Proffitt Management Solutions
By Tiffany Stock
I was turned on to this newsletter by my colleague, Dave Adams. Nancy Proffitt, CEO of Proffitt Management Solutions, produces a blog/newsletter with content surrounding leadership, workplace culture, maximizing efficiency and so much more. I enjoy all of her posts but found this one from May of 2019 especially engaging. Leaders Build Unity has a lot of thought provoking ideas and questions to help give you that edge in creating a highly successful organization with low turnover, great employee morale and increased productivity which will lead to increased profitability. Please check it out and sign up for her mailing list if you find her information useful.
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/e028e44007fc806e15133a725/files/78c631b5-0a0e-4b12-97aa-3f345c7f7968/4May19Proffitt_Leaders_Build_Unity.pdf
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This Is How We Do It ~♫♪♩ – RISQ Consulting’s LEAN Mantra (thank you, Montel Jordan)
By Tonya Mott
I mentioned in my last blog post, “What’s a Fastcap?” that our LEAN journey started with an office wide cleanup. That is not entirely accurate. We actually started with the “Why”. Why would we want to do this? It’s a lot of work! If we don’t have buy-in from the team, this may not work. I shared the “Why’s” and the “What’s in it for us” with everyone:
Why?
- Deliver value from the client’s perspective
- Eliminate Waste
- Continuous Improvement – leaving it better than you found it
What’s in it for us if we become a Lean Culture?
- Time maximization
- Organizational Clarity
- Simplify
- Stress-free
- Increase Morale
- Easy access to resources/tools
- Confident
- Greater company investment
- Potential monetary rewards
- Work on projects that motivate you
Good news, everyone was onboard!
Then came our timeline and action plan. We decided what we wanted to do and when:
- Immediately – Identify waste and stop signs (ongoing)
- Office wide cleanup – 3 S’s, 1. Sweep, 2. Sort, 3. Standardize
- Workflows – Analyze process, make them “LEAN Certified”
For our office cleanup, we started with a two-week window to clean up our own work areas. Then we closed for half a day, rolled up our sleeves, and got to work. What is the old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words?
Check out the new and improved RISQ Employee Benefits and Employer Services office space:
Storage Room – Before
Storage Room – After
Office Supplies – Before
Office Supplies – After
By making these changes we spend less time looking for supplies and can easily identify what needs to be ordered. We find everything we need by reading labels or visually looking at pictures posted on the front of the cabinets or drawers.
Now that we’re done with the cleanup, we’re evaluating our workflows with a microscope. This involves documenting each procedure, then removing waste. Once we are satisfied with the workflow we’ll deem it LEAN Certified. Even though the process gets the LEAN stamp of approval the work is never done. We welcome any employee’s suggestions and feedback (even if they have nothing to do with the process) to improve the workflow when a change can positively impact our employee’s and client’s experience.
Needless to say this has been a lot fun for our entire team and the end result is a comfortable, clean, and organized work environment for employees to deliver a “platinum rule” type of client experience. The Platinum Rule is part of our client experience compass, but alas that is for another blog article, a little something to you keep you anticipating!
I’m currently participating in LEAN trainings throughout the year, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about LEAN and how to implement it in your workplace. Below is my contact information:
Tonya Mott
Employee Benefits – Vice President, Operations
907-263-1401
tmott@risqconsulting.com
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What’s a Fastcap?
By Tonya Mott
On a journey to implement a LEAN culture in our office, I learned about Fastcaps.
What’s a Fastcap?
Self-adhesive stickers that cover screws on cabinets:
What is LEAN?
The Methodology:
- Deliver value from your customer’s perspective
- Eliminate waste (things that don’t bring value to the end product)
- Continuous improvement
What in the world do these two things have in common?
Feeling overwhelmed about how to implement the LEAN methodology in our work environment. I came across a book, “2 Second Lean”, written by Paul Akers, the founder of the company Fastcap. After reading his book I checked out their website and found that even though the company was started as a woodworking/cabinetry business they promote LEAN and have a Youtube channel dedicated to the movement. They are all about sharing their LEAN experience with the world so that others can benefit as they have.
Here is a short video giving a tour of their facility: https://youtu.be/jYby_HczyDA
Fastcap inspired me to start our journey with an office-wide cleanup effort. Ironically, during our cleanup, I found the Fastcap’s in the picture above in our storage room buried at the bottom of a box full of various computer cords.
I plan to write additional blog posts about our LEAN adventures and include some impressive before and after photos!
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Did You Know?
You may not think an error on your auto insurance application is a big deal, but the consequences can be very costly. Giving inaccurate information on your application can lead to increased premiums, policy cancellations or no financial assistance in the event of an accident.
Mistakes to Avoid When Applying for Auto Insurance:
- Not listing all drivers—Anyone who continuously drives your vehicle, even if it’s just for a short period of time a week, should be listed on your policy.
- Giving a false vehicle location—The difference between parking in one zip code versus another can greatly affect the amount of coverage you need for your vehicle. Failing to report your car’s true location can impact the accuracy of your insurance quotes.
- Not reporting your driving infractions—It’s best to be upfront about your driving record to avoid any conflicts or discrepancies. Your insurance company can easily retrieve any driving records from the DMV to check the accuracy of your application.
- Not disclosing business uses—In some cases, you may need a specialized policy when driving for business purposes or for a rideshare company like Uber or Lyft. Failing to take the proper steps could lead to a lack of coverage following an accident.
- Failing to update life changes—Changing addresses or adding another driver to a vehicle are all life changes that need to be updated on your policy.By not reporting changes, you may be overpaying for coverage and missing out on available discounts.
Be Honest on Your Application to Avoid the Consequences
Inaccuracies on your auto insurance application can end up costing you more money in the long run. If you think that you may have given false information on your auto insurance application, call your insurance agent to update your auto policy and avoid any ramifications.
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“Not All Readers Are Leaders, but All Leaders Are Readers”
By Ashley Snodgrass
It was Harry S. Truman who said, “Not All Readers Are Leaders, But All Leaders Are Readers”. Top business leaders often quote President Truman’s philosophy as one of their keys to success. As someone who enjoys reading books and listening to audiobooks, I’ve found it can be overwhelming to sort through stacks of business-related leadership, marketing, team building, customer service, professional development books and more to find the true experts and best advice.
I recently received this EntreLeadership Reading Guide from Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership email newsletter. The reading guide includes, “100 Books Every Small-Business Owner Needs to Read”. I’ve found this guide to be helpful because the list of 100 books are divided up by category, which allows me to choose a topic, and read 3-5 of the best books published under that topic. Additionally, many of the authors with books featured on this list have also been interviewed on the EntreLeadership podcast, and this is noted with an icon near the book title. The EntreLeadership podcast is another tool from Dave Ramsey’s company, Ramsey Solutions, where major business leaders are interviewed about how they lead their massive, influential companies. It is a fantastic learning opportunity to have access to interviews with so many brilliant business minds.
The EntreLeadership Reading Guide has also been a valuable tool for choosing books for RISQ Consulting’s book club. It can be challenging to choose books to read just by looking at Amazon reviews, so I appreciate having a resource like the EntreLeadership Reading Guide which is a vetted list of go-to greats. Even though the cover page of the guide specifically mentions the books are for small-business owners, in my experience the books are helpful for business leaders or teams who want to grow personally and professionally.
Here’s a link to subscribe to the EntreLeadership newsletter and download the guide.
Here’s a link to the PDF guide only (no email newsletter subscription).
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The Sting that can “Bee” Good for You
A follow up to “Lyme Disease – The Great Imitator“
By Tonya Mott
Since sharing Kelsey’s story a few exciting, (good and not so good) things have happened:
1. What is Kelsey doing for treatment? She has quite the treatment regimen, but the most interesting is bee venom. She has a bee condo inside her house, some of you may have seen these at the local Costco this summer. Have no worries, the bees are at the end of their life cycle when she received them. Her hubby grabs one with a tweezer and stings her. I know it sounds horrible but if it helps her feel better then I say, I’m all in. (I’m leaving out a lot of detail but wanted to at least share at a high level).
Click here to read about bee-venom therapy
2. Kelsey and I were interviewed by KTUU. It just so happened that my blog post was published in May, which is Lyme Disease awareness month. I shared the story with KTUU and they responded immediately, asking if my friend would be willing to do an on camera interview – sorry, Kels! Of course, she happily accepted.
3. My husband received a clinical diagnosis of Lyme – MSIDS (Multiple Systemic Infection Disorder Syndrome). We had our suspicions after learning about Kelsey’s symptoms and we finally have an answer. This is very new and we are still working through the details.
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Pollutants
By Dena Lythgoe
If you’re like me, you tend to think of pollutants as dirty, chemical based components. In fact, if you were to search google for “what are the top 5 pollutants”, you’d get the below mentioned responses; Ozone, Carbon Monoxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Lead, Nitrogen Oxides. Take a moment and think of pollutants that you tend to see on a regular basis. Are they dirty and chemical based? As you rack your brain for what falls into pollutants, I bet you’re not thinking of a socially popular drink enjoyed by millions and a Kentucky classic. Bourbon! Unless of course you’re reading this while enjoying a Buffalo Trace, neat.
Kentucky distillers produce 95% of the world’s bourbon according to the Kentucky Distillers Association. Many new and expanded production plans are in the works leading to a $2.3 billion dollar building boom throughout Kentucky. A standard bourbon barrel usually holds about 53 gallons of bourbon or 201 liters. Only recently Jim Beam ended up losing 1% of their aged production in which 45,000 barrels were destroyed.
The fire started due to a lightning strike that set one of the many Jim Beam warehouses on fire. Due to the contents, the fire burned for days and the water runoff filled primarily with alcohol leaked into the nearby rivers and creeks. This runoff caused the oxygen levels to decrease in the 23 miles of waterways killing fish before dissipating into the Ohio River.
At this point, take another moment to give some thought about pollutants and as a business owner what type of contingency plan do you have in place for these types of incidents? Are you creating, hauling, or storing products you don’t think are pollutants or contaminants that potentially could be? The Jim Beam warehouse was equipped with a full sprinkler system but with the highly flammable contents and wood frame construction, the sprinklers were overwhelmed by the fiery inferno of this American classic. The blaze burned so intensely it melted firetrucks lights.
Some of you may be thinking, “duh”. Of course, bourbon has the ideal pollutant qualities. It’s flammable. It can cause hangovers…need I say more? But let’s think about something much more benign, milk. A staple across this country and enjoyed by people of all ages. Many people think there’s no reason to cry over spilled milk, but that wasn’t the case in 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007 and twice in 2011, when milk tanker trucks reported spills which caused damage to the nearby waterways.
Each of the entities involved in the spills, both milk and bourbon, were fined by government regulators as their product polluted waterways and caused harm to the environment. Just like spilled milk or an inferno of fiery bourbon, governmental fines are no joking matter. Fines for just one of the reported milk spills were over $600,000. This dollar amount doesn’t take into consideration the additional cost of the clean-up. These types of incidents can and have caused businesses to go out of business.
The owner of Jim Beam being a multibillion-dollar entity used many risk management techniques to avoid an accident like this from happening yet mother nature had a different plan with her lightning strike. Jim Beam has insurance to provide protection for their building, inventory, and for the pollutant cleanup and government fines. Ultimately, they will recover and remain a titan within the industry. But how about you? What contingency do you have in place? Are you protected against foreseen and unforeseen pollutant exposures? How about the correct pollutant protection? Just some food for thought, or in this case, beverages for thought.
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“A CEO Who Gives his Employees $2,000 to go on Vacation Says People are More Productive Than Ever”
By Natasha Kwachka
So as I was scrolling through the internet in a moment of rare silence in my rambunctious house, I came across this gem of a post. As I read, this feeling of excitement and admiration came upon me. While living in the corporate world, it is rare and sometimes even unheard of to come across a culture that cultivates true productivity. My belief comes with the sense that in order to truly motivate a team of people; your people must have time to decompress. People have a ton of things that need to get done over the short span of 24 hours per day. Between work, family, and juggling multiple schedules, most of us live our lives speeding at 100 miles an hour or more. Can culture be the answer? Can we change the way we embrace culture within a company to meet the needs of us as humans?
Business Insider:
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Change – What is it good for? Absolutely Everything.
By Andrew Kupperman, SHRM-CP
I think most of us can agree that if we aren’t changing, we’re falling behind. From an evolutionary standpoint, without change and adaptation, animals typically become extinct. In our personal lives, change is happening every day. In fact, the current rate of change that is happening right now, with new ways to communicate, learn, and live, is far greater than it has ever been before. We go through change without even knowing it sometimes.
I would also think it’s not a far stretch to say most executives who run organizations and businesses agree that if their organizations aren’t thinking of ways to differentiate what they do today, it puts them at a great risk of falling behind, and at worst, going out of business. From a historical perspective, the most innovative ideas of products and services have come from people who haven’t been afraid of change or to be different. So, the great question remains: why is it so hard whenever change in business comes up? After all, in our personal lives, we experience change a lot. It shouldn’t be that hard at work too, right?
If you’ve ever had a job (and if you’re reading this, I’d bet you’ve had at least one), then you’ve likely gone through some kind of change at that job. Think back to that moment. Was it difficult for you to go through that change? If it wasn’t, were there others impacted by that change that found it difficult? I have a gut feeling most of us would answer at least one these questions “yes”, but why is that? We all know and realize change helps us progress, and again, we aren’t immune to change personally.
The first thing that crosses most people’s minds when the word change comes up at work, is something along the lines of dread, fear, or stubbornness around the idea. I understand, sometimes there are some changes put in to place that feel as if a change is being made for the sake of making a change. But the negative reaction to change tends to be the first instinct even if the change is something that is truly positive, and could even really help you a lot in what you do on a day to day basis. I think the root of this tends to be that change can be a signal that you’re not doing something right. But this is hardly ever the case.
Now, I ask you to think back to that example of change from before. Did you, and everyone else who was impacted by it, understand why the change was being put in to place? Did everyone adopt the change? Was that change really effective in what it was trying to achieve, and did you know if it was effective? I’d wager that in most of the examples you’re thinking of, more often than not, you’d would answer “no” to at least two of these questions. Here in lies the crux of the issue of change in the workplace.
Let’s talk about the phases of change real quick. Usually, a leadership team or whoever is leading a change, has some great reasons or impetus to implement the change. There may even be a lot of closed door meetings to strategize, formulate and brainstorm all of the potential impacts of the change and what it ultimately means to the business. Next, there might even be development and design on what the change is going to look like, as well as which people, systems, workflows, and tools are a part of that change.
There’s been a lot of great and important work done at the top of the “Change Chain” and now we’re ready to implement. But most leaders of change have forgotten two massive parts during these steps: 1. Getting feedback by those that are impacted by the change and 2. How to determine what is going to make that change successful. Without these two ingredients, you’ve set yourself up failure.
Leaders of change need to realize the importance of involving those that are going to be impacted by the change. Maybe these folks can point something out that a leader hasn’t thought of, or didn’t have the right perspective to even think about it in the first place. Inclusion in the strategic and development process can also help to pinpoint potential problem areas or roadblocks that might come up during an implementation. Involving the right people in a change before it is implemented increases the chance for adoption and success.
Leaders of change also can’t lose sight of the ultimate goal of a change, and how to determine if that goal has been reached. Having clear set milestones, metrics, or visuals of what a successful change looks like can help a team determine how a change is going, and what tweaks might need to be made in order to get the change to finish line of success. Remember, tweaks in implementing a change is okay – it’s nearly impossible to implement a change project without them, so flexibility in the plan is key. Also, these measurements of successful change should be transparent and clear to the team and stakeholders involved in the change.
More importantly, there is something else leaders of change have also failed at a lot, and this is something that happens even before coming up with an idea for a change. I’m talking about having an organizational mindset around change to begin with. Going back to the beginning of my post, I established that change is necessary to progress an organization and keep it from becoming irrelevant. Yet, we often create cultures, work environments, and employee mindsets that can easily clash with the notion of change. We need to fix this, and it always is going to start from the top. Leaders need to disseminate a love for change and acceptance across every corner of their organizations. Then, and only then, can there be a pathway to successful change. Otherwise, we are doomed to continue this pattern of failed change after change.
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