telling me about how thoughtful I am. He’s like, “Man, you do this every year, you just nail this.” And he asked, he’s like, “Where does that come from?”
And I want you to know, I’m pretty sure I get it from my mom. My mom is amazing. She graduated college with my sister-in-law four years after I graduated college because my mom went back to school as an adult while working full time. And she went back to school to serve as an elementary school teacher. And she’s the type of teacher who spends hours upon hours upon hours outside the classroom, building amazing interactive experiences for her kids, hands-on learning experiences for her kids. And she works in a low-income school area where many of the parents have limited English skills.
When I’ve been back for the holidays, I’ve driven around with her as she takes food and gifts to her students’ homes because she knows they were struggling to put food on the table. And she knew that her gifts for the kids, not just kids in her class, but their siblings in that same household, might be the only gift that they get. And my mom and dad lived paycheck to paycheck. They didn’t have all this money left over. It’s just the way she is. Because she’s going to give, she’s so thoughtful about others. And when the pandemic first hit, and schools were closed, about a third of my mom’s students didn’t have Wi-Fi or computers at home. Virtual Learning wasn’t accessible to them. And so she’d drive around to their houses, putting worksheets and activity kits in their mailbox, so that they would still have things to do and to learn because that’s the type of person my mom is. I can tell you she is one of the most thoughtful, generous people I’ve met, and I am proud to have gotten that part of her.
Now, let’s talk about my gift to you and what you get.
I’m not going to go through everything that’s in the collection. Let’s talk about a few of the resources. First is a training called “Giving Recognition to Spark Improvement”. Because let’s be real, engaging the team in continuous improvement involves a ton of change as we learn new ways of thinking and working. So how do we help people take this new improvement-based action? How can we spark more of the helpful improvement behaviors we want? This training was rated as the highest breakout session at a recent summit. It’s 35 minutes, it is fast and furious, you’re going to want to see it.
Another training, which has been highly popular when I’ve given it is “Transition from Doing Problem Solving to Coaching Problem Solving”. And in this training, you’re going to challenge yourself to take three critical steps to transition from doing to coaching. You’re going to learn the key differences between doing and coaching. You’re going to learn how your problem solving skills get in the way of coaching. And then you’re going to learn three critical steps that you can start that day, you can start them today, as soon as you watch it, to become a better problem solving coach. This is another one that’s fast and furious because it’s only 30 minutes. In fact, these two trainings I think I love so much because they were limited to 35 and 30 minutes respectively. It means I cut out all the fluff. I had to go through how I would normally teach and say, “Nope, we got to get rid of it. Got to get rid of it. What creates value?” And getting very, very targeted on creating value in a short period of time, so they’re awesome.
Another training you’re going to get is called “How to Ease the Pain of Change”. And you’re going to uncover one common change management teaching that’s flat out wrong, and what to do instead. You’re going to kind of learn the psychology of change and its relation to respect for people in continuous improvement. You’ll discover the one most important factor to help transform to a Lean culture. And you’re going to learn eight practical steps to help teams embrace change more quickly.
Now, in addition to that, you’re going to have access to interview discussions, you’ll learn the question that changed everything for me. You’ll learn the role of Ops Leaders in integrating Lean, plus more, so there’s quite a bit. And to get those, you go to www.ProcessPlusResults.com/free and you can get access.
Before I give you your next steps for the week, I want to tell you that I am so excited for next week’s episode. Katie Anderson, author of Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn is joining me for a conversation about intention. We throw this word intention around a lot but what does that really mean? And how is intention different from goals? How do we set intention? And how do we make sure we don’t get caught up in the go, go, go activity of the day, and lose sight of the intention we set? You don’t want to miss this episode. Now, new episodes release every Wednesday, so mark those calendars.
All right, back to the gift I’m giving you, and your next steps. Well, you’ve got three of them. Next step number one, go to processplusresults.com/free and sign up to get an email with access to everything I talked about today, plus more. Schedule time on your calendar to engage with the free Lead Leadership training resources. Block out some time, schedule it. And your next step number three, tell others about it. Share the link processplusresults.com/free with your colleagues and your friends so that they can get access too. This is your opportunity to pay it forward and embrace this season of giving. Think about who in your network might find it helpful and give them this gift of free Lean Leadership training. Just send them to www.ProcessPlusResults.com/free
And finally, thank you. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for supporting me. Thank you for sharing this podcast with others. Until next time, wishing you all the best.
