Well, I am continuing my journey, albeit with a change in pace, type and format, but moving forward none the less. I’ve been in food and beverage manufacturing for the past 25 years. I’ve learned an enormous amount in that time. I’ve been through the ups and downs, through mergers and acquisitions and was even lucky enough to have spent time at the corporate level of a large, multi-national business organization. Having been a working person for over 30 years now, with only a month of days across that time that I haven’t been employed, here’s what I think I’ve actually learned through my experiences.
- Time is really the only thing we have to spend. Dollars and cents are just measurements of our time already spent, and not everybody measures it that way. Since having a little extra of that time to spend recently, I’ve been much more aware of how I am spending it, but also much more aware of how I’ve already spent it. I have a reminder that pops up every few weeks that just says, “$86,400” in the subject. It is related to an analogy about having a bank account that fills up to $86,400 dollars every day. I’m sure there are many explanations about it, but the one I heard was to imagine this bank account replenishes every day and you can spend all of it however you want. If someone takes $50 from you, or even $100, how much would you spend to get that money back, knowing that you have so much left and that you’ll have a reset with tomorrow’s deposit? The 86,400 number comes from the seconds in my day (60 sec x 60 min x 24 hrs), so if some takes up a minute or two of my day, even if I didn’t like it, I try not to spend more time focused on that $100. I try to remember that, consider how I (and others) spend their daily allowance and be intentional about how I make my withdrawals.
- Freedom is something we often simultaneously say we wish we had more of (just like time) but frequently don’t achieve what we want when we have too much of it. How I spend my time is part of freedom. When I say that I wish there were more hours in the day, it usually means that I don’t feel free enough to spend my time as want. Sure, there are conflicting interests, but I have to remind myself that I do have freedom. I’m not a prisoner to my day, my work or my family. I can walk away from any of them, and some people do, but my choice is my freedom. Not necessarily choices and their consequences, but just the freedom to make the choice. Sometimes I have felt stuck in choices or that there was only one choice, but that isn’t really the case. It is usually because I’m ignoring the possibilities or want to avoid the current responsibility. And having a lot of freedom, as I have been . . . gifted with recently, can be a bit overwhelming. A bit “be careful what you ask for” to some degree. Which brings me to my next learning:
- Structure is a partner to freedom, not an enemy of it. Freedom without structure hinders progress. And structure can just as easily by called process, my three favorite words. Sure, I’m free to do whatever I want now that I’m now that I’m not at a job that has set times for me to attend (I have no process now). For somebody who has always pushed the boundaries of the work I do and been in roles that have allowed me to help others simultaneously expand and focus the work they do, it has been difficult for me to be free all the time. I can lose an hour or a day. And setting up your own guidelines from scratch instead of having someone else’s expectations placed upon you may sound simple enough, but the struggle is real. Helping (or maybe forcing) myself to set up structure that allows for freedom and flexibility takes focused effort. And if I’m being honest, that’s what work with others has really been about. How does this process (or often lack of one) apply to me and what autonomy (or freedom to do what I think I should) do I have within it? So I end up where I’ve always been. First, if there isn’t a structure in place, I will likely not make much progress: “Without standards, there can be no kaizen.” Taiichi Ohno. Second, if there isn’t structure, make it. If there is structure, make it better (I see you Continuous Improvement).
- Relationships is where my time, freedom and structure come together. It doesn’t matter if I talk about my professional life with superiors and subordinates or my life away from work, because relationships are what happens when our time, freedom and structure start bumping into everyone else’s. Relationships are build on communication, consistency and trust.
- Communication is a requirement, and unfortunately I don’t think I’m an expert yet. I often find myself “surounded by idiots” to borrow from Thomas Erikson, because I often wonder “why don’t they listen to me” when it usually has more to do with how I’m communicating the information. And it can’t be one way, that’s just information delivery. I have to remember we have two ears and one mouth.
- Consistency for me means showing up regularly. It doesn’t mean just being reliable (although that is important), and should include being steady in my interactions so that others know what to expect from me. Consistent doesn’t mean stuck in the way I always do it (here comes that CI approach again), but hopefully I’m going to communicate if I’m making a change in what I’m doing.
- Trust is built on consistency and communication. Some are quicker to trust (guilty) while others are more resistant to trust and may even seem to not be able to trust. The only way to trust is through communicating honestly, effectively and consistently while being a reliable partner, no matter the kind of relationship.
Now sure, there a lots of things I’ve learned about pigs and bacon and pop and bottled water (you have no idea), as well as software and lean and TPM and regulations, but these bullets apply everywhere. And they are just as easy likely to be lost in the chaos that can happen in an hour or a day or a lifetime. Which is why I’m going to try to keep them front of mind as I wade into the chaos, somewhat intentionally, to try and bring a little structure to my relationships with myself and others so I can be free to spend my time as wisely as I can today. And hopefully do a little better about it tomorrow.