In the Land of Mickey

I’m in Orlando, the land of Mickey Mouse. I won’t see him though; I’ve been attending the ASQ Quality Management Division Conference. It was quite excellent. It’s a relatively small conference, about 600 people, but that was a good size. It provided great opportunities to meet people and have a conversation with them. I met some wonderful people, very pleasant to speak with, and interesting. You get a wide variety of people at conferences, meaning a wide variety of occupations and jobs. Even at a conference on quality management there were people from many different industries and jobs. I met people from NASA, Pratt & Whitney (the aircraft engine manufacturer), the University of Texas Cancer Center, a steel company (Gerdau Ameristeel), the US Army Corps of Engineers, a couple of consultants, a school district in Texas (Aldine Independent School District), and a student. And that’s just the people I both had a conversation with and got their business card.

I enjoy meeting new people, but this isn’t something I could do just a few years ago. I’m basically pretty shy, and never used to be able to just walk up to someone at a conference or meeting and start a conversation. That is, until I started hanging out with Frank and Ken. They’re amazing, how easily they meet people and start a conversation with them. Especially Frank. He can walk into a room and within five minutes get to know half the people like he’s known them for twenty years. So I started watching them to see how they did it, and started practicing. I found that all it really takes is just to say “hi” to someone. So that’s what I do, I just say hi to whoever I’m sitting next to or standing next to. It sure beats spending the whole conference watching everybody else talking and having a great time. Try it next you go someplace where you don’t know anyone.

I came to this conference to give two presentations, which I did. Why two? Because in the call for papers it said you could submit a maximum of two, and if you submit two, the odds of getting accepted are better. So I submitted two, and both were selected. The worst they could do is say no, right? So why not ask? I thought they went well, and since at least a few people came to both, they must have been pretty good. It feels good when someone comes up to you after your presentation and tells you they got a great gem that they were missing and are going to take it back to work with them and put it into practice. For at least one gentleman it was the methodology that I presented (and is in my book, The Small Manufacturer’s Toolkit) for selecting “the right tool for the job.” Several people got their gem from my Strategic Planning session; and that methodology for selecting the right tool for the job always turns on the light bulb for some people.

In my next post I’ll tell you where I found my gem at the conference.

Slow Wireless

I'm trying to make a couple of posts, but there's no internet in my room (I'm in a hotel in San Francisco) and the wireless connection in the lobby is poor, at best. I'll post my entries as soon as I can. Stay tuned.

It's not failure if your learning

I'll write more on this, but I have to share this for now.

During the coaching clinic I attended, I had to keep asking myself if I was in a rugby coaching clinic or a business seminar. The similarities were striking. My book, Business Lessons from the Rugby Field, is practically writing itself. One of the things the instructor said was that you have to let the players fail during practice sometimes. That's how they'll learn. If you only show them the right way, and just drill that into them, they'll never know what to do in a real game situation. If they never fail, they'll never learn what doesn't work. If they don't fail, it means they're not trying new things.

That's the same thing I tell businesses. If your employees aren't allowed to fail, they're not trying new things. If you don't try new things you can't grow. You have to fail so you can succeed. It's not really failure if you're learning something.

Rugby results week 3

Along with this week's results, some commentary by me.

I made it down to the park for some rugby last Saturday, and it was great. One thing that's great is that all the games are played in the same place (Kapiolani Park). As of now there are three games every Saturday. The first one starts at 1:00 pm, and the other two follow. Everyone is in the same place, and it's quite the festive atmosphere. How many other places get this to happen?

I only saw one game, since I'm busy preparing for my trip, writing my book, and assorted other busy things, but it was a good one. The Barbarian vs. Kalihi Raiders. A close game by two closely matched teams. The Islanders have won all their games so far, so I'm going to try to make sure I catch their game this week.

The games and the organization of the Union have been looking good. A big Mahalo (thank you) to everyone who's putting in the effort to keep things moving forward. Thanks to Ma'afu for the effort at the top; Etu and Saga for their efforts with the referees; Lofi for his scheduling, and especially with reporting the results; and Kevin Perry for his valiant efforts with Hawaii Youth Rugby (hang in there Kevin). There are many more people putting a lot of effort in too, with the teams, the clinics, and all the little things that are needed to keep things going. All your hard work is paying off.

As always, we need your support, and your generous donations. It takes a lot of money to run the whole of the rugby organization; the adult Union, the youth league, and all of the individual teams. But the rewards for everyone are great; the players, the volunteers, and the community.

We've got some work ahead of us with the youth, especially here on Oahu, but we're going to get there.

Going on tour

I'm going on tour. I'll be giving presentations and conducting seminars. Here's the itinerary:

February 21-22 - ASQ Quality Management Division Conference, Orlando, FL
Two presentations: 1) Effective Strategic Planning, 2) Selecting the Right Tools for the Job (based on my book)

February 26 - Redwood Empire Chapter APICS, Santa Rosa, CA
Seminar and dinner meeting presentation - topics TBD

February 29 - ISM Silicon Valley, Santa Clara, CA
Lunch & Learn presentation - Lean & Six Sigma: Working Together

March 4 - Sacramento Chapter APICS, Sacramento, CA
Dinner meeting presentation - Effective Strategic Planning

March 5 - ISM Silicon Valley, Santa Clara, CA
Two 1/2-day seminars - 1) Lean & Six Sigma, 2) Selecting the Right Tools for the Job

March 5 - Mission Peak Chapter APICS, San Jose, CA
Dinner meeting presentation - Lean & Six Sigma: Working Together


If you're interested in attending any of the events, please contact the organization listed (just go to their website), or contact me and I can point you in the right direction. If you'd like to have me speak to your group or conduct a training session or seminar, please contact me.

Hawaii Rugby Stats

Rugby season has started, and here's where we're at so far: (thanks to Lofi Fuatogi for this update)



Note: If anybody knows and easier way to post tables into a Blogger post, please let me know. I saved this as a PDF, then saved it as a JPG to post it.

Where have I been?

Been busy. Missed two weeks of rugby matches. What would cause me to miss all that rugby?

First was an APICS meeting. We had our quarterly District meeting here in Honolulu. The chapter presidents from the Pacific Western District meet quarterly to learn from each other, find out what's going on with the Association, and to get to know each other better. The benefits of these meetings are great. Instead of all the individual chapters operating in a vacuum, we learn from each other; what's working, what's not going so well, what new things are you doing. As an organization, we're much stronger by working closely with each other rather than trying to compete with each other or go it alone.

That's all well and good, but why would I give up a day of rugby to sit in a cold room in a hotel basement, when I've done this many time before? That's easy... it's the people, the friends I've made. At this point in my career, APICS doesn't offer me a whole lot. I've got my certifications, I've already published one book, another will be out soon, and more are on the way, and most of my work is at a higher level than where APICS is at right now. But APICS has been good to me throughout my career, so I like to give back when I can, and I've made some wonderful friends that I like to visit with. I can visit them without APICS, but it's a good venue to get together as a group, and I get to meet new people and get to know others better.

So that's one weekend. The next weekend (last week) I attended a rugby coaching clinic. Missed watching rugby at the park, but got to participate in activities at the clinic. My old, out of shape, body wasn't expecting tackling activities, but except for a little soreness, I held up pretty well.

The course was outstanding, as was the instructor, Peter Baggetta. The course was the Introducing Rugby course, from USA Rugby. There was a rather involved online component before the class, and that was my only complaint. Not that we had to do it, but the quality of it. I understand why they have the online portion, for prep and to reduce the in-class time, but if you're going to do something, do it right. The online portion needs to be revamped.

The Introducing Rugby course is geared towards coaching players who are new to the game (hence the name), and the course was primarily a "how to coach" course. The philosophy of coaching is vastly different than what those of us in the class were used to. We grew up in the model of teaching a skill and performing endless drills until we got it right. With lot's of talking by the coach. This is the "how" to do something and the execution of it.

The new philosophy makes lots of sense when you think about it, and when you see it and put it into practice. The idea is to first focus on the "why" and "when" to do something, or the recognition of a situation, to then assess the situation, learn how to make a decision regarding the situation, and then executing some action. On the rugby field the player needs to first recognize what's happening, how play is unfolding. Then they need to assess the situation; what are the options available, who is in a position to exploit those options? They have to then make a decision on what action to take. The last step is to actually execute the action.

In traditional coaching, the last step, the execution, is the focus. A player can play the game for years, learning to execute flawlessly, but still not be able to recognize the situation and make a valuable assessment of it. With the new philosophy, new players are introduced to the game by participating in semi-structured activities, and being allowed to play and have fun, rather than being drilled into a bored stupor.

I also have to commend USA Rugby for sending us instructors, both Josh for refereeing and Peter for coaching, who are really in touch with the island culture and the obstacles we face out here. They both really spoke to our needs and our situation. Thank you.

And, since USA Rugby always needs money, don't forget to buy your Adopt-A-Rugger and Hug-A-Rugger merchandise, where all proceeds are donated to USA Rugby.