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8 Effort, Grace, Good People · Miles Behind Miles Ahead

• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is meant to be about the journeys from life-changing setbacks to restoration.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: This journey takes on many forms and encompasses many different stories and topics, including addiction, prison, abuse, loss, illness, and other setbacks.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: The primary message is not so much the setbacks, but the personal, mental, spiritual, societal, physical, and other forms of recovery needed to emerge from these challenges with renewed hope and as better versions of ourselves.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: We will explore personal journeys to celebrate those who have waded through their own personal struggles and have come out on the other side, having not only survived, but against all odds, our better because of the journey.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is meant to be a message of hope, with the overriding theme that it is not the falls that define us, but rather the getting up.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thus the title Miles Behind, Miles Ahead.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome back.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here with two people who were instrumental in helping change my circumstances after I came home from prison.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: They both made decisions during their tenures on the management team that positively impacted me in many ways.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is my pleasure to introduce to you my former bosses and current friends, Janice Milheim and Dennis Allen.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hi there, guys.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hey.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, how are you doing today?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So for time's sake, I'm gonna jump right in.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Starting with Janice, could you tell the listeners about what your role was at my former job?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: I was the site manager at the manufacturing plant that uh Stanford was working in or came to work for us, yes.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Dennis?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: I started at the site as the safety, health, and environmental manager there, and then uh was moved into another position as the production manager.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's where I was in that role until I retired.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha, gotcha.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we're all three retired, by the way.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And happily, I might add.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Happily retired, yes.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I've talked to Gloria, who is the HR lady, and I'm I'm not gonna use her last name, but I talked with Gloria.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, I'm sorry, I talked about Gloria in an earlier episode and uh what she had to go through to get me hired.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what was that conversation like between you guys?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um we didn't have a conversation uh with Gloria prior to your hire, Stanford.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um can we use the name of the company?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mind.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm fine with that.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, we we were all working for Axo Nobel.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's a very large uh European or Dutch European based company, and background checks are handled by the corporate legal department.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And quite honestly, um you know, the hiring managers, the plants, the leadership, you know, we we don't get a say.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that that comes down through the HR legal, you know, um arm, if you will.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um so and and Dennis, correct me if I'm wrong.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: I you know, I don't honestly remember knowing that Stanford had a past until after he was on board.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Jens, that's what I remember too, and and to concur with you, Axel Mobile has a process that the HR team uses, and and they go through that entire process background check, and then basically says to the sites, hey, here's your here's your candidate, and it they're ready to to go.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: They have a block of candidates, and you pick some, and and Stanford was picked through those processes.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: And in that process, um, you know, uh is not not given to us as this is what we do and all this, but we we we um have a process that uh that the company goes through, and you know, I it it uh I don't remember anything other than say, here's your candidate.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um what I what I will add to that, Stanford, is you know, you you came back to your home community.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you came to work, you know, in the environment that you had gotten you know into trouble with.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: And there were people at the plant that recognized you.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that's you know, that's that's how you know, I guess the le the leadership, if you will.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I don't really I don't honestly remember what Gloria knew um prior to um as I said, you know, the there were some people that voiced some concerns and we had to deal with that one, you know, from coming from up from the plant, not it wasn't like there was some big discussion in terms of whether we should hire you or not.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can tell you that um that it took a long time and Gloria later informed me that um she had to get it approved through legal.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, I talked a little bit about that on my podcast on one of the earlier episodes.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I am sure I'm sure there was conversation at that level because uh um, you know, and you know what the risk was and and you know, the things that she might have to deal with, but it didn't go in.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: It didn't involve us, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: It didn't involve us until the plant the plant um the stuff started.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the sta the staff started asking questions.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so as I said, I know there was some so this leads to my next question, actually.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I know there was some resistance from the teams in terms of me being there.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So talk a little bit about how that went, how that got to you, um, what your discussions were like, um, and uh and how that was handled.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Janice, you can go first.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I I tell you for for how what I remember about that process.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Janice calls her leadership team together, and we sit in the room and and she's she laid it out.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: She goes, hey, this guy's gonna Axon Nobel's HR hiring process, he's vetted, he's hired.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: He has some some background, but here's the deal.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: She told us the team.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's here to do a job, you focus on him.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Does he do the job?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Have you trained him well?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, don't let anyone deviate from that.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and she said, if there's any situation that goes against Axel Nobel Corps values toward that individual, that will be dealt with swiftly and consistently.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Not making those words, Janice, but that's what I remember what uh was happening.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty much this the speech, and and yes, what we um we were obligated to do.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I I will add to that, you know, I had several conversations with individuals in terms of um, you know, the importance of helping people, you know, stay straight, you know, but become part of the community.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just you know, people come out of jail, out of prison, whatever you want to call it, they have to be able to do something.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't give them opportunities to do something, you know, you're just it's just gonna be more problematic.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I I had that conversation with several people on a on a one-on-one basis, and I may have had it in the in that management team meeting, but um yeah, I'm and I do believe that.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: I I you know I I believe that very strongly.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: And and of course, you know, it it the crime and and you know, you can get into discussion about what people do and and you know the risks that you're taking having, you know, like a violent offender or something, you know, working in a crew.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: But um people have to have a place to work.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: I don't you know, I don't care who they are, they have to have a place to work.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: I concur with you, Janice.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: You got people get in situations where they make a mistake or or and they come out of that process, and they still have to be a person in the community, they gotta make a living.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And if they come into your workplace, the the thing I look at is that you've got to focus on what attributes they bring to you, focus on what they're gonna do, do in their job, and not worry so much about their past.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's gonna bubble up, and it did there at the site, you know, that we had some posters and stuff come out, and it had to be taken care of.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I look at it like you do, is it people make mistakes, they they pay the price for that mistake, and you have to give them an opportunity to move on with their life.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's only the the I think the only thing you can do.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: And when they come into your your site and and in your in your workplace, the key thing is just make sure that they're they're given an opportunity.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's and and it again it had a a huge impact on um on my life uh for the better.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So so I really appreciate that um from you guys.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: That was uh and I and I was hearing about it like in the periphery, right?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't privileged to any of the meetings.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: I understand there was a meeting with the with the with the team, right?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: With uh with the employees, and um and uh those uh those standards were set out.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really, really appreciative of that.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh but but again, I'm I'm really happy and glad about that.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about a little bit about when I got there, because when I got there, I was on second shift, and I talked uh earlier about the fact that you guys were like I see you almost every day, right?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: You guys were really, really accessible.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: I had just left a plant where I felt like an ant worker, and I came to this plant, and here are these managers walking by every day saying hello, right?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which which gave me some access.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I really appreciate that.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know, uh I know that the that you guys were relatively new uh as far as the management team was on the site, and um, and there are some things that you wanted to get done, but it was impactful um to have you guys uh walking around the site, which leads me to how my opportunities came, right?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was a tank washer on second shift.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's a job, but but as far as the site's concerned, it's like the the low person on the totem pole.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and uh and I did that job with some with some some vigor.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So um talk about if you could, if you remember, um, were you guys getting any feedback like when I first got there, like what my work ethic was like, or was I was I a good employee or not?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Were you hearing anything from that?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: I I can honestly say no.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know if you think about if you think about how long ago that was and where that was in the in the plant's journey, um we were that was that was pretty much a if not the low point, a pretty close to a low point.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I know and I know Dennis wasn't, you know, he wasn't over the operation yet.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: He was over in on the safety side, you know, trying to dig that program out.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, you'd say that the the tank wash was was it what it is.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's a it's a lousy job.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's like being the dishwasher in a you know in a restaurant.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, one of the things that we learned as we went on our journey there was just how important um tank washing was and doing tank wash well, because if the if that equipment was not clean, it caused all kinds of downstream contamination problems, which the plant at that time was suffering from.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: But I d you know, I don't exactly recall or even if I really knew how you and Dennis um hooked up to uh you know make that presentation that will forever live in my mind.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll let Dennis talk about that.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I I remember um you know in the safety health of walking through one thing Stanford uh he he would he was always the guy that had his safety glasses on.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: He was always he he he followed what what we asked them to do.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he would come up to me and say, Hey, you know, I got an idea.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: What why don't we do it this way?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I think it'd be a good good way to make it go faster, be better.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, talk to your production manager, talk to your supervisor.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: I said, just uh remember it has to be done in a way you don't get hurt.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Okay, okay, okay.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And um that that's kind of how I remember my first impressions with Stanford.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then we could get into safety meetings, and Stanford would always ask questions.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And they were thoughtful questions.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: They weren't like, you know, why don't we get 20 extra minutes of break and my safety glasses fog up?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Can you give me a new set?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's nothing like that.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: He was given thoughtful questions about uh improving the process.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I started kind of thinking and listening to this guy, and um so hey, he has he has some good points, and then we we started having some conversation, if my memory right.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Stanford, I you you might recall some of those.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's kind of where where things got going on.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we really got uh more relationships going when um I was trying to get more uh employee participation.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: So went to that time the production manager supervised, hey, I'd like to get someone out of building five to uh help in this production.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: They said, I don't know who we got.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, let's get that new tank wash guy.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: That that that's a good that's a good guy to get.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: So so that's I think that's how it came about.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I you know, I said, hey, yeah, he'll do okay.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I because I already had some conversations with him.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't know much more than that.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I took a leap of faith and said, well, we'll give it a whirl.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So am I hit it right, Stanford, or I did I miss a few things?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you you you know, there's a few things.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: One is um we um we I don't know if you guys remember, but um we had a uh a site, you guys moved me to um no, it was before we we were talking, Dennis, and we and Safety Day was coming up, and I had this idea.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you said uh you said tell me about it, and I told you about it, and you said hold that thought, um put something together, and I'm gonna go talk to Janice, and uh, and you be ready to present.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and and so maybe a week or so later you came back and uh and we went to Janice's office, and I had created this PowerPoint presentation, and I said, This is what I want to do.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what I remember Janice asking was, Well, who's gonna do it?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I said I would, and you, Dennis, um told our former um told the um production manager that I was gonna have a couple of hours off each night to go into your office to start working on it.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't have a computer at the time, not at the plant.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how that went.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's where we got the the whole safety day thing going.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I since you you you you bring that up, it does bring back that memory.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I thought you had a well-thought out idea.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: When I was walking around, not only this plant but other plants, you know, there's always someone's got an idea.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I want to I want you know this new sky hook put in, I want this.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of good ideas, and then there's ideas.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: But your your idea was uh well thought out for safety day.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, well, and I and I gave it, I thought, well, let's see if he's really into it or not.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Put a presentation together and I'll go see the boss and see if we can get get you in front of her.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And sure than hell, you you've done a presentation.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: So and it and it and uh history goes from there.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Janice, what made you like like what made you say, okay?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm curious about that.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, the problem one at High Point was um, you know, we had an abysmal safety record.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um we had um, you know, corporate had a had a way of grading uh, you know, it was a a way of self-grading your site, and you know, like many other um tools that they had available to you, you know, high point you know, registered at like 30% and all the other plants were like at 75%.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: So we had a huge gap of performance that we had to um pick up and and pick it up pretty quickly.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: And and that's a pretty big task when you're talking about, you know, a workforce of, I don't know, you know, two, three hundred people.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's a lot of people to, you know, to engage and train and and you know, come around to a new way of doing things.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: But in any event, you know, the thing I remember about that presentation is you know, there were so many things that we were working on, and and it was it was incredibly ambitious, or at least it seemed very ambitious to me.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: And all I could think of was, oh my God, you know, who's gonna do all this?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because I mean, you had the games and you had, you know, all this prep work and um competent, you know, you had just ideas about everything.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: And it, you know, my head was just you know, my eyes were just spinning around in my head when you were talking about that.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, the reason I said okay is is you were willing to do it when I said who's gonna do it.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: You said I'm gonna do it, I'll put it together.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: You just have to, you know, I can't be washing tanks and putting this together.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, well, you know, I'll I'll have to get in the room and fight it out with the production manager, but you know, that's pretty easy.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the boss, right?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: I can take you out of that country.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: If I really want to, he'll he'll complain, but I can do that.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um and of course, yet, you know, I had to make sure that you know all the feff feathers that I was gonna ruffle we could we could manage through.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: But you yeah, it was like because it, you know, I as I had told you on the phone, I think back about it, and Dennis can you know either agree or not.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I really saw that safety day thing as um what did I call it, synergistic.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, it was really, really powerful in getting people's heads changed around.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: And it we started talking about safety instead of getting mad at somebody if they said, hey, dude, put your glasses on.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it just it just really turned a corner for that plant.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: And people had fun, which was you know your whole point.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'll never forget Janice.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: I heard that safety day really starts.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: What can I say?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: Again, it was a corporate thing, and we just played it right by the cards, you know.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: I just but we you know, we turned safety day.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: What we had four three, four safety days that were just they were just plenty of fun after that.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: And stuff.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: I agree with you, Jency.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think the the key to that safety day was it moved the recognition of that hazards that are there into plant and the risk against those hazards, it moved it from punitive talking down to people to getting them engaged, they're part of the part of the process, and say, you know, it's here, we can do something about it, we can be a little fun with it.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: If we if we say something or do something slightly off the the script that we feel is there, we won't get hammered.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I think people really enjoyed it.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: They like the the game part, you may you didn't win every game, but you weren't getting you weren't getting punished because you got the answer wrong.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: You were it was part of the process of hey hey I to learn what the right answer was.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was fun.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I uh I I think part of that was was just the um uh the positive reinforcement from being able to answer those questions.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because if you recall you guys leading up to Safety Day, because Safety Day had gone from one hour to an entire almost an entire day.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: We had to cut it back to a half a day for production reasons, but um it had gone from one hour um to a half a day, which included lunch and uh and a bunch of prizes.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Janice, because you gave us a bunch of money to do it with.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and people were really engaged.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Our site was competitive, right?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it was.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: It was incredible.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: It was incredible, and you know, mixing those teams up, I mean, it it it was it was a very, very powerful um yeah, idea, and and you know, we managed you managed to pull it off in a in a in a pretty cool way.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: How in the world did you get like we have a we had a director on our site um whose name I it is not on the top of my head right now?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we had a variety of directors.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they were involved.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yes, Rio or Um Michelle, or uh what was the guy?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: Mark Booth.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Who else?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: The guy that's the guy that sat in the White House who uh was in charge of marketing.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh, oh, that was yeah, go ahead.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is that Ron Cooper you're talking about?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not Cooper, Cooper was sales, the tall skinny one, Chris Bradford.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, what was his name, Bill?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he he got involved, and that was nervous.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the but everybody was involved, which I don't know how you guys got that to happen, but it was exciting.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: So and and um did it do you think it helped our safety numbers?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely it did.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely it did.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, good.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Nice to know that that we we did some good stuff, and you guys gave me some positive feedback, so so I really appreciate that.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we did another project.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we improved changeover time in one of those machines.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that project, you guys?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: I remember that because at the time, you know, I moved into production, and one of you know, my past experience that we used to call it the production wheel.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: The production wheel has to turn constantly, and your changeovers need to be disengaged or outside of your product, your actual filling process, and ours were not.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: And in that time, changeover was actually taking longer than actually filling the product.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it was um how much how many how many gallons of paint do you fill this this uh this past 24 hours, Janice would ask.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I give her a number and she goes, What?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was and it was part of um uh a next journey that we wanted to get going.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you you helped me get that put together and and made it fun.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it was a it was you know unique methods to make it engaging for the people out there in the floor doing the work.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't remember a lot of the details, but uh that's I do remember that that it it it it mattered.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we we cut I think um like 45 minutes to an hour or something off of changeover time, and then we we set some records of filling on that machine.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so that worked out pretty good.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that was about the time with it with the changeovers and other activities that we had going on.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: There our our customer order backlog started to really improve.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: It really went from the hundreds down to the tens, and then we were getting sub-10 levels about that time.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, I think that was that was the best that factory had ever been.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: And um there was big quality improvements at simultaneously in in those projects.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: That was yeah, it was a good time.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was good.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I couldn't have come at a better time.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I uh I was I remember grieving when when you guys um when Dennis when you left and Janice when you left being the production manager and got over the project for the uh for the whatever hundred million dollar thing that we built over there, that uh building 8A.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh I remember grieving that loss because uh it changed like the structure of my support system.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it never was the same.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't think, uh and this is not to be um demeaning to anybody, but some people have have a good understanding that um that people matter and that everybody can contribute and that people have value, and others may not, right?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really appreciative of having had to work with you guys.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I have a question.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we got some, we got about I don't know, three and a half, four minutes left.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: What uh what would you guys say to somebody who's in a position to hire someone who's had a checkered pass?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think we talked a little bit about it in the in the beginning, but if you were if you were talking to someone um someone uh who ran a plant and was reluctant to hire people with that kind of pass, what would you say to them?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: I would say that you have to go with your gut.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um because you know you know, people that want a chance and they you know they're they're there to do a good job.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um they'll be grateful and they will do a good job for you.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, I can tell you that you know, you're not the only person with a checkered pass that we hired at Axo Nobel or other places, and some worked and some didn't.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, sometimes it it doesn't work out.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: And but I got news for you.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: I've hired a lot of people without a checkered pass.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing is true.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, they don't always work out for for whatever reason.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: And you really have to go with your gut and and try to, you know, I always, you know, one of the things that I learned in in my career is I never hire alone.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: I always hire with a team on the panel, asking people, you know, you know, vetting people because you have different antenna and and and um gut reactions to how people talk and you know how they explain themselves.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: But you just you have to you have to go with your gut, and I don't think you should be afraid of giving somebody a chance, whether that is I've never done this before, but boy, I really want to, and I think this skill or that skill will play really well into this job.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, uh I've done that myself, talking my talking my way into a job, never never worked in that industry before, but boy, oh boy, I've done all of this, and I think that'll roll really easily over there.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it's you know make the individual talk to you and and go with your gut because it it can be very, very successful for both of you.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate that.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Dennis, your thoughts?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I I concur with Janice that you you have to you have to look at the you listen to the person, hear what they have to say, hear what your team says about the and during the questioning and the and the conversations, and and you I look at it and I start thinking, did they demonstrate the values that I'm looking for?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: Did they demonstrate in some of the values that the company's looking for?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you pick that out in certain conversations and other pick it out in their conversations, but in the when the day is done, if they if there's more positives than negatives, you got to give them a shot.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And as Jen has said, sometimes you get fooled, and they go, Oh my goodness, that that was that was a real big mistake.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then on the other hand, you say, Wow, this this turned out really well.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: But it's it's really as she says, go with your gut, but know what your gut's supposed to be thinking about, too.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah by having said this is a kind of person's value systems, what they believe in, how they talk, what they say.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's important.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's and it could be listening for.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, guys, I I want to tell you that that uh working for you probably is probably the most one of the most fortuitous things that happened to me in my journey to um to being back at a place where where I wanted to get to.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I don't know.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I just kind of think I I fell down in the right place at the right time with the right people.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um I thought that um I worked uh when I was working for a school system, I had a superintendent that was that was also very much in my corner.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I knew that that my trajectory was was was going to be up there until I made some bad choices.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I when I started working for you guys, after a while, I felt that that same trajectory.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I felt, okay, here I come.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I really appreciate that.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I think that you guys recognize talent.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think you give people a chance, and it doesn't matter whether they have numbers or letters behind their names or not, if they do good work, if they're going to be productive, then then you've done that.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been life-changing for me, and I really appreciate it.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so thank you guys very much.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really glad you came.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you guys again.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, always.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we will um, I will uh I'll touch base.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you very much for coming on.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks for having me.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, thank you.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Same appreciate it.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Great episode.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and as usual, see you next time.