Jake learns IT is mostly only persistence
I had a huge revelation on Wednesday. I’ve been reading a lot about “Train the Trainer” and “Training Within Industry” suggested by my Lean Manufacturing friends and realized I need to stop looking for help outside our studio for the time being. I need to train the people we have about the technology I know enough to know we need, so I can go out (usually to Austin) and learn something new. I have to show them what I know, back off, let them get used to it, figure out the problems, improve my lessons, and then they can teach me.
And hopefully by that time, I’ll have something new to teach them, they’ll be ready to learn something new, and we can start all over again.
Then, and only then, will we be ready for growth. Because if I’ve learned anything over the last 25 years of owning a manufacturing business, finding people who want to get lost in their own thoughts while inking up linoleum blocks, or painting pots, is very easy. The troubles begin when we can’t find people who want to think and solve problems…. when people start to say “That’s not in my job description.”
It’s been nearly two years since I had a melt down at the studio and finally insisted that everyone left learn how to use a computer. Needless to say, it was not pretty.
I could not stand the thought of training another office worker who we could not afford to only do office work. And I was not going to be their secretary. Having to go down to the studio to file, or enter data, or take pictures and upload them to Flickr or Photobucket, keep up with various software and hardware upgrades, on top of learning about brand new ways of marketing with social media, kept me from keeping an eye on our future, so we’ll know which direction to head next.
The other day, I gave John and our other 3 employees a different book each that will make each one of them more educated about a certain aspect of the business.
John’s book is about getting more values out of tradeshows.
Tony’s will improve his production manager skills.
Monica’s assignment is to learn how to use the powerful Customer Relations Management (CEM) tools in Quickbooks, so we can run better marketing campaigns.
And finally, Jake’s book will make him more comfortable being our IT support. He already got a good lesson this week about the frustration of dealing with AT&T tech support when I sat down with him to connect a new modem they sent us. I told Jake he would not learn anything important except a lesson in patience, and persistence. And after two dropped calls, nearly two hours of AT&T telling us to try this, and then try that, I got to say “See! You can do this.”
I’m thinking that each week, we’ll all take an hour to read a section of our books, and then take another hour to discuss our favorite parts. Hopefully this will be fun, make out team stronger, and keep me more focused.
Another member of our team is someone who I hope to meet face-to-face someday, but her living in South Dakota will probably prevent. Alyice is our social media manager. After discovering her through a Google search almost a year ago, we finally came up with just the right mix of her talent within the budget we have to work with. And Alyice contacts John and Monica directly, so I don’t have to be the go between anymore! She takes care of getting what she needs from them to create blogs, newsletters, fresh photos for Flickr, weekly Pinterest photos, Facebook status updates (which then feed automatically into our Twitter).Actually, she keeps herself updated about the constantly changing field of social media to feed all of the above into our Facebook Timeline. Sweet, huh?
Hey…. I think we might make it through to the other side of this financial meltdown after all. Feeling hopeful is key to winning anything.
