Libsyn Directory

Collaboration for Operations Managers: Aligning the Why, How, and When to Strengthen Team Engagement and Results with Michael Neuendorff #69

Release Date: 07/13/2022

Silence Is Not Agreement | Psychological Safety and Manufacturing Team Leadership with Dr. Sunita Sah | Ep. 193

Dr. Sunita Sah asked nurses in a large hospital what stopped them from speaking up about medical errors. They gave her two answers. They were afraid of the repercussions, and they had learned that speaking up changed nothing. Then she asked their managers the same question. The managers did not name fear or effectiveness. They said the nurses were not taking responsibility, and did not have the skill set. Same floor, two completely different stories. That gap is why near misses go unreported in your plant. Sunita is a physician turned organizational psychologist, a professor at Cornell, and...

It Was Due Thursday and It’s Still Sitting There | Manufacturing Accountability | Ep. 192

You walk in Friday morning and the material is still sitting in quarantine. It was supposed to be relabeled and moved out Thursday, and you need that space today because corporate is walking the floor tomorrow. What happens in the next ten seconds decides the whole conversation. Trevor takes one real scenario from a manufacturing leader he was working with and runs it through all three gaps. How you show up, because how people feel determines how much they can engage with you. Whether Thursday was ever an agreement or just a date somebody said out loud. And what a real accountability...

Be Curious Rather Than Furious | Manufacturing Team Leadership and Culture with Karin Lindner | Ep. 191

Karin Lindner has spent fourteen years trying to make manufacturing attractive to the people who work in it, and she says it is still not there. Her new book, Making Manufacturing Sexy, argues that most manufacturing leaders are not leading. They are surviving, stuck in a system that rewards firefighting. Karin and Trevor both worked at Magna. In this conversation they get into what actually changes a plant, and it is not the equipment. Karin shares the coaching tagline she uses with every client, be curious rather than furious, and the story of a general manager who described himself as...

You Cannot Recruit Your Way Out of This │ Manufacturing Recruiting │ Ep. 190

What if the reason nobody applies has nothing to do with what you pay? In new research across the United States and Canada, concerns about physical safety ranked as the number one barrier to even considering a job in manufacturing. Pay came in fourth. Trevor assumed that was a perception problem, an old black-and-white picture nobody had bothered to correct. So he went looking for proof, and could not find any. The people closest to the industry name safety right alongside everybody else. What he found instead was a gap inside the plant. Employees named physical safety at forty percent....

Why Nobody Pulls the Cord with Dr. Michael Gillespie │ Leadership Decision Making │ Ep. 189

When was the last time somebody stopped your line and you thanked them for it? Toyota built the andon cord into the line decades ago and most plants still treat pulling it as a failure. Dr. Michael Gillespie, organizational psychologist at the University of South Florida and co-author of Distancing with David Marquet, studies why the person closest to a problem is often the least able to see it. Being locked inside your own point of view is the default setting, not an occasional lapse, which is how five people can walk up to one stopped line and each honestly see a different problem. Nobody is...

Nobody Inspects the Culture │ Safety Culture │ Ep. 188

You inspect for hazards every single day. When did anybody last inspect the culture? In new research across the United States and Canada, a toxic or unhealthy work culture ranked above unsafe or hazardous working conditions as a reason people would leave a new manufacturing job inside the first three months. Forty-seven percent against forty-three. Most leaders hear that and file it under the soft stuff. Trevor takes a different position. Four points apart is not two problems, it is one. Culture is a safety system. A plant where people do not speak up is a plant where near misses go...

Your Best Worker Is Already Halfway Out the Door with Darcy Eikenberg │ Employee Retention │ Ep. 187

Your best people rarely quit in a dramatic moment. They leave a little at a time, and by the time they give notice the decision was made weeks ago. Gallup ties about 75% of voluntary turnover to the manager, and our own national research found that 35% of workers open to manufacturing have never had a single one-on-one development conversation with their manager. You can't keep people you never really talk to. Darcy Eikenberg, executive coach and author of Red Cape Rescue: Save Your Career Without Leaving Your Job, joins Trevor to turn the retention problem around: instead of replacing the...

Why Your Best Technician Fails as a Supervisor | New Leader Onboarding | Ep. 186

Why do six in ten of your people feel unheard at work? Trevor goes one level up from the first-week mentor: the new leader nobody onboards. He unpacks why a badge and a shift turn your best technician into a command-and-control boss, what the study of 1,250 manufacturing workers with Crossover Solutions and The Center for Generational Kinetics says people actually want from a leader, and what to build into a new supervisor's first 30 days so the concerns keep coming. 🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement → and get bonus content in our...

Why Your Plant Manager Can't Solve Complex Problems | Time Management for Manufacturing Leaders | Ep. 185

What if the only machine in your plant with no maintenance plan is you? Trevor sits down with productivity expert Marcey Rader, author of Reclaim Your Workday, to bring health-powered productivity to the shop floor: the red headphones rule that protects deep focus without an office door, why burnout comes from lack of recharge rather than workload, the burn-it-down audit nobody runs on the supervisor's role, and the rule of three that separates relentless prioritization from endless optimization in manufacturing team leadership. Connect with Marcey: Website 👉 helloraderco.com Book 👉...

The Week-One Blind Spot Costing You New Hires | New Hire Onboarding | Ep. 184

What if your newest hire decides whether to stay in their very first week? Trevor opens a new solo series built on a national study of 1,250 manufacturing workers, run with Crossover Solutions and The Center for Generational Kinetics. The frontline wants a first-week mentor far more than the leaders who sign off on one, and that blind spot is feeding turnover. He names the Expectation Gap and shares the near-zero-cost move in manufacturing team leadership that closes it before your next hire walks in the door. 🎁 Free: 10 great questions to ask your leadership and drive engagement...

More Episodes

Welcome to Manufacturing Greatness with Trevor Blondeel, where we work with organizations to manufacture greatness by leveraging resources you already have to achieve greater retention, productivity, and profits. To learn more, visit www.manufacturinggreatness.com and click here to subscribe to Trevor’s monthly newsletter.

Now, let’s jump in!

With artificial intelligence and new technology reshaping manufacturing, leaders are being pushed to think differently — and that’s where this conversation comes in.

In this episode, I’m joined by San Francisco–based executive coach Michael Neuendorff, president of Bay Area Executive Coach, to explore how manufacturing leaders can strengthen collaboration, shift their mindset, and ask better questions to unlock creative, actionable solutions.

We talk practical ways Operations Managers, Production Managers, Manufacturing Managers, and Shift Supervisors can learn from other industries, improve communication, and lead with curiosity as change

00:30 – “Seek to understand, then to be understood.” – Stephen Covey

2:48 – To stay curious in the workplace, adopt a “student’s mind”

3:09 – Even if it’s your tenth or twentieth year on the job, there is still something you can learn today

3:27 – As long as you stay curious, you can learn from anyone—even someone who you previously thought you couldn’t learn anything from

4:29 – Due to the rise of AI and other emerging technology, manufacturing could be in for some big and unique changes, and we need to prepare for that

5:40 – If you don’t know what didn’t work in the past, it’s harder to prepare for the future

5:45 – Work with people to find solutions, instead of just telling them what to do

6:13 – If someone is consistently told what to do, they can click off the part of their brain that focuses on understanding and problem-solving

6:58 – By staying curious, we can better work with others to find creative, productive outcomes

7:21 – Ask how you can invest in others

9:23 – If people feel like you believe in them, they’re more likely to rise to the occasion

10:18 – To ask questions that foster creativity and collaboration, consider your audience – are you talking to your peers at a leadership level, or someone a few levels below you?

11:14 – Be open to new and different perspectives

12:59 – Look back at your last 30 days. How have you tackled problems? What can you do differently in the next 30 days?

13:56 – When talking to others or setting meetings, consider the time of day. For example, some people may be at their best in the mornings when they’re feeling fresh and energized

20:55 – Believe in the power of collective idea generation

21:53 – By building stronger relationships, you can build more trust and engagement levels will increase

Connect with Michael Neuendorff:

Website for executive coaching

Website for executive coach training

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