Rule #1 Have Friends

I must admit, I have rewritten this first entry for my “Rules” series about 10 to 15 times.?I started with my normal approach to crafting a document: 1. Define the problem statement. 2. Define your hypothesis/opinion. 3. Provide data and use cases to justify that opinion.?However, this format failed to convey how powerful and profound these two words “Have Friends” have been to my career in addition to the experiences and mentors that helped me truly understand them.?Instead, I am going to start off with a story of how I met the influence behind this rule, @Marcus Minkler, and our tumultuous first interaction.

Part 1: The Teacher

It was early on in my career, and I was a few weeks into a new role as a front-line manager at a newly launched warehouse. My team and I had just finished our shift and were feeling very good about our performance (putting up strong numbers against our targets). What we didn’t know is that in an instant, this feeling would be shattered.

We walked up the stairs and were shocked to see an endless sea of yellow containers haphazardly scattered across the floor, thousands of items strewn around the area, and employees frantically searching these containers. Even more disconcerting was seeing the entire building’s leadership team, most of whom we had never met, standing there in disbelief as to how I had caused this debacle. One of those senior leaders was Marc, who lifted his head and said, “I'm so mad at you I can’t even look at you right now.”

After a few, very long, minutes, Marc introduced himself as a Senior Operations Manager. He started asking me questions about the previous night’s shift and how I had allowed the process to get so wildly out of control. “Weren’t you monitoring the status page?” he asked almost incredulously. To which I responded, “What status page?” not knowing that there had been a dashboard created to eliminate this specific incident. The blank expression on my face told him all he needed to know. You could see a wave of relief pass over him as he realized he could now transition into his preferred leadership style, the Teacher.

Marc walked me to his office. We sat down without a word, he turned his laptop on, cranked up the speakers, hit play, and left me alone as a song began.?As a bit of a Metal-Head, I knew the song instantly “Whiplash” by Metallica. The song played in its entirety before Marc came back in.

He then took the time to explain to me what happened. “Operations is all about flow,” Marc said. Flow is the concept of controlling an operation effectively, balancing each process in the chain with appropriate material and labor to maintain optimal output and matching capacity to demand. What I had done was allowed the system to get so far out of flow that in my effort to get back into balance, I “whiplashed” and gridlocked the entire operation. I could tell this scenario to a hundred operations leaders and almost all will relate with a similar experience.

What had a profound impact on me was Marc’s approach. In the middle of all the chaos, Marc knew his job as a leader was to ensure that I learned from this mistake, and he used the song as a tool to help me to remember the lesson. This was the foundation for our working relationship and later friendship. Eerily, every holiday season, I hear “Whiplash” on the radio, and it is my internal reminder of the power of good flow.?

Part 2: The Rule

With that introduction out of the way, let’s move on to the practical matter of defining Rule 1, and why it is important. Over time I began to realize that Marc’s true insight was that “operations is hard” and that a strong support network is critical to success in this field.

Operations is defined by individuals that are resilient, optimistic, and very willing to help each other. Rather than having me ask for permission, or resources every time I had an idea, Marc pointed me to our company phone directory and challenged me to keep asking for help until I found the right person to support me. At first, I was skeptical that anyone would be willing to drop what they were doing to help a front-line warehouse manager.?To my surprise, this is exactly what happened. After framing up the problem statements for a few areas I wanted to work on and then emailing and messaging a handful of individuals, I was pointed to one team, and then to another until I finally found the owners for the areas that I was interested in.

What I quickly realized, was that these interactions were a two-way exchange as these individuals also needed contacts to help progress their own initiatives, and because we had a relationship, I became their default. This opened me up to not only being able to develop and work on my own projects, but support areas that I hadn’t previously known existed.

Part 3: Closing Thoughts

This is why “Have Friends” is so powerful, and also requires a commitment from you. Operations and Business in general is a very small world. I am no longer surprised when I run into familiar faces in almost every meeting regardless of topic or company. Subscribing to this rule means that you prioritize your time to maintain relationships, take them beyond simple transactions and make yourself available for the needs of others. As I have progressed in my career and flexibility has become more limited, I leverage mechanisms such as calendar reminders, birthdays, work anniversaries, and just casual text messaging to maintain these networks.

It is important to note two other factors to this rule.?The first is that actively seeking and being sought after for support are two components of a flywheel that will give you exposure to so much more than your current role.?

The second is that there is an unspoken component in how you manage relationships and, more pointedly, how you should never burn a bridge. Again, I can't express enough how small the business world is, and how likely it is that you will be working with many of your current peers five to ten years from now.

I hope that learning more about one of the leaders that inspired and the origin of Rule 1 “Have Friends” has given you valuable insight into the beginnings of my leadership philosophy. If you have specific questions on this, please send them my way. I hope you enjoyed reading this first installment and that it gets you excited about Rule #2: “Goodnight, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.” -Dread Pirate Roberts,(Princess Bride, 1987)