PM-Mastery

Discussing Processes from a PM Perspective on the Everyday Business Problems Podcast

• Walt Sparling • Season 1 • Episode 56

Share episode

Send us a text

In this episode of the Everyday Business Problems podcast, I joined Dave Crysler to share my insights on process improvement and efficiency from the perspective of a project manager.

The conversation covers the integration of project management in both internal and external process improvements, navigating roadblocks in large organizations, and the importance of effective communication. We also discussed my approach to prioritizing opportunities and achieving quick wins to build momentum for continuous improvement.

Links:

PMI Talent Triangle: Technical /Ways of Working (Learn More)

Get your free PDU Tracker here: https://pm-mastery.com/resource/

Dave Crysler:

Hello and welcome to the Everyday Business Problems podcast. I'm your host, Dave Crysler. Each episode we talk to business leaders and subject matter experts to learn about the challenges they've overcome and the challenges they still face. You'll hear fresh insights, real talk and get inspiration to grow your business. Hey, everybody so excited to be welcoming Walt Sparling to the podcast. Today. Walt is with Pia Mastery, which is a tremendous resource center for project management professionals. That includes a blog, podcast and a mastermind group as well. Walt is a project management professional and promoter of project managers and their career.

Dave Crysler:

Walt, thanks so much for coming on the Everyday Business Problems podcast. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, I'm excited to get into this conversation with you, talking all about process improvement and efficiency. Kind of you know, from your perspective as a project manager, how that you know comes into play and how you are able to not only identify you know areas for opportunity, but kind of what your process is like in and around getting people on board with this, presenting those changes to leadership, and kind of you know the project management professional viewpoint on all of that. So I know you do quite a bit of work in the construction and real estate spaces, which obviously has some you know kind of specifics and caveats. So I'd love to just get a brief overview of you know kind of your perspective and how project management fits into the role of process improvement.

Walt Sparling:

All right. So yes, I work for a large real estate company. Actually, I have my work shirt on. At the moment we deal with we're a professional project management firm in all aspects of real estate leasing, purchasing, managing, et cetera and what my role is with the PDS group project development services we manage projects and we have different. We have markets group that just manages, for anyone can call them up and hire them, or some are dedicated accounts. So I am on a dedicated account. I have a team in Florida and we handle all of the sites for our client in the Florida region and that could be anywhere from adding a card reader to a facility to do an interior renovation or even ground up buildings. So it's a lot of work, it's a lot of territory and anytime we can do something that's going to save us time and energy and frustration is where the you know process improvements and efficiencies come in yeah, I love that and I would imagine that you guys are, are you know it's really twofold right.

Dave Crysler:

You're looking at probably internal process improvement opportunities as well as external things that are client facing, things that you guys identify from your experience in having to deal with the project management aspect.

Walt Sparling:

You're exactly right, and that's the problem. So our company is huge, they're international, we have, I think, right around 98,000 employees, so it's a decent size. And then our client is also a large company and they have like 50,000 employees. So it's a decent size. And then our client is also a large company and, you know, they have like 50,000 employees. So everyone, or each side, has their own processes in place and we have to figure out. You know, some of them are required. It's like we're not going to, we're not going to budge on this, you have to do this. And then our company is like well, we're not going to budge on this, you have to do that. So we got to double up on our tasks and process and it's like okay, how do we make this easier?

Dave Crysler:

Yeah, I love that. How do you guys navigate some of those kind of roadblocks that are inherent in two kind of Goliath companies coming together to ultimately do work together right? But how do you guys navigate some of that give and take when it comes to specific to process Very carefully?

Walt Sparling:

We have it's so many tiers. So we have our company, like I said, is a large company. They're project management focused and they have processes that are at the corporate level. They have a corporate PMO and they go okay, these are the things that we require of our project managers. Then we have a local we actually called a COE, used to be a PMO, but center of excellence for our account and they try to bridge the gap between corporate requirements and account requirements to at least get us meeting.

Walt Sparling:

You know what are the ones corporate that we could really really don't have to do, or if we did them, they can be done a little bit different, because we're going to die on all these processes. And then they do the same thing. They interface with our client. You go okay, we know you have a lot of processes as well, but which ones are you willing to compromise or, uh, maybe drop? And that's a big battle we have all the time with. How do we not do things twice? Yeah, it makes sense.

Walt Sparling:

Before I came here, I was an IT consultant for a while, so I've done some programming, I've done some document management, I've helped firms set up their systems and out of that I learned a lot. I learned what people like to do and what people don't like to do and what kind of things save them time. So as I've gone to each company I've worked at, I've always settled in for a little bit, listened, watched and then said you guys, there are some things you could do that would make this process go faster, or we could automate it, streamline it. Are you open to that? And usually they're like yeah, we don't know. This is just how we've always done it.

Dave Crysler:

That's the way we've always done it.

Walt Sparling:

It's like, okay, well, I got some ideas and I would always revamp their IT system and their document management and even in some cases, because of my background design processes, I used to do a lot of AutoCAD customization for people in the world that use AutoCAD. I actually had a blog on that where I would write custom scripts and then show people how to create certain tools. So that's always been kind of my side thing, what some people refer to as like my little superpower outside of my normal job, and so I'm always interested in learning things about that and sharing what I know when people ask.

Dave Crysler:

Yeah, I love that. I mean, I think anybody that's kind of in and around process improvement and whether it's their superpower or they're just interested, it really has to be driven from kind of that curiosity standpoint and continuing to ask people questions. And you know, why are we doing it this way? Well, it's the way we've always done. We always love that particular line, favorite line. Yeah, how do you find the kind of communication flow ends up happening? Because I feel like that's maybe a sticking point for a lot of people that are, you know, potentially recognizing some opportunities for improvement From your standpoint. You know, what are some of the ways to kind of prompt some good conversations around that? Is it really just about asking you know better questions, or what have you found in your experience?

Walt Sparling:

Well, first off, know your audience because depending who you're talking to, it's going to be a different conversation, you know, for maybe the end user it's going to be how can you get this done faster? Or how can you have to do less steps, which it could be faster, but it could just be less of a hassle. But if you're talking to management, then you got to talk okay, what's ROI and how is this going to benefit us? And when you do this, you're not going to be doing your normal job going to benefit us, and when you do this, you're not going to be doing your normal job. So it's, it's figuring out who you're talking to and then have a game plan. Don't just walk in, oh, I have this idea and they go. No, and I've had.

Walt Sparling:

I was with a large engineering firm and I worked directly for the owner. He was my manager, I was the IT and CAD manager there and I was looking at all their systems. They had like 75 people. I said you guys could really benefit from an intranet. And this was back before. Intranets were cool and some of the big companies had them and I said but it's really not that complicated to set up, we could set up. I was doing web stuff at the time so I started to see some of the value in it. I'm like, yeah, we could create an intranet. And they're like, no, that's for big companies, not interested, Go do your other job.

Dave Crysler:

And I wouldn't let it go.

Walt Sparling:

So I talked to some of the users and users and there was a lot of them and told them some of the things that would be cool if we had an intranet. And they're like, yeah, that would be cool. This is so archaic the way we do things. So I just created like a little mini hidden intranet and shared it with certain people the design group and the CAD guys. So they had standards, they need to look up stuff. They had to go get a binder and look up stuff. Now they just popped up a page and went to it. I go, okay, that's it, and I let that go, you know, kind of undercover, for months. And then they started asking for more. Oh, can we do this, can we do that? And then when I got up to my boss, I thought we talked about this, we don't need this. And I said, well, yeah, but talk to the users. And it was like, wow, this is actually speeding people up, it's getting communication better. Now there's no excuses of didn't know where the binder was or who had it or whatever it's. Everything was right there on the screen. So now their homepage when they started up the computer was the intranet homepage. And then we got.

Walt Sparling:

I got fun with it. I started putting Easter eggs out on the on the site and people would try to find them and then, yay, we got it. So it became a fun thing and everybody got on there because there was value in it in their jobs and that management eventually bought in. But so you got to. I can't say you do that on every time, because sometimes you got to come up with a plan and say, okay, this is why you need an intranet or this is why you need to change this process. And when it's with managers, you've got to tell them this is going to save man hours, it's going to get the product out the door faster, it's going to create less errors, those things they can get behind. The users are like how do I get this done faster or less steps?

Dave Crysler:

So it's a different conversation much more trouble than it's worth to take that approach. But you know it's and I love your example there because you know when people, especially in leadership, can recognize those benefits and whether it's because you've built out the use case or you've got some data to back. You know kind of your, your hypothesis on something. You know it's. It is a different conversation. It's a different conversation that you have to have with that leadership group. Sometimes it's, you know it's a, it's an owner, sometimes it's a you know middle management layer.

Dave Crysler:

But you've got to understand who it is you're chatting with, how to have that conversation. That's great insights to to add into it. So what do you, what would you say? You know, in terms of kind of the, the, the project management role, as we look at rolling some of the process improvements out, how do you feel like, uh, kind of your designation as a, as a PMP, as a project management professional and, in some of the larger organizations, how do you feel that that kind of role fits into the overall course of, you know, process improvement, kind of that development piece from you know, recognizing the things that need to be improved and ultimately rolling out through the implementation, because you know you have your hands in a lot of different aspects, obviously as a project manager. So how do you kind of navigate that and what do you find is your role within that?

Walt Sparling:

Oh, that varies a lot in your organization, your availability of of personal time and and your your how, how driven you are to make changes and and how, how you see that, what that change could do. So when I started where I'm at now, I was. I was hired as a senior project manager and one of the tasks they wanted me to do was help build the kind of the collaboration with the local team, and it's like everyone was working in silos, and so the focus was getting to know them, learning how they worked, how to get them to communicate more. I started having meetings and, of course, I was the new guys. They were like well, you know, what are you doing? Having meetings, that you're just, you're new here. And the boss got behind me and he's like no, I like that, let's go with that. And then they would walk me through their training and I would say, oh, this is painful, you know, there's got to be a better way to do this. So, as I got more comfortable, then I would start asking them questions and they go yeah, I wish this was better, I wish this was easier or faster. Our data's all over the place Say, okay, well, why don't we as a team, just the five or six of us work on something that we can do to benefit us.

Walt Sparling:

And it's not necessarily because there was 30, some project managers in other regions and it's like, well, let's focus on us. Because that group I joined was new to the account and they were kind of the black sheep, so they were just trying to do what they could, even though they didn't like anything. They didn't want to speak up and I was like I don't mind speaking up as long I've been doing this for years on the outside and different organizations. So I just saw a need, started working on it, got local buy-in and then, as the processes started to get better for them, they would share. They would talk to someone in another region and say, oh, you should see how we do it here. It's so much easier and you know it still meets the, you know the laws and the rules, but it's so much easier. And then they go well, can I, can you show me how you're doing it? And then they would go to their manager Can we do something like that here? And over time I got to know the PMO lead. They actually they had, I think, three PMO leads and the second one that came in soon as she got there, right away. Hey, I want to. I want to introduce myself. I know you're new. I want to point out right away some of the struggles that we're having and I'm hoping you know, with your background, that you could, you know, make some changes. What can I do to help? And she's like, okay. So she flew into our region to kind of meet different people and I made sure I had time on her calendar and I gave her some of my ideas and she's like, okay, I like that. And then over time she would reach out and if I was doing something new I'd run it by her.

Walt Sparling:

And then we started this new software rollout and it was a account wide Claire's, and it was a project management software. And they said, well, we want two trainers and we need to pick them from different regions because they like to help people grow and expand. And who would be good? Well, they had one already set. And the PMO person went to them and said, hey, there's this guy in Florida. I think he'd be a good candidate. And they're like well, yeah, we've heard of him, but we don't really know that much about him. How do we, how do we know that he's the good fit. So how do we know that he's the good fit?

Walt Sparling:

So I was always doing these tips and tricks in our meetings and so the PMO person talked to me and said, could you put together like a little mini training, call it Walt's Wisdoms, you know something that you could share, but with the whole account? So I was like, yeah, absolutely. So I put together a bunch of outlook tips and tricks, some data, organization, some one note stuff. I don't even remember all the different things it was. It was like years ago and I put together all these different things for an hour long training at lunchtime and it was a hit. So they went back and they said, yep, he's the guy. So I was the second trainer and I was going to do some of the regions and the other person was going to do the others. We met in Chicago to go through our training. So train the trainer. And on the way there I found out that the other trainer was leaving the organization. So I'm like, well, what are you going to do? And she's like, well, I guess you're the guy.

Dave Crysler:

So I had to do the whole account and then COVID hit.

Walt Sparling:

So I was excited because I was going to get to travel to all these regions and meet all these people I had talked to on calls and stuff and I said, nope, no, you're going to be doing this training from your house and you're going to do it. And I did it over a week, did four sessions with one with each region, and then after that more people got confident and then they would have questions, they would call me and then they started doing all these different initiatives and I was like, ok, we're going to do initiative for this. Oh, make sure you invite Walt. And that's how it started and it's just grown from there.

Dave Crysler:

That's, I mean, what a cool story that is, uh and and cool accolades to yourself as well, just uh, you know it takes. I found really, um, you know, really effective kind of trainers and people that can engage people. Um, you know, there's a lot of people that can present information, but it's really something to be able to convey information in an approachable manner where people retain it and they're interested to be there. Right, that's the other part of it, that you're, you know, have a personality enough to present things where people you know are engaged in what's being presented. I find that's a real talent for people.

Walt Sparling:

I think when I was doing IT that was my one benefit is I was an outside consultant and then eventually an internal trainer and IT guy. But it was like they're like you're, not like most IT guys. I wasn't dry and boring and technical. I tried to be funny, I tried to understand them. I used to do this thing where I would take candy around to people that were having rough days and I'd leave it on their desk. And I remember this one engineer we had Skype. That was back in the Skype days, okay, and you could rename people. So on the on the old Skype list, my name was the candy man. Old Skype list my name was the candy man and it's funny that that was, oh God 15, 16 years ago.

Dave Crysler:

I'm now married to that woman. It's, it's amazing, that's pretty wild.

Dave Crysler:

A story in and of itself. Exactly.

Walt Sparling:

But it's the whole personality. Like you said, some people just they know the facts, but they they're not good at getting them out, and I'm no genius. I've learned over time certain things and sometimes I even got to go to someone else and say how would you present this or can you help me with the graphics or the layout or something? But yeah, presenting it is big. I don't like bullet lists for instructions. I mean, they're great for kind of getting stuff out in PowerPoint, but even then I use animations so you don't get all the list at once. Let's do one point at a time. Yeah, but screenshots big on screenshots.

Walt Sparling:

You can't tell someone, or not everyone. Everyone's different in learning. There's so many learning styles, but what I have found to be the most successful is, if you're going to teach someone something, show them what they're actually going to be working on, the actual thing. A demo's good, but you can't demo every single time unless you've recorded a little mini video, which I've done that as well in some cases. But screenshot with little. This is number one. This is number two. This is number three. It's like oh, I can walk through that and I don't need someone over my shoulder to do it, I can just follow the pictures.

Dave Crysler:

Yeah, no all great information there, would you say. You know, when we think about kind of your experience and kind of varied experience right, which and probably genuine curiosity is part of what you know really interests youy and you know, maybe mentoring and helping some other folks in that space, do you think that in general kind of that process improvement aspect is within people? Do you think it's something that people can kind of learn and take advantage of? And how does that work kind of come together through? You know what you are doing with PM Mastery, so oh, that's good, that's one of my filler words.

Walt Sparling:

So me it's like always been in me. There's always been a part of me and what drives me to do certain things is that internal. And what drives me to do certain things is that internal. This has taken too long, Like when I started out in AutoCAD. We would do steps and I'd pick this, pick that, do that, pick this, do that, and I'd go okay, if I do it more than two or three times, I'm automating it.

Dave Crysler:

So now it's a button.

Walt Sparling:

And it's like it doesn't make sense. Why are you going pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick over and over and over again when I can go pick? So things like that. I started out early in software and then in every place I went. When I got into IT, when I got into project management, when I did design, everything was starting with it and then going this is taking too long, or this is too many steps, or I'm repeating myself and over and over again. So I think that is ingrained in certain personality types. I wouldn't call it OCD but maybe some would.

Walt Sparling:

My wife calls it OCD. For me it's like oh, there was a saying I can't remember what it was, but it was like I'm not OCD, I just asked you to put it back. I can't even say. In fact, the one I heard had a little profanity so I'm not going to repeat it. But OCD people have certain personalities and I think some of them kind of are in that maybe not so much process improvement, but just how things should be, how a room should be laid out or how you know where the trash bags are stored, whatever, just like with data management, certain things should be arranged in a certain format. How are you going to search for stuff? How are you going to find stuff? Can you learn it? Yeah, some of it, I think you can, especially if you're the logical type where you go. I don't understand what you're talking about, but if you explain it to me and I get the why and I see the benefit, I'll get behind it and I'll adapt it and, yeah, moving forward, I'll start asking more questions and following that process so they can learn the benefits in that process. So they can learn the benefits, maybe even learn to be the kind of person that does it.

Walt Sparling:

I kind of think it's more ingrained myself with what I do with PM Mastery. So PM Mastery is focused on project managers taking project managers that are already out there and ones that are thinking about getting, uh, becoming a project manager and say, hey, here's some tips, here's some tricks, here's some other people. Most of the focus is on interviews. Yeah, and I want to give a broad spectrum of what project managers do, and that was my vision I had years ago and it's working out. I'm branching off in a lot of different industries, but it's how can we help you in your industry? The more people I interview, the more people I talk to, the more we can share and it helps them. I like to help people, I like to coach, mentor, stuff like that with individuals, and that's one of the focuses of the group that with individuals and that's one of the focuses of the group.

Dave Crysler:

Did that answer? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely. I'm always just curious. I've always felt like it came natural to me. Obviously, there's things that you kind of learn, you learn how to, I would say, probably tap into it or take advantage of it more internally by you know, that kind of curiosity and obviously learning you know tools and skill sets, frameworks, all of those types of things. But yeah, I was just curious to get your opinion because you know as kind of somebody else who really enjoys, you know, inquiring as to why are we doing it this way?

Walt Sparling:

Yeah, I mean, I can see us sitting around at a bar table with a couple of drinks and going, oh, you're not going to believe what they did. They did this, this and this, and if they just did this it would be so much better.

Dave Crysler:

Yeah, I mean, you know it's like I like I said I could talk about things like that and you know tossing out ideas, and you know I saw something really interesting. I love to get your takeaway on this too. I saw something interesting the other day. It was about problem solving and this person kind of had presented that. You know there's a. The way she had learned how to problem solve was by kind of flipping the question around and asking you know really why questions around? You know, is this really the problem, type of a thing. And it got me thinking about.

Dave Crysler:

You know, I think when we recognize an opportunity for improvement, I think it's kind of natural to just kind of continue to dig into there. I never really thought about it from the problem solving aspect and how to apply it in that sense, but it's really the same thing. I mean, when you kind of break it down and say you know that's really all we're doing is identifying a problem before somebody else says that it's a problem and then introducing you know some different ideas around. You know well, what if we did this or could we do that, you know, type of a thing.

Walt Sparling:

Yeah, when you start talking about problem solving, two things come to mind. One is a big, big picture. One of the compliments I got years and years ago was can can dig into the details, but has the end in mind, you know. So, big picture, and like with a problem, well, what is the goal here? What are we trying to solve? Yeah, then work backwards. Okay, so in order to do that, we got to do what. In order to do that, what are we going to do? And in order to do that, what are we going to do? And like, okay, now we know where to start because we've worked our way back from the end. The other is, I think, of the five whys. So like, why is this a problem? Well, because it's the wrong color. Why is it the wrong color? Well, because they bought the wrong stuff. Why did they buy the wrong stuff? And you work your way down and usually they say within five whys, you can pretty much narrow down the root cause of any issue and then you can figure out how to fix it.

Dave Crysler:

So those are the two things I think about with problem solving, as long as you don't get too hung up on it being five, whys, yeah, wait?

Walt Sparling:

we've only got four.

Dave Crysler:

I don't know, we only got four. We need one more.

Dave Crysler:

We need one more.

Dave Crysler:

I mean, you know it is difficult. It kind of tees up one of my next questions, but it's around this you know it's kind of twofold One what are some of the tools and frameworks that you really you know kind of like to to utilize when you're looking at opportunities and kind of implementation? Takeaway on? You know, I feel like a lot of there's a lot of focus on kind of tools, frameworks and methodologies in less focus on getting stuff done, quick wins that turn into momentum, and I'm not saying, you know, let's just abandon all of the things that are out there, but what I'm saying is it's kind of the you know the textbook definition versus let's get some results so we can build on these things. What's your takeaway on both of those things?

Walt Sparling:

Tools are easier than frameworks Project management. One of the common themes is with project managers is no one graduates high school or is born as a child and says I want to be a project manager. So it's something that they figure out over time. They're good at certain things and they see that, hey, people are coming to me and asking me to help them with these things, and what do you know? It's a project and over time they become project managers and you can do that for years without any kind of formal training or specific frameworks or process maps that you need to do. And then you say, ok, now I want to get certified, I want to show, so you search for something. So me, I went with PMI's PMP program and I waited until I got the experience required to take the test and I took the test. And I took the test and I failed it the first time, took it again, passed it, but that gave me a foundation for actually all those things that I do. That's like an initiating and that's what they call either planning, designing or research, and then there's the execution or build, and then there's the monitoring and controlling and status updates, and then there's the execution or build, and then there's the monitoring and controlling and status updates and then there's the closing. It's like, oh, wow, there is an actual map here that we're following in all projects.

Walt Sparling:

My background is design or building design in systems for buildings and project management. What I do is for building renovations and structures. So I don't work in the software world. Software world, you have specific frameworks for software development. With Agile, you've got Scrum. Scrum is a framework for Agile methodology and then a framework. That's about all I can talk to you about frameworks, unless you want to talk about building frames. So I just I know that there's processes that you go through, I know there's steps and, other than the Agile example, I don't know that. I could give you much more there.

Walt Sparling:

Tools Tools vary greatly by what you're doing. Uh, for me, probably my favorite tools right now, one is for records keeping and sharing is one note. Uh, one for uh records keeping, sharing and automation is Excel and uh presentations, uh, communication, powerpoint and scheduling, outlook, and people use all of those tools differently. I mean I try to maximize Outlook to what its capabilities are, but I can talk about how I use tasks and I've interviewed people how they use tasks Completely different but it works for them. Calendar blocking is huge with me. I block lunch, I block travel to and from a site. I have different colors for different things. I know what's coming up because there's a different color for that. I know that's my meeting or that's someone else's meeting or that's an optional meeting. So maybe OCD there.

Dave Crysler:

But I can look at something real, quickly and efficiently.

Walt Sparling:

Know what does that mean to me? Yeah, so those are the tools I use and of course I do a podcast and I do web work. And of course I do a podcast and I do web work and I help. I still do some IT work on the side and I have tools I use for those. I have certain spyware scanners I have For the web.

Walt Sparling:

I use WordPress and then I use a framework within WordPress for web design. In WordPress, for web design and for my podcast, I use Audacity and then for doing my final leveling, I use Auphonic and you can call it OCD or process related. I have a OneNote that has all of my steps outlined and links to every one of those steps. So when I get done with Audacity, I go into OneNote. I pick on step two Auphonic. Go to Auphonic. I already have my standards built in. I just pick it from a dropdown, upload the file, go, do something else, come back, download it. What's the next step? Well, you've got to name the file a certain way, you've got to upload it to a certain folder. You've got to. You know the processes make things better, but I use different tools for all of that. Onenote is out there, and then all my scheduling and Outlook for events.

Dave Crysler:

Yeah, no, I love that. I mean it's, you know, that to me kind of just highlights and you know, I know this and do the same thing. But to me it really highlights, for people that are listening, that you can apply, you know process in general, process improvement kind of you know those efficiency pieces to literally everything that you're doing. You know scheduling tasks right, how you look at your calendar, the immediate steps within that process to walk you through an entire workflow. You know, and so it's everybody is doing some level of it today.

Dave Crysler:

Whether or not it's documented is always up for discussion and debate, but the reality of it is for everybody that's out there that is executing process. When it's not documented, when there is no reference to your point on the OneNote walking you through those steps, you're literally recreating those things every single time. And while it may not seem like a lot, you know an extra button, click here, an extra, oh, I got to search for this there. You know you start adding up all of that. You know inefficiency for a company the size that you work for and you start multiplying it by all of those people, by all of those days, by all of those touches and it's, you know it's incredible the amount of expense and resource that gets spent for something that you know. If we document, if we look at what the best practice is, if we get people on board with you know asking those and answering those questions of you know why you know there's really a significant amount of resource that could be captured and, you know, ultimately dropped to the bottom line of any sized organization.

Walt Sparling:

One of the sayings I've used I don't know for 20 years is like when I was in IT and I would try to get people to do things a certain way with storage of their documents and I would say, no, this is important. Because let's just say, you get hit by a bus and you're like, oh my God, that's so morbid. I'm like, well, you know, I got to start somewhere. Someone's got to pick up where you left off. If everyone here stores their documents in a different place, we're never going to be able to pick up and move on. Yes, and I would tell them you know? So we're going to mourn for you probably, for you know, a day or two. And then we got to get on with the job. Oh my God, you're terrible.

Walt Sparling:

I use that example to this day and I just saw recently a couple of months ago I was in more than probably six months ago someone wrote a book that said, if you get hit by a bus, and it's all about record keeping and make sure everything is documented and there's some really good stuff in there, but it's documenting everything is just what makes it easier. Training I hate, you know, I'll go through training that is canned training, and I go, okay, well, that covers like 70% of it, but there are some other things that need to be handled and then I'll create. I have my own playbook for my region and they're creating master playbooks for everyone and I'm like I told my teams I will follow their playbook for everything that is well documented and for everything that's missing. Or if it's well documented, I'll remove it from our playbook and refer to theirs, but if it's not covered, it's staying in our playbook, Because I don't want you guys then going, oh, we used to have that, but not anymore, and now you've got to ask for them to do it.

Walt Sparling:

It's like, no, I want people to focus on their primary work and I get my bosses good at telling me you know you're busy and you're struggling and you're stressed, but you think maybe you do that to yourself. I'm like, yeah, I do, I know I do, but my team is a lot less stressed and they're the ones doing, you know the work. So what can I do to help them? What tools can I provide? What processes, what interference can I run? That's what I want to do, and if it stresses me, I don't like it, but if we're successful in the end, it's a win.

Walt Sparling:

Yeah.

Dave Crysler:

It's a win. Well, walt, we're winding down here. Is there any final thoughts that you want to share with people out there? When it comes to process improvement, efficiency of operations, anything that we haven't covered? That concise, you've got to think about what the problem is.

Walt Sparling:

Because I mean, when you start talking about efficiency and all that, if there's no problem, there's no reason to change anything, Everything is working just fine, Because that's how we've always done it. You know there's always something that could be done, but you got to think about it. And how is it going to benefit everybody, not just yourself? And how are you going to get the max for the managers, max return on investment for the time you put into it?

Dave Crysler:

Yeah, no, that's a great perspective. I mean, you can't change just to change. And yes, there are always opportunities that could be identified, but there has to be value in the, in the amount of effort. So great, great perspective, great way to end things for anybody that wants to reach out to you directly. Well, where's the best place for them to find you at?

Walt Sparling:

So LinkedIn is probably the best. That's my professional spot, so it's linkedincom, forward slash I-N and then Walt Sp message through the website. Those are probably the two best ways to get a hold of me and learn more about what I do.

Dave Crysler:

Perfect, I'll make sure to add those into the show notes for people to have quick access. Walt, thanks so much for coming on the Everyday Business Problems podcast.

Walt Sparling:

I appreciate the invite. Thank you, sir. Problems podcast. I appreciate the invite.

Dave Crysler:

Thank you, sir. Thank you so much for listening today. If we brought you any value, please rate, subscribe and share our podcast. Also, be sure to connect with us on social media by searching at the Chrysler Club. Until next week, I'm your host, Dave Chrysler.