Latest / Speaking of Supply Chain / Swapping Lessons with the Next Generation

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Swapping Lessons with the Next Generation · Speaking of Supply Chain

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Speaker 1: Hear when I'm working with some of the analysts or
0:02
Speaker 1: some of the consultants and they're like, oh yeah, we're
0:05
Speaker 1: going to do like this. And I'm like, this is
0:07
Speaker 1: going to take days. And then five minutes later, they
0:10
Speaker 1: pop up with something. It's like, hey, can you take
0:11
Speaker 1: a look at the first draft? I found myself so
0:14
Speaker 1: many times sending chats or team messages like, hey, how'd
0:17
Speaker 1: you do that so quick? And they're like, we have AI.
0:22
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain. I'm your host,
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Speaker 2: Ellen Wood. Career decisions don't stop once you've established yourself professionally.
0:29
Speaker 2: In many ways, they become more deliberate. With experience comes
0:34
Speaker 2: clearer understanding of the work you want to do, the
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Speaker 2: environment in which you do your best work, and the
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Speaker 2: kind of expertise and impact you want to build next. Today,
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Speaker 2: we're talking with some colleagues who came to Meebok after
0:46
Speaker 2: building experience elsewhere, whether in industry or consulting. or another
0:51
Speaker 2: part of the supply chain altogether, to understand what brought
0:54
Speaker 2: them here and how their careers have continued to evolve.
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Speaker 2: So welcome to Lisa, Darion, and Jeremy. Darion, why don't
1:03
Speaker 2: you start first and introduce yourself?
1:05
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. I come to
1:09
Speaker 1: Meebok with 18 years of experience in the WMS and
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Speaker 1: supply chain industry, and I'm happy to be here.
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Speaker 2: Great to have you. Lisa, what about you?
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Speaker 3: So I've been in supply chains for over 25 years,
1:23
Speaker 3: spanning academia, manufacturing, distribution, and ended up in supply chain design.
1:29
Speaker 3: I've been doing supply chain design for about eight years now.
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Speaker 4: All right.
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Speaker 2: And Jeremy?
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I too have been in industry for 25 years.
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Speaker 5: So we're covering many different aspects of supply chain and industries.
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Speaker 5: And then the past 10 years, specifically in the pharmaceutical
1:47
Speaker 5: and science space.
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Speaker 2: Between you and me, we've got nearly a century's worth
1:51
Speaker 2: of experience here today on the podcast. I can't wait
1:54
Speaker 2: to get in to our subject, which is talking about
1:58
Speaker 2: that mid-career experience. You've all made this decision to join
2:02
Speaker 2: Meebok from a different position than someone choosing a first job.
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Speaker 2: You already knew something about the industry. You knew something
2:09
Speaker 2: about yourselves and what work you wanted to do. So Jeremy,
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Speaker 2: let's start with you. Before joining Meebok, you had already
2:16
Speaker 2: built your expertise. What were you looking for in that
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Speaker 2: next stage of your career that you weren't getting where
2:21
Speaker 2: you were?
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Speaker 5: For me, I think it was just exposure to other industries,
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Speaker 5: other areas of supply chain. Liking that variety and a
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Speaker 5: new challenge, I think, was really what attracted me to that.
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Speaker 1: Okay.
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Speaker 2: Darian, your previous experience was as a practitioner or a
2:43
Speaker 2: consulting organization in Did that shape the way that you
2:48
Speaker 2: approach clients and their problems today?
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Speaker 3: Yes.
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Speaker 1: So, you know, I came in with the experience of
2:55
Speaker 1: being the person that worked with the three POs and
3:00
Speaker 1: also the person that worked with consultant groups. So I
3:03
Speaker 1: had seen the output of the data, but I wasn't
3:07
Speaker 1: a part of the analysis. And so one of the
3:11
Speaker 1: things that I really wanted to do was become a
3:14
Speaker 1: part of the analysis, right? and the presentation. And so
3:17
Speaker 1: that's what, when this opportunity was presented to me, that's
3:21
Speaker 1: what interested me the most. I was very curious and
3:25
Speaker 1: I got to speak with some of my now colleagues
3:29
Speaker 1: that were recruiting me to join this side. And I
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Speaker 1: was very fortunate to make the proper decision.
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Speaker 2: Are there ways that you approach your job? Are there
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Speaker 2: questions that you ask when you're in a client engagement
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Speaker 2: that you know because you experienced it earlier in your
3:44
Speaker 2: career as a practitioner?
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Speaker 1: Definitely. It's always going to the next detail. So I
3:52
Speaker 1: ask questions in a way that I want to be
3:56
Speaker 1: answered that provide extra detail and just going past the surface.
4:03
Speaker 1: I want to scratch the surface some because the more
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Speaker 1: detail that we get, the faster we can get to
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Speaker 1: a solution.
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Speaker 2: And having worked somewhere else gives you that basis for comparison.
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Speaker 2: So Lisa, after working in another type of environment, what
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Speaker 2: did you notice about the way that at Meebok we
4:20
Speaker 2: approach those same problems or the way that we work
4:24
Speaker 2: with clients that felt different? Because, I mean, isn't consulting consulting?
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Speaker 3: Well, I would say working here at Meebok is not
4:32
Speaker 3: dramatically different from working in other consulting companies. We always
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Speaker 3: need to focus on the clients and what the needs
4:38
Speaker 3: of the clients are. What I do find different here
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Speaker 3: at Meebok is their emphasis on working with the teams themselves,
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Speaker 3: emphasizing continuous improvement for all of us. I mean, even
4:52
Speaker 3: though I've been in the industry for 25 years, the
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Speaker 3: industry is changing and trying to keep up is always difficult.
4:59
Speaker 3: So understanding new tools, new techniques, always learning from other
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Speaker 3: colleagues and being able to participate in the training sessions
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Speaker 3: that Meebok offers worldwide, I think is a very strong
5:14
Speaker 3: thing that I didn't have in my former careers. And also,
5:17
Speaker 3: I just think the team building that happens within the organization,
5:22
Speaker 3: the extra activities, the dinners, the sporting activities that they do,
5:26
Speaker 3: I think all of that helps build the team and
5:29
Speaker 3: make people feel important and make people feel involved and
5:32
Speaker 3: to get to know each other. So that when you
5:34
Speaker 3: are on a team with someone new, it's not really
5:36
Speaker 3: someone new. It's someone you've already interacted with, had some
5:39
Speaker 3: understanding of their life situation.
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Speaker 4: And I just think that makes Miwok a really special place.
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Speaker 2: I do think that our internal culture is very interesting
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Speaker 2: and rather unique, that we are close-knit in that way,
5:52
Speaker 2: that we have cultural things that we do from time
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Speaker 2: to time within the office and across other offices as well.
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Speaker 2: with the training and the continuous improvement. So is that
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Speaker 2: a culture that is easier to recognize because you didn't
6:09
Speaker 2: see that in other organizations or other companies that you've
6:13
Speaker 2: worked with in the past? Is it that significantly different?
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Speaker 4: Oh, I think definitely.
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Speaker 3: I had an organization where I worked, I think, three
6:21
Speaker 3: years before I ever met some of my colleagues that
6:24
Speaker 3: I had been working with via Teams for those three years.
6:28
Speaker 3: But we had never met in person until we happened
6:30
Speaker 3: to meet at a client site. We rarely had actual
6:34
Speaker 3: events where we were all together in one place. So
6:37
Speaker 3: having that opportunity to get to know people, I mean,
6:40
Speaker 3: even though I work remotely, I still get the opportunity
6:43
Speaker 3: to go into the office and get to meet people.
6:46
Speaker 3: And I'll be honest, sometimes I see some of the
6:47
Speaker 3: events that are going on in the office and I'm like,
6:49
Speaker 3: maybe I should schedule my trip out to Fisher's that week.
6:53
Speaker 3: because it is such a nice team atmosphere. So being remote,
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Speaker 3: I mean, I do even see that I feel like
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Speaker 3: I'm missing something sometimes.
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Speaker 2: That's interesting. I love that. And I would say that
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Speaker 2: it doesn't, you touched on the continuous improvement and just
7:10
Speaker 2: because you have experience doesn't mean that you stopped developing
7:14
Speaker 2: your professional expertise or your acumen or your management style
7:19
Speaker 2: or leadership skills. But it does change a little bit
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Speaker 2: what that development looks like. So, Darian, let's come back
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Speaker 2: to you. At this stage in your career, what does
7:29
Speaker 2: professional growth mean to you? And where are you still
7:33
Speaker 2: being challenged to grow?
7:35
Speaker 1: Professional growth at this stage is exactly some of the
7:41
Speaker 1: things that Lisa mentioned is the, you know, I'll take.
7:45
Speaker 1: just internally, like the worldwide trainings. Um, I got to
7:49
Speaker 1: go to experiential training earlier this year. And while I very,
7:53
Speaker 1: very versed in the industry, um, I sat in a
7:57
Speaker 1: training room. I want to call it a classroom because
7:59
Speaker 1: that's what I felt like. I felt like I was
8:01
Speaker 1: a freshman in college again. And I was, cause I
8:03
Speaker 1: was learning, I was learning new things. Um, so I,
8:08
Speaker 1: I walked away from that, from that training. I met
8:11
Speaker 1: colleagues that, um, verbally, right, on several different continents. And
8:17
Speaker 1: I actually had the pleasure of reaching back to some
8:20
Speaker 1: of those colleagues and saying, hey, have you experienced this
8:24
Speaker 1: in your day-to-day operation? Have, you know, what do you
8:28
Speaker 1: think about this? And for me, that's what the growth
8:30
Speaker 1: looks like. That professional growth is a network of people
8:36
Speaker 1: that I didn't have. It's learning new skill sets. And
8:39
Speaker 1: it's just, you know, we talk about it all the time, teachings, trainings.
8:44
Speaker 1: I'm a sports guy. So is coaching. It's remaining to
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Speaker 1: be coachable at this stage in my career, which always
8:51
Speaker 1: isn't the easiest thing to do for somebody that has
8:53
Speaker 1: the tenure that I have.
8:56
Speaker 2: No, that's understandable. But I love the way that each
9:01
Speaker 2: of you has mentioned something about the training at Meebok.
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Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite things about our company is
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Speaker 2: the focus on training and continuous improvement and using those
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Speaker 2: opportunities to connect with our our global colleagues, and have
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Speaker 2: those face-to-face experiences where you are broadening your network. Even
9:19
Speaker 2: within the company, you're broadening your network in order to
9:23
Speaker 2: be able to pull from those resources when a project
9:27
Speaker 2: demands it or even when you demand it for your
9:31
Speaker 2: own growth. And I think a lot of times when
9:34
Speaker 2: we talk about career growth, we think very vertically, like
9:38
Speaker 2: moving up the chain. But it doesn't have to be.
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Speaker 2: I mean, you know, Jeremy, you had mentioned that you
9:44
Speaker 2: wanted to expand just into other industries.
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Speaker 4: What you were trying to do.
9:49
Speaker 2: But what does that look like in terms of a
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Speaker 2: career progression? You know, is it is it always vertical
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Speaker 2: or is it also horizontal or is.
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Speaker 5: It a bit of both? Yeah, I think for me,
10:01
Speaker 5: for sure, it's both.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 5: I mean, it's you want to get the depth and
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Speaker 5: the breadth to develop yourself. And some of those are
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Speaker 5: just your interpersonal skills. It's the skill set we talked
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Speaker 5: about in the ongoing learnings. So I think it's important
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Speaker 5: to be agile and flexible and to stretch yourself both ways.
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Speaker 1: Okay.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that. And at some point, that stops
10:29
Speaker 2: being what you learn and starts being what you are
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Speaker 2: sharing with your teams and helping other people around you
10:38
Speaker 2: start to grow. Lisa, I know you have some unique
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Speaker 2: experience in this area as you've grown in your career.
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Speaker 2: How has that role shifted from developing your own expertise
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Speaker 2: to helping others develop theirs?
10:51
Speaker 3: So shifted yet not shifted. I started my career as
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Speaker 3: a college professor. So I've always enjoyed working with and training,
10:59
Speaker 3: teaching young people. And so that's just something I really
11:03
Speaker 3: carried along with me throughout my career is I've always
11:06
Speaker 3: reached out to younger associates and try to share with them.
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Speaker 3: What I've learned and, you know, try to help them
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Speaker 3: along in their careers, provide coachings as well, soft skills
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Speaker 3: and hard skills, both. It's just something I've really always
11:21
Speaker 3: enjoyed doing and and I'm glad to be given the
11:24
Speaker 3: opportunity to do that here at Meebok as well.
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Speaker 2: Do you find that you also learn from your junior colleagues?
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Speaker 4: Oh, definitely. Like I said, we're always evolving.
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Speaker 3: The software that's available for use, the use of AI,
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Speaker 3: there's all kinds of ways that I can learn from
11:41
Speaker 3: my colleagues, younger and older, in terms of the best
11:45
Speaker 3: tools to use, because they're always changing, they're always moving.
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Speaker 3: So it's hard to keep up if you're just trying
11:50
Speaker 3: to keep up alone. It's much more helpful if you've
11:53
Speaker 3: got a room full of people that you can you know,
11:56
Speaker 3: all learn from and develop together.
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Speaker 2: I want to ask this question because you because you
12:01
Speaker 2: were a professor and so you have worked both in
12:03
Speaker 2: the in the classroom, but also, you know, on the job,
12:06
Speaker 2: you know, developing younger talent. How do you give someone
12:10
Speaker 2: room to solve a problem without letting them struggle maybe
12:14
Speaker 2: unnecessarily as they as they kind of work through it?
12:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's always a hard one.
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Speaker 3: I've had people that I've worked with And I'll give
12:23
Speaker 3: them a task and a day.
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Speaker 4: It should have been a couple of hours and a
12:26
Speaker 4: day later. It's not done yet. And I'll call them
12:29
Speaker 4: up and they're like, yeah, I'm really struggling. I don't
12:31
Speaker 4: know what to do. And I'm like, you shouldn't struggle.
12:33
Speaker 4: All right. You should, you know, think, plan, solve.
12:36
Speaker 3: But if you're starting to struggle and you're getting frustrated,
12:38
Speaker 3: don't ever be afraid to ask for help. Don't ever
12:41
Speaker 3: be afraid to reach out. I don't ever want someone
12:44
Speaker 3: to feel like if they don't solve it.
12:47
Speaker 4: On their own, they're a failure. It's a team effort.
12:50
Speaker 3: It's working together and making them feel comfortable and confident
12:54
Speaker 3: that they can come to you and not be berated.
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Speaker 4: For not knowing the answer. That's learning.
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Speaker 3: It's a learning process. And the thing I always tell
13:03
Speaker 3: them is don't struggle. If you feel like you're really
13:06
Speaker 3: struggling with a problem, please reach out, call me. I'm
13:10
Speaker 3: never going to berate you for not knowing the answer.
13:12
Speaker 3: And then we can work through it together and try
13:14
Speaker 3: to solve the problem together. And there's never one way
13:17
Speaker 3: to the solution. There's always multiple ways. So we can
13:20
Speaker 3: work through it together by asking questions and talking through it.
13:24
Speaker 3: I've also found that just in my own learnings, when
13:28
Speaker 3: I get to a point where I struggle, sometimes I'll
13:31
Speaker 3: phone a friend. And by the time I've discussed through
13:34
Speaker 3: the problem and the issues that I'm having, I get
13:37
Speaker 3: to the end.
13:37
Speaker 4: And I'm like, oh, I've got it now.
13:40
Speaker 3: Thank you for your help. And they will just look
13:42
Speaker 3: at me and they're like, I didn't say one word.
13:44
Speaker 3: And I'm like, but you were there and allowed me
13:47
Speaker 3: to use you as a sounding board and someone to
13:49
Speaker 3: walk through the problem with and walk through the issue with.
13:53
Speaker 4: I've experienced that. I can say all the way from
13:55
Speaker 4: high school.
13:55
Speaker 3: I remember I would talk to a friend of mine
13:58
Speaker 3: about coding and like, I can't code this.
14:00
Speaker 4: And this is my problem.
14:01
Speaker 3: And then ta-da, just by explaining the problem to somebody else,
14:05
Speaker 3: you come up with the answer.
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Speaker 4: So it works for me, and.
14:09
Speaker 3: It works when you're mentoring others as well, just to
14:12
Speaker 3: be able to talk through those problems and come up
14:14
Speaker 3: with a solution.
14:16
Speaker 2: That is a really interesting tactic. I love that. So, Jeremy, Duran,
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Speaker 2: do you have similar experiences with, you know, trying to
14:23
Speaker 2: work through problems with junior colleagues that you're trying to,
14:26
Speaker 2: you know, mentor and develop on your teams?
14:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, for me, with the teams that I work with, definitely.
14:34
Speaker 5: And I'm always... Constantly impressed in learning from them. I mean,
14:39
Speaker 5: Lisa mentioned AI. I mean, that's a great example to
14:43
Speaker 5: see how easily that it comes to them. And, you know, myself,
14:48
Speaker 5: I'm still on that learning curve and constantly, you know,
14:53
Speaker 5: humbled in many ways. But at the same time, you know, again,
14:57
Speaker 5: continuing to grow as well as learning from the team.
15:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd have to piggyback off of what they both
15:04
Speaker 1: said and just add color. I think that they are
15:08
Speaker 1: my favorite colleagues to work with just because they think
15:11
Speaker 1: so different. I'm going to call it, I'm going to
15:14
Speaker 1: say us veterans are, we think more traditionally and they
15:22
Speaker 1: don't have lines that they go by when they think, right?
15:26
Speaker 1: AI is a big thing that I had to adjust
15:30
Speaker 1: to is that this is a tool to help us, right?
15:33
Speaker 1: In my last industry, AI was available, but it was
15:37
Speaker 1: like the box that was in the safe and everybody
15:40
Speaker 1: didn't have access to it because we did things such
15:43
Speaker 1: a traditional way. So here, when I'm working with some
15:46
Speaker 1: of the analysts or some of the consultants and they're like,
15:49
Speaker 1: oh yeah, we're going to do like this. And I'm like,
15:52
Speaker 1: this is going to take days. And then five minutes later,
15:54
Speaker 1: they pop up with something. It's like, hey, can you
15:56
Speaker 1: take a look at the first draft? I found myself
15:59
Speaker 1: so many times sending chats or Teams messages like, hey,
16:03
Speaker 1: how'd you do that so quick? And they're like, we
16:05
Speaker 1: have AI. So it was an adjustment for me, but
16:10
Speaker 1: it's definitely something that I'm glad I have. And I really,
16:15
Speaker 1: really appreciate our junior colleagues.
16:20
Speaker 4: You know what? I have to agree.
16:21
Speaker 2: We had a very great intern class this summer. And
16:26
Speaker 2: the things that they were able to do incredibly quickly
16:31
Speaker 2: just absolutely blew my mind. And I was like, all right,
16:35
Speaker 2: then you're the one I'm going to ask to do this.
16:38
Speaker 2: I'm not going to struggle. I'm not going to beat
16:40
Speaker 2: my head against the wall trying to figure this out myself.
16:43
Speaker 2: I am just going to let you use your expertise
16:46
Speaker 2: and your knowledge in this area that I am lacking.
16:49
Speaker 2: And you're going to help me. You're going to augment
16:52
Speaker 2: our team by being part of it. And I think
16:54
Speaker 2: that's That's really, really great. So there's another dimension of
17:00
Speaker 2: career growth that tends to become more important over time.
17:05
Speaker 2: And that's figuring out how to fit it into your
17:09
Speaker 2: life as your roles get bigger, as your responsibilities get bigger,
17:14
Speaker 2: and your life gets bigger, you know, as time goes on. So, Jeremy,
17:19
Speaker 2: it's different expectations about how work fits into your life.
17:25
Speaker 2: What have you learned about having a career that is
17:28
Speaker 2: both ambitious but also sustainable? I know you have teenagers
17:33
Speaker 2: like I do. How does that work for you?
17:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think for me, you know, and it's always
17:40
Speaker 5: a continued learning experience as well to keep that theme going.
17:45
Speaker 1: It's knowing how to prioritize. Right.
17:47
Speaker 5: And also knowing when to.
17:48
Speaker 1: Turn work off. I mean, the industry is.
17:51
Speaker 5: And, you know, our customers are global, so they follow
17:56
Speaker 5: the sun. And many times, you know, we need to
17:58
Speaker 5: be available. But there have to be times that you
18:01
Speaker 5: intentionally carve out for that family time. And that was
18:06
Speaker 5: something that's taken many years for me to develop that
18:09
Speaker 5: I wasn't good at early on in my career. And
18:11
Speaker 5: even going back to working with young colleagues, it's coaching
18:14
Speaker 5: them because everybody wants to be ambitious and be a
18:18
Speaker 5: go getter and work hard and prove themselves. While at
18:21
Speaker 5: the same time, it's easy to get caught in that
18:24
Speaker 5: trap and it's hard sometimes to figure out ways to disconnect.
18:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've noticed there are times when I'll see some
18:31
Speaker 2: of our younger colleagues and they have, you know, they're single.
18:36
Speaker 2: They have the time to stay till, you know, seven,
18:39
Speaker 2: eight o'clock at night if they're working on something and
18:41
Speaker 2: really in a zone. You know, they have that flexibility
18:43
Speaker 2: where I'm like, you know, if I stay till eight,
18:45
Speaker 2: I miss my kids bedtime and I don't see them
18:47
Speaker 2: that day. So I understand and totally agree that you
18:53
Speaker 2: have to set some boundaries and say, OK, this is
18:56
Speaker 2: this is time that I need to dedicate toward other
18:58
Speaker 2: responsibilities in my life. Yes, work is important. Yes, I
19:02
Speaker 2: want to get the job done and I want to
19:03
Speaker 2: do it well. But there's limits and limits. What role
19:08
Speaker 2: do other colleagues play in making that more possible for you?
19:12
Speaker 2: And maybe some of those handoffs as following the sun
19:15
Speaker 2: to other maybe junior colleagues who have that type of
19:19
Speaker 2: flexibility or to someone else in another time zone that
19:22
Speaker 2: we're working with?
19:23
Speaker 5: Well, I think you hit it because that's for me,
19:25
Speaker 5: that's a key is leveraging our European colleagues. I mean,
19:29
Speaker 5: luckily for me, I am an early riser. So I
19:33
Speaker 5: usually hit there early. you know, late morning, early afternoon,
19:38
Speaker 5: and connect with them fairly early. And then when I
19:42
Speaker 5: relay that to some of our junior colleagues who maybe
19:45
Speaker 5: aren't used to that or would like to sleep in
19:47
Speaker 5: a little bit later and stay later, you know, talk
19:50
Speaker 5: about schedules get a little interesting. But being able to
19:54
Speaker 5: leverage that and have that flexibility so that I know
19:58
Speaker 5: in the evenings, you know, have my dedicated time that
20:01
Speaker 5: I can, you know, focus on other priorities and family.
20:05
Speaker 1: And then if need be, come back.
20:07
Speaker 2: All right. What do you know about building a career
20:10
Speaker 2: now that you wish you had known when you first
20:13
Speaker 2: started out?
20:14
Speaker 3: So I halted my career midstream to take care of
20:17
Speaker 3: my family because I just thought that was the best
20:20
Speaker 3: option for me at the time. But in this changing world,
20:24
Speaker 3: there's so much flexibility. And there was some of that
20:27
Speaker 3: flexibility when I was rearing my children. I just didn't
20:30
Speaker 3: know that it was out there. So just being able
20:33
Speaker 3: to be in a role that is flexible for me,
20:35
Speaker 3: being able to work from home, being able.
20:38
Speaker 4: To work hours. Like I said, I'm with you. I'm
20:41
Speaker 4: an early morning worker.
20:42
Speaker 3: So I would much rather get up early in the
20:44
Speaker 3: morning and then take care of other things in the afternoon.
20:48
Speaker 3: I'm an empty nester now, so it really doesn't matter
20:50
Speaker 3: to me now. But as I was rearing my children,
20:52
Speaker 3: I think having that flexibility and finding the job that
20:56
Speaker 3: provides that flexibility is really important because they are out there.
21:00
Speaker 3: You just have to look a little harder for them.
21:02
Speaker 2: Darianne, what about you?
21:04
Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest things for me, as
21:06
Speaker 1: I reflect on this, I'd like to think that I'm
21:09
Speaker 1: an early riser now, listening to Jeremy and Lisa talk,
21:13
Speaker 1: but I'm also somebody that I probably don't properly rest
21:17
Speaker 1: just from a former career of working in IT and
21:23
Speaker 1: being around systems and operations. But I think one of
21:28
Speaker 1: the biggest things is being open continue to be open-minded
21:32
Speaker 1: and not having one path. You know, I would think
21:35
Speaker 1: back to my early 20s when I was, you know,
21:37
Speaker 1: in the position that some of my junior colleagues were.
21:40
Speaker 1: I thought everything had to go one way. And what
21:44
Speaker 1: happens when you think things need to go a certain way,
21:47
Speaker 1: you ignore potential solutions because you're thinking everything has to
21:53
Speaker 1: follow this path. What I learned as I got older,
21:56
Speaker 1: you know, when you do your second set of your
21:58
Speaker 1: 20s and your 30s, When I got into those years ago,
22:02
Speaker 1: I learned that, hey, you can get to a destination
22:05
Speaker 1: multiple ways, right? There's just not one set way. And
22:10
Speaker 1: there's multiple paths, but be open to learning. And that's
22:13
Speaker 1: something that if I was talking to my younger self,
22:15
Speaker 1: that's what I would say. Keep your mind open and
22:17
Speaker 1: stay sharp. You can learn multiple things and you still
22:20
Speaker 1: can achieve what you're trying to achieve. All right.
22:22
Speaker 2: What about you, Jeremy?
22:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think they're very similar to Darion
22:26
Speaker 5: with learning. Respective to leaving yourself open, I mean, as
22:31
Speaker 5: somebody who didn't initially find supply chain in my career and,
22:37
Speaker 5: you know, before we had all of these very specialized
22:39
Speaker 5: majors and, you know, people creating their own majors, it
22:42
Speaker 5: was something that I found and obviously love and don't
22:48
Speaker 5: know if I would have obviously would have liked to
22:50
Speaker 5: have been aware of that sooner. but at the same time,
22:55
Speaker 5: if I would have closed myself off to those opportunities,
22:57
Speaker 5: I wouldn't be sitting here today.
23:00
Speaker 2: I know one thing that I've learned is, number one,
23:04
Speaker 2: I don't have to have all the answers. You know,
23:06
Speaker 2: I should have a team around me. Even when I
23:08
Speaker 2: was the only person doing marketing for North America, I
23:11
Speaker 2: still had the global team and I didn't have to have.
23:14
Speaker 4: All the answers.
23:15
Speaker 2: And I remember spending a lot of time, to Lisa's point,
23:18
Speaker 2: you know, struggling with a problem or stressing about something
23:21
Speaker 2: at work when what I really needed to do was
23:25
Speaker 2: share my problem with my team and be open about it.
23:29
Speaker 2: So that's something I would go back and tell myself is,
23:32
Speaker 2: you know, you're not expected to have all the answers
23:34
Speaker 2: all the time and you're going to have to learn
23:37
Speaker 2: as you go. So just accept that sometimes you're going
23:40
Speaker 2: to be wrong. Sometimes you're not going to know and
23:42
Speaker 2: you're going to have to ask for help. I think
23:45
Speaker 2: as an early career person, I felt that I needed
23:49
Speaker 2: to have all the answers up front before I was
23:51
Speaker 2: even going to consider taking on that role. So I
23:55
Speaker 2: love all of these responses. Careers rarely follow a perfectly
24:00
Speaker 2: planned path. What changes with experience is the ability to
24:03
Speaker 2: make those choices more deliberately, to understand where you can contribute,
24:07
Speaker 2: where you can continue to grow, and where your experience
24:11
Speaker 2: can create value for other people as well. So thank
24:15
Speaker 2: you to each of you for sharing what those choices
24:18
Speaker 2: have looked like in your own career progression. And thanks
24:22
Speaker 2: to our podcast sponsor. Meebok is a global supply chain
24:25
Speaker 2: consulting and engineering firm focused exclusively on helping organizations improve
24:30
Speaker 2: performance across the end-to-end supply chain. From strategy and planning
24:34
Speaker 2: through engineering and implementation, we help clients turn complex decisions
24:40
Speaker 2: into operational results that hold up in the real world.
24:43
Speaker 2: Thanks again for joining us and we'll see you next
24:45
Speaker 2: time on Speaking of Supply Chain.
24:52
Speaker 6: You've been listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a Meebok podcast.
24:56
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Speaker 6: the latest in supply chain information. Thanks for listening. Until
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Speaker 6: next time.