"Y" Is For Your

As always, I want to offer my sincere apology to Sue Grafton for using (stealing??) her approach for the titles of her many outstanding mystery novels for this series of articles that I hope makes YOU a happier and more effective leader working with a truly empowered team that really enjoys what they do! Oh, and if you have not read any of Ms. Grafton’s novels I highly recommend that you give her a try.

Run It Like YOUR Own Business!!

“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’ We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.”

- Zora Neale Hurston

I got this “core value” from working with two printers in an internal print shop that had been “assigned” to me during a reorganization.

But first, you may be wondering what a “core value” is. Simply, a “core value” is a rule, principle, belief or guideline that guides, controls and directs you in all that you say, do and think during your workday.

Now these two printers (my thanks to Teamers Vince and David) that I had the privilege of working with and LEARNING from for several years, had worked in the outside print world and preached the gospel of running the internal shop like “YOUR own business!” If it needs to be done, YOU have to do it.

But let me give you a bit of background on the reorganization that got me the opportunity of working with Teamers Vince and David.

I was the Middle for a marketing communications team that created marketing collateral requested by internal product marketing managers within the Organization. We were having problems with the “turnover” of the electronic publications from the graphic designers in my team to both internal and external printers. Now the printing was managed by one of the “facilities managers” that took care of printing, purchasing, copiers and so forth. We seemed to have a communications problem with the printing specifications for the publication between the graphic designers and the printers. I reasoned that this was due to the fact that they were positioned in two different teams and were perhaps “marching a bit to different drummers.”

I suggested to my Senior (who also led the manager of printing) that if the designers and printers were in the same team, the problems would go away. The creation of the marketing collateral would be seamless, from writing and design all the way through to the actual printing. The next day the internal print shop and outside printing was moved under my direction (my thanks to Senior Bill).

My first step was to call a meeting of the graphic designers and the internal printers and explain the reorganization, and then challenge them to work more closely together, improve the turnover process and printing requirements for each publication, and TALK with one another if they had questions or ideas and ways to reduce cost and improve the overall quality of our print collateral. It worked like a charm.

But the real secret was that these two printers had previously worked for commercial printing businesses, and their values and attitudes were much different from most folks that I had worked with. They often told me that they “wanted to run their internal shop like an outside business” rather than just a job. And they displayed this goal, with their daily focus being on not wasting supplies, meeting and often exceeding their internal customer’s expectations and making sure that their internal charges and quality were competitive with outside printers to make their services attractive to their internal clients. I saw the benefits immediately and encouraged all of the rest of my Teamers to think like this. What a concept! This switch changed everyone’s attitudes and direction and my leadership style. You win, your Teamers win and your Organization wins.

“The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.”

- Mark Caine

I wish you empowerment, every happiness, success and peace!! Jonesy