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[Music]
today’s episode is proudly sponsored by the rising tide Mastermind each and every year the rising tide Mastermind
gets together in Atlanta for a live event this is one of the most
anticipated events within the rising tide Mastermind normally we have a zoom
call each and every week but this is where we all come together and we become
better friends we learn more about each other and we help each other with their
issues it is my favorite thing and I’m sure it is going to be your favorite thing to look forward to if you were a
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if the rising tide Mastermind is right for you and you are right for the rising tide Mastermind go to scaling up h2o.com
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[Music]
more welcome to the scaling up H2O podcast my name is Trace Blackmore the
host of this awesome industrial water treatment podcast in nation happy end of
March it’s hard to believe that we are entering into quarter
that is how our world is set up with all of these wonderful devices that we have
it makes it very easy for people to get a hold of us and because of that the
expectation is that we drop what we’re doing and we solve whatever that issue
is My Hope by listening to the end of year episodes of this podcast the
beginning of the year episodes in this podcast that you’re thinking differently
you are thinking about how do you mitigate all of those calls all of those
texts all of those emails what can you do proactively so you’re not putting out
fires how do you anticipate potential fires and Nation when you do that that’s
where real time comes back maybe I can do something a little bit extra on this
account maybe I’m going to be here next month and there is a 4 week supply of
product on this account what happens if I miss a week what happens if I get sick well now it becomes an emergency so
maybe I need to make sure there’s two months worth or whatever that number needs to be so now I’ve onsite I’ve
built in some buffer if there is an issue and if I start thinking about that
and things around that how do I prevent potential issues that may never happen
Happ but if they did I built a buffer in there maybe a customer is almost out of
reagent and they can last until your next visit well again what happens if
you can’t make it when you planned what happens if that customer is not there and you can’t talk with them or you
can’t get the purchase order or whatever it is anticipate what you’re going to need earlier and then you won’t have
those issues without having to put out fires now now you have time to work on
things that are of value to you that are important to you that are going to
change your life for the things that you want to accomplish so all this being
said I hope that you are planning I hope that you have figured out what you want
to do this year and each and every quarter you’re figuring out what are the 90day goals that you’re going to do each
quarter and holding yourself accountable for that if you have not read the
12-week year of course that is my favorite book to talk about planning it talks about how to plan but also how to
execute and how to replan just in case your plans did not
work out the way that they needed to we have an affiliate link that you can go to scaling up h2o.com
sl12 the number 12 week year and you can get a copy of that it’s on Audible but I
have to tell you I really think this is a book that you need to own a copy of because there’s a lot of tables a lot of
charts in there that just help and there are a lot of things online that you can
use from the 12we year website that help you with planning with Goal
determination what happens when you get off of your plan all that they’ve got worksheets for highly recommend that
it’s a great system to work on but the reason I’m talking about this today is because we are ending quarter 1 the end
of March represents the end of quarter 1 so we should be at the first 90day goal
marker of whatever our yearly goals were now for many of you you probably are
checking the Box each and every week and by the way that’s what 12we year teaches us that each and every week we should
have tactics in order to complete those 90day goals and then those 90-day goals
are going to roll up into what our year yearly goals are so if you have not kept
up with that it’s the end of March it’s the end of q1 do what I ask everybody to
do at the end of the year evaluate the last quarter last year I asked you to
evaluate the entire year but at the end of each quarter evaluate what is life
trying to teach you what have you learned how do you make the next quarter better with those lessons and what a
great time to do that at the the end of each and every quarter Nation I love
giving you tips like this I love it when people tell me they’re using them and they’re making a difference in their
life and one of the ways that people tell me is they sign up for the Hang
we’ve got a hang coming up in just a few weeks that’s April 11th you can go to
scaling up h2o.com hang that’s h n and you can sign up
we’re going to start at 6:00 p.m. eastern time we will end at 700 p.m. eastern time a very quick video
conference call where you will meet new people you will learn about some things that are going on in the industry and
then you just get to network and so many people have met other people on these
hangs and they’ve been solving problems they’ve been finding experts for equipment that maybe they didn’t know
they had a problem yet and then they knew somebody from a hang where they were able to call and get their
questions answered their equipment fixed and their customer happy this happens
all the time on the hangs and it’s a great way to meet and talk with people
that are in the industry that you are in can you even think of a better group of people than people that are in the best
industry in the world and they understand what you’re going through each and every day so once again that is
the hang on April 11th eastern time 6:00 p.m. through 7 p.m. I can’t wait to see
you there and so many times on the hang people will tell me that they’re doing
planning like this they’re really enjoying reading the 12we year or using
the tactics out of the 12we year so I personally love the Hang because I get personal feedback about this podcast on
that and I see all the benefits that people get so I hope to see see you on the hang you might also want to put on
your calendar Texas water week 2024 that’s going to be April 9th through
12th in Fort work Texas Texas water is the joint annual conference of the water
environment Association of Texas and the Texas section American Waterworks
Association so this is the 28th year that they’ve been holding this conference and it’s all around
Wastewater and all things water industry and including water quality Engineers
treatment plant technicians scientists government officials regulatory agency Personnel
manufacturers universities and all other types of water related folks Nation if
you want to learn more about this conference go to our events page and
we’ll have all that listed there maybe you’re going to be in Bali Indonesia May
18th through 24th well that’s the 10th world World water forum and we’ll have all of that information for the 10th
World water Forum on our events page and also the inventions in treatment
Technologies 2024 is taking place May 21st through 24th at Virginia Beach
Virginia in the convention center there this conference is all about Innovations in treatment Technologies designed to
serve as a Cutting Edge showcase for an introduction and discussion of
innovation of new practices for water resources and Recovery facilities so if
this is the type of water treatment you practice you might want to check that out and then finally for our friends in
the Netherlands June 9th through 14th the International Conference of urban
drainage is taking place in the Netherlands and we’ll have all of that
information for you where else but on our events page Nation I do want to
mention the events page because so many people are saying that they had no idea
that a particular event was going to be in their home City but they went to the
events page they found out that hey I don’t have to go to a hotel I don’t have to travel and I can get a one-day pass
and I can go to this event so by all means go to scaling up h2o.com navigate
over to our events page and you will see all things industrial water treatment
and one of the things I want to ask of of you if you know of a particular conference that’s not on there related
to the water treatment industry let us know that and we will get that on there
we’re trying to make that the One-Stop place for you to go to stay in the know all things industrial water treatment
well Nation as you know one of my friends Charlie chetti introduced me to
podcasting or at least listening to podcasting back in 2014 13 somewhere around there and then
he was the driving force to get me to do my own podcast he’s been on our podcast
several times but Charlie’s a great friend we are in several groups together
and Charlie loves to introduce people to people he thinks you should know and he
did that with our next guest and I’m sure glad he did I know you’re going to
enjoy this interview my lab partner today is Dr
Andrew tempy author podcaster and Management Consultant welcome Andy
thanks for having me on the show trace well is only fair play because you had
me on your show and how much fun was that it was uh loads and loads of fun I
don’t normally get folks from the water treatment uh industry on my show I come
from an education background so it was great to introduce you to our listeners uh and let them see a different side in
a different industry it was a lot of fun for me as well and just seeing another
podcaster process is always helpful for me and my team and and you guys were
topnotch and the end result was I thought great yeah it was great so since
we’re talking about the podcast why don’t you tell the scaling up Nation a little bit about your podcast so my show
is The Balancing Act podcast and I I invite industry leaders and Business
Leaders to talk about the balancing acts that they play in their both personal
and but mainly in their professional lives uh we focus on The Balancing Act
between organizational trust and accountability uh in that show uh and that’s the theme really of my two books
uh first book Is Balancing Act and the second book is the balanced business so that’s my my whole shtick if you will
that you know we live in this highly highly polarized world but most
decisions uh most business processes and business success rely long-term business
success relies upon collaboration and uh and the diversity of of thought and
opinion in an organization so I like to trying to bring Business Leaders kind of
back toward Center here a little bit one of your famous questions that I think you ask all your guests is what was your
rocket booster yeah how did you come up with that and what are some of the
greatest answers you’ve gotten from those questions yeah I really like asking the you know what was the main
accelerant uh to your career and what I’m in that question what I’m trying to
tease out uh from folks is where did you get your inspiration and it almost
always leads back to some kind of positive or negative mentorship and
coaching uh relationship it’s either this person told me that I couldn’t and
so therefore I did uh and it changed my trajectory uh
that that’s a very common answer or gosh I met this individual and they just lit
a spark in me that I had no idea was there they saw something in me that I
didn’t know existed and I started feeding off of that energy and uh all of
a sudden here I am kind of an answer so my assumption is anybody can find your
podcast anywhere podcasts are found absolutely you know we’re on Apple we’re
on Google we’re on everywhere yeah and that’s an ordeal I
don’t know if the listeners know this but you got to figure out okay what services are going to send to other services because there’s so many
services out there you don’t want to not serve somebody yeah I I I’ve met a lot
of people in the podcast service industry and beautiful man uh Billy SBE
owns a company called pody uh so if any of your listeners are out there and they want to start their own show but don’t
you know don’t have the wherewithal or don’t know where to start there are reputable companies out there in a see
of not so reputable uh companies that are trying to get your business in the
podcast space uh so you can do it and I encourage everybody to you know try to
find their voice and podcasting isn’t for everybody but uh it is uh it is an
accessible medium for people to get their message out and I think I read
recently there’s like 3.8 million podcasts out there yeah and our and our
little show um ranks uh in the top 15 in the management subcategory on Apple
podcasts consistently with about 2,200 listeners a week which you know is
is good but it’s not a lot but uh you know so there are lots and lots and lots
of podcasts that don’t get a lot of listenership so if you think you’re going to enter the podcast game and all
a sudden have a gigantic audience a little planning and foresight uh on the front end will help with that
to put that in comparison a friend of mine John Lee Dumis he does entrepreneurs on fire I was talking with
him at a conference and he was I think one of the first podcasters he has millions of downloads and at the time I
had very few and uh I want to say it was a couple hundred and at that time he
said imagine if a couple hundred people just came to hear you speak that’s a
pretty big crowd and that really changed my point of view of how I looked at that yeah yeah yeah you know again you got to
think really carefully about who your target audience is who who is it that you’re trying to reach stay away from
those uh dopamine hits of oh I you know I’ve got people listening are they the
right people who are listening because a small audience of the quote unquote
right listeners who are going to respond to your message and help grow your business is a lot more important than
thousands and thousands of listeners who aren’t really listening but just kind of
driving along well in addition to being a world famous podcaster you’re also an
author and thank you you sent me an autograph copy of your new book the balance business that actually went on
vacation with me over the holiday break so I read that in the Caribbean I was
thinking of all the things that you put into that book as we were on a cruise and what a well written book and I can’t
wait to unpack that in today’s show thank you trace one of the things I I thought I would start out with do you
mind telling the scaling up Nation a bit about you and some things that you’ve done throughout your career yeah so I’m
a high school dropout I like to lead with that because of its shock value I hold a PhD from the University of Iowa
so I like to try to jog uh people’s preconceptions of uh what high school
dropouts are and what they can do with their lives there is a path out of being
a high school dropout and I’m here as as evidence of that so I hold a PhD in
finance from the University of Iowa my purpose is to teach coach mentor and
Inspire I was fortunate uh very fortunate to be connected with a mentor
early in my career a guy named Carl suer who was the head of the finance department at the University of Iowa he
and I connected almost immediately on our first meeting and we went on to uh start a business
called the swaser study program for the CFA exams the chartered financial analyst exams we built that business
throughout the 1990s I left the University of Iowa with a PhD in hand
but didn’t to go into teaching because we we had this uh
wonderful growth business that was allowing me to do some of the most impactful teaching that I could ever do
uh anywhere in my career and also build a business we’re AC acquired by a Kaplan
the global education company in 1999 and I spent 22 years there leading various
parts of the Kaplan business I have one foot in higher education I was the
president of the College of Business and Technology at what used to be called Kaplan University which is now Purdue
Global I was the interim president of a small College out in New Hampshire and
I’ve spent most of my career firm embedded in the world of professional education lur designations
certifications well thank you for that and not bad for a high school dropout e yeah I love that you start with that uh
and I do want to mention because friend of of this show is Charlie chetti I know that’s how you and I got introduced uh
that’s how I learned what a podcast was Charlie told me hey do you listen to podcast and he got my first podcast
player downloaded for me yeah super super guy I want to say he was on this
show episode four so he was he gave me the idea and he was really really early on so great guy it’s all about
relationships it’s all about people helping each other so I’m curious why did you decide to Write the balanced
business well you know I’ve learned so much over my 35 almost 40 year uh career
I left Kaplan in early 2022 my run there was was uh very
successful I felt every day like I was adding value uh but it was time to start
packaging up what’s in between my two ears and getting it out into other
people’s hands far too many leaders leave the business world and take all of
their accumulated knowledge with them and maybe it gets disseminated to a
small group of of folks maybe they do a little teaching and coaching on the side
uh I wanted to do something uh much bigger than that I wanted to reach much
larger potential audiences uh with my message so you know late 50s at the time
now just turned 60 uh back in September it is time for it is the right time in
for in my life to package up everything that I have to say in a coherent fashion and pass it on to
current and future Generations I love that you have that mindset that we have
uh the duty to pass on the knowledge that we’ve created what was the thing in
Star Trek the Mind M it’s too bad we don’t have those but the books are the next best thing and again a very well
written book there was a question that I wanted to start off with we’ve had several people on from the
entrepreneurial operating system and EOS and how to run meetings and and get
started with some of the tools that you need I’m kind of curious how does your book line up with the entrepreneurial
operating system yeah so if I had to really pinned down the target market for my work it is
large small businesses to small large businesses so kind of anything between
50 million uh and a couple of billion in annual turnover is about the size of the
business that I’m targeting and EOS uh you know before the show the other two
traction and the scaling book you know they they are designed for the
entrepreneurial cycle that period of rapid growth where you’re just go go go
the sky is the limit where I start is when growth starts to slow down where
entropy has started to set in in the company entropy the the part of the
second law of th thermody the laws of thermodynamics that everything is going
to fall apart eventually well that happens in your business you install
processes that uh calcify and it becomes the way it’s always been done and
everybody kind of looks around at each other trust starts to erode because
you’re not quite sure who those new people are who are running those departments that you no longer know
everything about because when everybody’s all together in a 25 50 person team everybody knows everybody
else everybody can jump in and help out here and there what do you do when you
need some real uh formal structure to the business
especially when trust and accountability become more rare uh than they are common
in your business that’s where my work fits in well let’s jump off from
something you just mentioned because I think all of those things stem from Team culture and without a good team culture
well you don’t have a good team how do you determine how your culture is
throughout your entire company and various teams well I like to tell leaders to go to the
gima and the gima is a term from the world of continuous Improvement and it
simply it’s a Japanese term and it simply means where the work happens uh go so
you want to too many leaders sit in their office they app Pine on this or
that but they don’t go to the gima they don’t go to the where the work actually
happens some people like to call it the coal face of the of the business H so
who knows the most about your customer not you the chief executive the people
that know the most about your customer are your FR Frontline employees the people are interacting directly uh with
each of your clients so hearing from them directly about how they’re doing
and how team are interacting with one another and just setting your phone down
and listening to what is being said uh don’t walk in with any preconceived
notions a gima walk is a leader small
set of leaders setting their egos aside going to where the work happens opening
their minds and their ears and listening to what’s going on that is first and
foremost where I would start and then I would corroborate that with uh what are
the informal communication modalities and mechanisms
that are happening within the company where does the average person get their information is it from the water cooler
is it from rumor and IND inuendo or is it primarily through the
channels that you as the leadership team set up and if the water cooler is
driving communication in the company that is a huge red flag that is sticking
up that you got to get get a handle on so once you determine that you’ve got a
good culture or maybe there’s some things you need to fix within that
culture where do you start with that you know a lot of Band-Aid programs are are
out there and as a former Chief Executive I was sold in quotes on a
number of systems and programs that somebody from the outside could come in
and quote unquote install into my existing management operating system
that were supposed to fix in quotes the the cultural challenges that we were
facing and it was only after a few failed attempts at bringing in outside
Consultants Etc to uh to fix the issue did I realize that culture comes from me
from the top is where culture is established and propagates through the
organization so to build the culture that you want as a leader you have to
start with you and your senior leadership team and most often you got
to go back to First principles which is the basic strategy questions of the
business and you got to answer those things purpose why are we
here Vision where are we going values
behaviors what do we value how do we want a people to behave and then once
you have the beginnings of that management operating system you have to be consistent and repeatable and
reliable you have to live that purpose live that Vision live the values and
behaviors because as soon as your people start seeing things as slogans and uh a
flavor of the week or month they’re just going to tune out and go back to
whatever status quo has been established and those informal water cooler networks
that they’ve relied upon for the real truth of what’s happening in the
business so making sure everybody’s rowing in the right direction they know what river there in is All Around
Mission and I’m willing to bet that most companies you can go out there and you say hey why do we do what we do and
you’re probably going to get all different answers yeah and you know I
I’m not a I’m not a huge fan of the mission statement per se I know that uh
many companies have them many companies are required to have them from a legal
structural governance uh perspective but the the mission statement has been misused over the years and I challenge
your listeners to go out and just read some random mission statements and what
you typically get is just a m Mash of everything in the kitchen sink trying to
describe the the business in in a mission statement I like to focus on
purpose and there’s a there’s a nuanced difference there because once you start
with purpose why do we exist why are we here then you can move on to vision and
your values and your and goal setting and you end up with a series of strategy
statements that are more coherent and you don’t have to sit there
and try to dream up some mission statement that does have everything in the kitchen sink and ends up meaning
nothing to everybody I think it makes great sense I I’m thinking of some of my favorite
statements in companies and the one that comes to mind is the Ritz Carlton and
it’s ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen what do you think about that one it is
wildly not specific okay I I had not heard that one uh
before and I would I if I were sitting with uh with that with that leadership
group what I would do is Trot out the five yse and just start
asking okay that sounds interesting why are you saying this what what sits
underneath this statement what’s the subtext what are you really trying to accomplish uh with this mission
statement and more likely than not what would fall out of that
conversation is the real purpose of the of the organization and hopefully
something that is a bit more clear in terms of of why that company exists so
that then they can uh construct and paint a Clear Vision for their people
both their customers and their and their employees what you’re trying to establish through all of these
conversations which oh by the way are non-trivial these are really really
difficult conversations to have uh with a leadership team and an extended leadership team what you’re really after
is creating Clarity for everybody involved your customers your vendors
your your people your investors your stakeholders and far too often these
kind of cutesy almost marketing esque uh
statements that folks come up with for mission for purpose yes ultimately
you’ll turn them into marketing slogans that you’ll show to the general public but that’s not what Clarity is all about
Clarity is not marketing and don’t you know don’t confuse the creation of
organizational Clarity with cutesy marketing slogans after somebody clarifies what
their mission and purpose is now we go to core values and so many ways to do
that and everybody has different ideas on what they think the core values can be if you’re talking with an executive
team what are some of the ways that you recommend we’re talking about the right core values while making sure everybody
at the table has a voice yeah as I mentioned before many leaders uh shy
away from these conversations because they either a have a preconceived notion
that they’re trivial and they’re just not going to move the needle on the economics of the
business or they have been locked in a sweaty room with other Executives before
and haven’t gotten great results out out of this process and it is viewed as just
work that’s almost too hard it is really hard work but boy if done well and done
right you can have some real impactful results that come from uh these
conversations and the values uh conversations that you’ll have with your
senior leadership team which I also strongly recommend that you have uh you
put behaviors right alongside uh values to me values and behaviors go together
like peanut butter and jelly values are kind of the nouns that you are creating
for the the overall structure of what you want your business to be and the
behaviors are more of the verbs they are the actions they are the how we should
show up each day in the business so the advice to your listeners is don’t shy
away from that work engage in that work and and really pay the attention that
it’s due how do you know when you have the right values and the right behaviors
so when you’re ready to take it to the team it’s the coherence of the whole
package and that’s why you start with purpose and then you move on to the
organizational vision and then uh you determine the
values and the behavior behaviors that are going to support that organizational
purpose and then the organizational Vision you will begin to to know that
you’ve struck a really nice uh nicely configured chord using my music
background here when you’re starting to attract individuals who are working with
your business that are in alignment with that purpose the vision the values
and the behaviors they become the attractant to your people equation which
is the most valuable asset of your business so if you if you needed more uh
proof or evidence or impetus to the importance of really really well
constructed strategy statements in your business it is to support the most
valuable asset that you could ever have which is supporting your people and
providing them with that Clarity that makes everything else in business so
much easier do most companies just understand that people is their most
valuable asset or is that something that has to be taught well I’m I think I’m
proof that it needs to be taught because I came up in the how do I put this I I’m
a I come from from a finance background I come from a numbers background I come from things are black or white they are
on they are off they work they don’t work and the people side of the equation
is not black or white it is not on or off it is a rainbow of of opportunity
and color uh that once you learn how to uh approach and tap into that the
diversity of thought and opinion that comes from constructing teams of people
that come from different backgrounds uh with different educations and different
perspectives wow the power of that versus the alternative which is I want
everybody to look and think like me and I’m going to be directive and I’m going
to work in an my environment was an Andy said environment where nothing came
across my desk without my approval or my permission and everybody looked to me as
the quote unquote boss you know you can get pretty far doing that but uh you are
not going to create this most valuable asset which is a powerful people
equation in your business and building that non-directive organizational culture that allows for everyone to find
their voice uh in the business and that your ears are open and your mind is
agile and accepting of those other perspectives I’m sure there are a lot of
leaders out there that in order to enact change they have to admit that maybe
they did something incorrectly and that’s hard for them what is a way for
them to think okay it’s not a pride issue this is a health of everybody
issue so the mindset that I ask people to
embrace is that of a steward a stewardship mindset a business is a
going concern a business should Outlast all of us in theory a business should
never die we as human beings we come and go we’re made of carbon and we’re going
to deteriorate we’re going to die my job as a leader is to set the business
business up and its people up for long-term success that far exceeds my
participation in the business and once you start thinking about yourself as a
steward as a mentor as a coach to all of
the wonderful people that are in your business and your customer all of a
sudden that changes this whole boss dynamic IC that many of us especially
people quote unquote my age who are 50s 60s and Beyond who were led by directive
bosses and it was the boss’s word and that’s all that mattered you know that
that’s the environment that I that I grew up in that stewardship mindset allows for the prying open of of the
mind and a much more accepting tone and tenor in a leadership style that
imagines a future of the business without you I love that answer I can’t
remember the book but there was a sales management book that I’ve read and this
first suggestion was don’t hire sales managers hire sales coaches and I think
that embodies exactly what you’re saying yeah I had a very effective sales leader
in our organization who had adopted exactly that mindset
and uh there’s an organizational consultant he wrote a a review of my
first book his name is Amir ganad and his whole thing is I am the
one and it’s not about me or or something uh very similar to that so
you’re now the leader you’re now the where the buck stops but it’s not about
you it’s not about your growing your ego and your power base and all this stuff
that ultimately will create an imbalanced organization uh we want to strive toward
balance and the way to do that a mechanism mindset uh to do that is by
adopting the stewardship view Andy what are some of your success stories in
using your approach so the main success
story is you know people talk about wanting to flatten organizational
structures and get closer to the work
that’s what my Approach and strategy is designed to do is to bring leaders out
of the Gilded halls and the glass and Brass castles and down to where the work
is actually happening and connect with people across their
organization to hear both the success esses and the pain points the adoption
of what I call a compassionate leadership mindset is something that was
very impactful uh for me as a leader once I really learned what the word
compassion means and it’s not just fuzzy squishy oh you know puppy dogs and
unicorns and Roses compassionate leadership think about the word compassion compassion is
empathy plus the willingness and ability to do something about it so you are
placing yourself into the shoes the mindset of your people
and through compassionate leadership you are pledging to make their work better
to improve organizational flow to improve this Balancing Act between
organizational trust and accountability and to lift all boats in your
organization through your ability to empathize with your people and to go do
something about it there’s so much work that goes into creating and Publishing a
book after the book was published did you have the realization oh I should have put this in the book
so many times but you have to put pencils down it is such a such a
maddening process especially reading your own work over and over and over
again of course I had things that I I wanted to maybe do a bit more of within
the book but all that would have done was increase the work from 306 pages to
something even heavier and even more unapproachable so you have to be okay
with setting the pencil down and looking forward to that next piece of work that
I’ll hopefully embark on in the near future a good friend of mine says that there’s a book in everybody so if that
is the case there are many aspiring authors that are listening to you what
are some key things that they can do if they’ve never written a book before really think about the why you
know I’m I’m All About The why the five Wise from continuous Improvement ask
yourself as many wise as you have to to get down to root cause of why you want
to why you feel the need to write a book and connect that why with your purpose
it’s going to make writing the book a lot easier my purpose is to teach coach Mentor Inspire that’s the tagline of my
first book uh and it allowed that process to be much more straightforward
and then think about who’s my target audience going to be who needs to read
what I’m going to write if you can answer some of those questions you’re pretty far along to then embarking on
coming up with the 60,000 to 880,000 words that you’re going to
need if someone just got one main point from our our interview today what would you want that point to be I go back to
purpose I go back to the concept of stewardship people who are of older
Generations like myself I’m a late baby boomer you know it’s it’s really easy to scratch your head and go why does that
other generation act the way that they do and I would ask that you you know
really think about the cross-generational impact of the work that you’re doing and try to really
understand uh how you can uh get the most value from the generations that
that are coming up and how you can turn who you are into a coach and a mentor to
help the Next Generation succeed as I do with all my guests I ask the same four questions I call it the
lightning round so this is where the point values are double so uh are you ready yes I am ready points mean nothing
on this podcast my first question if you had the ability to go back in time and speak with your former self on your very
first day as a Management Consultant what advice would you give yourself oh this is going to take a lot
longer than you think it uh it’s going to you think you have uh all of this
wonderful information in your head and it’s just going to miraculously fall out
you’re going to start this podcast and have thousands and thousands of listeners you’re going to write these
books and people are going to be clamoring for the information that’s inside okay Andy’s ego no it’s not gonna
work that way just like starting any business unless you have some outsized
celebrity and built-in audience that is going to clamor for what you have to say
building that audience building that business is going to take a lot more than you think it
will what are the last few books that you’ve read yeah so I have the benefit
of the bouncing act podcast and so I have authors that come on to uh onto the
show and I just had this guy Jack skels on the show he wrote this book called
unmanaged and Jack grew up as a project manager his career is uh is primarily
focused on project management which gets a bad RP and sometimes justifiably so in
the world of business and he talks about all the things that project managers
should be thinking about and the concept of okay let’s manage a little less and
really focus on the things that matter uh I met this guy named uh Dave
bookbinder and his book the new r o i the return on individuals I love talking
to fellow Finance people like me who whose Minds have uh have become awakened
and aware that the people side of things are really the most important and then I
love coming back to uh this book which is uh Robert Brown’s the people side of
lean thinking you lean and continuous Improvement uh also get a bad rap and I
love his book because because it is what it is on the tin it says okay we’re
going to talk about the impact of lean and continuous Improvement on your people and how we can turn what on the
surface looks like something that’s going to happen to your people to something that is going to you’re going
to do with your people so they’re going on my reading list so thank you for that
completely selfish question that’s why I’m always asking guest what they’re reading my next question is this is a
fun question so when Hollywood makes a movie about your life who do you want
playing Andy so the fans um why am I blanking on his that that that needs to
happen why am I blanking on his name uh uh his name is uh Henry Winkler yes
Arthur ferelli yes I can see that he that is a
role he needs needs to play he he’s a super nice guy he’s a kind man and uh
and I I like to think that I am also a kind man and I’ve been standing in the
grocery store line and had people come up to me and say you know you look like
Henry Winkler like okay have you seen better late than
never no I have not you’ve got to put that on your list I think it streams on one of the servic is uh it’s got him
William Shatner um oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah oh my gosh that was fantastic yep yep yep yeah any listeners that
haven’t seen that you you will laugh the I think they did two seasons of it they they do traveling with each other it’s
just fantastic yep yep no it’s it’s really really good my last question if
you had the ability to speak with anybody throughout history who would it be with and why Martin Luther King Jr
for for sure um just you know we have so many warts and
painful moments in our past that we just need to really doubleclick on our
Collective history and continue to take history lessons so if there was anything
that I could get from a direct conversation uh with him that I that I
could then help propagate uh uh so that we don’t repeat the the many of the
failures of History I I think he would be one of a number of historical characters that I would want to do that
with it’s a great choice Dr Andrew tempy thank you so much for coming on the
scaling up H2O podcast thank you for having me
Trace scaling up Nation I have to say that one of my absolute favorite things
about hosting this podcast are all the wonderful people that I get to meet
maybe it was you at a particular conference maybe it was Dr tempy on this
podcast because Charlie introduced him to me to be on the podcast and talk
about the book I just love that that is such a great benefit of Hosting this podcast not to mention the sense of
community I think we all have as being part of this scaling up nation and we realize that we are a
of individuals out there within the same industry sharing the same daytoday
experiences just some of my favorite things about this podcast and getting to
meet people like Andrew tempy is just icing on the cake I was on his podcast a
couple of months ago and he was so generous he sent me a copy of his book
it was before it was even released and I got to take that on vacation with me and
read that that it’s a great book it’s a great addition to some of the things we
talk about here on the podcast about how to run meetings how to look at core values all the things that you really
need to do to make sure that your organization is lined up and everybody is roll in the right direction and when
that happens everybody on the team is empowered because they not only know
their job they know how the work that they do fits in the grand scheme of
everything that everybody is trying to build and when people understand that there is just a sense of clarity that
comes over everybody and people are able to make decisions in order to accomplish
what everybody is trying to accomplish so many people out there have not done
that so many companies out there have not done that and they create a bottleneck situation
where if I need information I need to go to the person that’s in charge read them
in and then ask them what I need to do and sometimes let’s face it that’s what
has to be done depending on the severity of what’s working or what they’re working on but all the things that come
up to a supervisor’s desk to an owner’s desk are probably not all things that
they should have hands on they should be empowering people to do the things that
they can do that they are good at doing and then maybe just inform the leader of
the company the owner of the company the chairman of the board however it is and just imagine if everybody’s working that
way everybody is working as a team everybody feels empowered and I think
that’s a place we all want to work at so Dr tempty thanks again for coming on the
scaling up H2O podcast we of course will have a affiliate link for his book on
the show notes page and I have to say it it is a great book it is very easy to
read and it is very easy to put into place uh one thing at a time by the way
so many people will read a book like this and uh I’ve mentioned the book but one more time the book is called the
balanced business and you might say oh my gosh there’s so much information
within this book how do I start implementing well you do one thing at a
time so don’t get overwhelmed on whatever book you’re reading maybe you’re reading a sales book and you’re
trying to increase your sales ability well with that I’ve got 40 things that
this book just taught me to do how am I ever going to do those 40 things one thing at a time pick the one thing that
you think is going to make the biggest difference start with that and then add
something next and you’ll have this domino effect but there’s so many people out there that don’t do anything because
there’s just so much to do so try to narrow what there is that you are going to do and I promise that will get you
started you might have heard the quote all you need to do is get 1% better each
and every day if you do the math you’ll be 37 times better by the time you are
completed with that and just think if you were 37 times better than what
whatever you’re doing right now because you’re just doing 1% more each and every
day so Nation I encourage you to continue to read continue to try new
things but hold yourself accountable that you’re going to do something new each and every day and if you learn
something try to put it in practice but at the same time don’t put too many things in practice at the same time
Nation a gentleman that we all know and love is James McDonald and he of course
is bringing us one thing a week to work on one thing to think on and make us
better each and every week so here is a brand new drop by drop with
[Music] James welcome to drop by drop with James
the podcast segment where we wonder explore think about imagine and learn
and and duster water treatment you guessed it drop by drop
together today’s topic is reverse osmosis data normalization over time AAL membrane
performance changes the quality and quantity of permeate water produced and the energy required to produce it will
vary on episode 339 Jane cousera author of the book reverse osmosis said there
are six things that affect membrane performance fouling scaling membrane
degradation temperature pressure and concentration I like that succinct list
fing scaling membrane degradation temperature pressure and
concentration the impacts of each of these are interrelated and complex changes of one of them can either hide
or exasperate the effects of another for example dropping temperature May reduce
the prate flow rate while increasing pressure May increase it thus canceling out the effects of each this makes it
next to impossible to determine the True Performance of an RL system by simply looking at the raw data so what’s the
solution if we lived in the world of sci-fi we could simply take today’s Aral membranes put them into a time machine
activate the flux capacitor likeing Back to the Future travel back in time and
install those membranes in the ARL machine at the same time they were started up replaced or even cleaned so
you could measure how they would perform under the same conditions as the Baseline the same pressure same
temperature and same water concentration I keep saying the word same but that is key here how would
today’s membranes perform in yesterday’s machine under the same Baseline conditions then you would eliminate the
influences of changes in temperature pressure and concentration and figure out the real impacts of fouling scaling
and membrane degradation simple right now where did we put that flux capacitor it’s got to
be around here somewhere oh wait flux capacitors don’t actually exist yet dang
it now what that’s where normalization comes into play a normalization is a
fancy way of saying that you’re going to mathematically take those membranes back in time and adjust for changes in
temperature pressure and concentration this will allow you to to make apples to apples comparison of
permeate flows by calculating the normalized permeate flow mpf of today to
compared to the permeate flow at Baseline conditions the same goes for normalized pressure differential MPD and
normalized salt rejection NSR your next logical question may be
well where do I get these miraculous normalization equations while there are ASM standards for such calculations your
easiest route is probably to visit your AR membrane manufacturer website to download the normalization tool it may
be as simple as an Excel worksheet if you manage an RO system it is worth your time to learn how to use
these tools to normalize your RL data so you know when it’s time to clean the membranes and to find problems as they
occur I’m James McDonald and I want to encourage you to be like water by forming bonds with those around you
dissolving new knowledge and making worthy ripples drop by
drop thank you James Nation if you have somebody you want me to interview please
let me know who that is you can very easily go to scaling up h2o.com and go
to our show ideas page and we can find out who that is and we will get that
person on the show so we can have an interview with them I told you earlier
that’s one of my favorite things to meet new people we’ve got a lot of things coming up training wise in the industry
I’m going to be at some of those things maybe you’re going to be at some of those things maybe we can meet I love
meeting people that listen to this scaling up Nation because after all we
are a community we are the scaling up Nation Nation I’ll have a brand new
episode for you next week until then take care
Folks scal up Nation one of my favorite phone calls emails texts you name it to
receive is when somebody lets me know that they just receive their certified water technologist designation I love
going to conventions where people come up and let me know that they now have that prestigious designation to help
make sure that we getting more and more people certified we prepared a course to
help prepare you with the confidence you need to sit for that examination go to
scaling up2.com cwt prep once again that’s scaling
up2.com cwt prep to check it out [Music]
today