GA 078 | How Flying Relates to Lean with Steve Kane

You're listening to episode 78 with Steve Cain.

Welcome to the Gemba Academy Podcast, the show that's focused on helping individuals and companies achieve breakthrough results using the same continuous improvement principles leveraged by companies such as Toyota Del Monte and the U.S. department of Defense. And now, here's your host, Ron Pereira.

Hey, there. This is Ron Pereira with Gemba Academy, and I'd like to welcome you to another edition of the Gemba Academy podcast. And as always, thank you so much for taking time out of your day and your week to listen to the show and for watching our Lean and Six Sigma training videos over at Gembaacademy.com, we definitely appreciate each and every one of you. Now, today, I'm excited to welcome Steve Cain back to the show. Steve's been on several times. Steve has been serving as our Director of Sales and Marketing at Gemba Academy for better part of a year. And we've recently made some changes and some exciting changes that Steve's going to tell you about. And Steve is actually transitioning into a new role at Gemba Academy, namely, he's going to become our Director of Customer Success. So Steve will explain that role. But basically, if you're a Gemba Academy customer, you can expect to hear from Steve because we really want to focus on, you know, the customers that we do have, like, really making sure that they're. They're getting the most out of Gemba Academy. So Steve is going to be working on new processes and new ways of leveraging Gemba Academy. So it's pretty exciting stuff.

And.

And he'll go ahead and tell you a little bit more once the show gets going. But Steve and I are going to talk about something today. It's a little unique. Steve, as you'll hear, is actually been experimenting a little bit as a pilot. And so Steve and I were talking over dinner the other night, and I was just kind of fascinated to hear about his story and how he learned how to fly airplanes and his different experiences. And then we kind of got to talking about how some of the things that he was learning really related to what we're doing as continuous improvement practitioners. So that's kind of what we're going to explore today. Show notes for this episode will be available over@gembapodcast.com 78 and that's 78478. So gembapodcast.com 78 and before we go, I do want to give a quick reminder for the upcoming conferences that Gemba Academy is going to be at. So we're going to be at the Lean Frontiers conferences here coming up in October. There's actually two different conferences that we're going to be going to, kind of a Lean Leadership and then a Lean Management, Lean Accounting, series of summits. And those are going to be in Jacksonville, Florida. And then a few weeks later, we're going to be in Cincinnati at the AME World Conference. And that's going to be a fantastic conference that we're going to be there. Our whole Genda Academy team will be at the AME show. We're going to have strong presence there, you know, as with a booth and so forth. And we're also doing a happy hour. So all the links to information on these conferences, including how to save 10% on admission to any of them, will be found on the Show Notes page. So again, that's GembaPodcast.com 78. Okay, enough for me. Let's get to the show.

All right, Steve, well, thanks for coming onto the show again. I would ask you where you're calling in from, but I'm standing here looking at you. So I guess you're here in Keller, Texas.

Yeah. Another beautiful day in Texas.

All right, well, what are you doing here, Steve?

Well, actually, several things. Spent a few days working with the team here in Keller and transitioning actually, from Director of Sales and Marketing to Director of Customer Success, starting a new position.

Okay, well, so obviously the purpose of the show isn't to talk about your new position, but I know we have a lot of Gemba Academy customers who listen to the show. So talk, maybe just a quick tidbit about what this position's all about.

Well, customer success, of course. We deliver a fantastic product, I think. And this position is really built around the idea that we can help take customers to the next level by perhaps providing the service of helping people practically implement Lean. So there's more to just watching the videos and making a lean transformation. Sometimes there's some logistical challenges and people can benefit from from collaboration. So I just want to be able to provide that service to our customers as well.

Yeah, it's pretty exciting. I think we've done a great job, you know, over the years, Elaine and yourself and Britta and our customer service team. You know, I think we've heard many, many times that we do take care of our customers well. But what we want to be able to do is, you know, not just provide support, if you will, but we want to really coach people and help people. Because I guess the most common question we get is, you know, where do I Start or, you know, I've hit this roadblock. What do I do? And we do our best to coach them, but I think with you kind of leading to charge and you know, visiting customers.

Exactly.

It's going to be, going to be awesome.

Yeah, I think it's going to be great. You know, first of all to, you know, actually meet many of our customers face to face, thoroughly understand their challenges and I think that's also an opportunity to help us evolve as a company as well. What are their challenges and where can we offer any kind of support that would be beneficial? How do we add value?

Kind of our dream. And you know, you've heard me say it before. I think we obviously little biased because I'm in the videos. I think they're pretty good, you know, and we're constantly making them better. But one day Gamba Academy wants to be known as this company. People would be saying this is an amazing, you know, lean thinking organization. Oh, and, and they have some pretty good videos too.

Right, Right.

So I think that's this, this position is going to help us get there.

Yeah. And I'm really excited about it. Fantastic.

All right. Well, Steve, something that many people don't.

Know about you, I'm sure and honestly I don't think I knew about this until maybe a few months ago. But you're, you're a pilot, right?

Right. Yeah, I fly single engine airplanes and actually, you know, is a passion or you know, that I've had for many years. I mean, in high school I was an aviation enthusiast. I got involved in radio control and I've always wanted to fly. And it's not something that you jump into quickly. It takes quite a bit of time to learn to do it. And it's like there's always that excuse of life getting in the way. Right. So I've always had the excuse of something's coming up and it's not a good time to start. And a couple of years ago I got into flying gliders. There's a glider port not too far from my house and that was a fantastic experience. I mean, something like jumping off a.

Cliff kind of thing and.

Oh, like, no, like, well, an airplane without an engine.

Oh.

So actually, you know, tying off to a powered airplane, getting towed up into the sky and then releasing the rope and then flying around from there. Right.

I think I'd rather just fly a plane. Like water skiing in the air.

Right. So yeah, so flying sailplanes, that was my start. And then just recently I transitioned into power and so I started learning to Fly powered single engine airplanes.

So.

Okay, when did you decide that? I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna fly an airplane on my own. Like when was that? Like a year ago, Two years ago actually. Or was it in high school and it just took you this long to get.

Well, you know, actually I think in high school it was really more the dream of, you know, the someday. And you know how that someday dream is like just a little bit out of reach of reality. So I would say, actually I started flying gliders a couple of years ago, got active in that and then it kind of faded away. Life got in the way again. And then actually over the summer I just decided that that's it. No, I've had a million excuses. No more. This is the priority. I'm going to do this. And, and then I jumped in. I have, I have some friends local, locally that, that FL. Fly and I, you know, I think there was a little bit of. Okay, I've had enough of writing in the passenger seat. Now it's my turn to, to do this and be the pilot.

So, okay, what's the process that you go, go through to eventually take control of the, of the wheel?

Right, right. Yeah. So they're kind of big picture. There's the academic portion of it. So there's some study, there's a written examination, and then there's the practical application. And you can actually go today to the airport, go find an instructor and you can fly. Be in control today. What? Yeah, so the, like I could. Yeah, yeah. So that the instructors will start off the instructor in the passenger seat, you in the pilot seat. That's, that's day one, lesson one. You, you have the control. Now the instructor is going to be fingertips right. On the controls, ready to take over at any time.

So they have controls as well?

Yeah, so, yeah. Right. So yeah, there are two, two, two control yokes, two sets of pedals so they, they can take control whenever they, they need to. But they're going to start off from the very beginning doing nothing and, and guiding you all along the way.

But I would have to have done.

Some academic stuff, right?

No, actually, you don't, you don't. They'll, they'll give you the knowledge you need to safely operate the airplane.

Wow.

With them, of course, in the airplane. And then right away they're going to really get you on the academics and get you studying right away. Yeah.

All right, so what I'm curious to, We've talked about this offline because I'm fascinated by it, but how how long on that journey was it before you did take control by yourself?

So it's measured in hours. So for me, it was 10.7 hours of training. And my instructor, he's a. He's a fantastic instructor. He's a great guy. He's an army vet. He was a pilot in the Army. And a lot of people don't know there's more aviation, more aircraft in the army than. Than in the Air Force in any other service. Yeah, so there are a lot of army pilots. So he was a. He's a great instructor. I was in the Army. So we kind of had this little bit of a bond, a little bit of an understanding, and he. He treats me kind of like he would treat a soldier right. And in the army, the training isn't so much about making the elearner feel good. It's very, very direct and sometimes a little bit abrasive, even. So we were in the pattern one day, just practicing touch and go, just landing, just trying to get the landing right. And he's just pointing out all these things that are wrong. And, you know, you're too high, you're too low, you're too fast. So I do these landings over and over, and I hit the ground getting ready to take off again right away. And he says, no, no, hold on. Just go to the end of the Runway and. And pull off to the side. So I go to the end of the Runway and there's a taxiway there, a little parking area, so we stop. And I was just thinking, oh, my goodness, what did I do so badly that he really wants me to actually stop so he can chew me out? I didn't think it was that bad. And he just said, okay, I'm going to get out and just do it again by yourself, and I'll be at the end of the Runway watching. And I just thought, okay, how he gets out. And the first thing that crossed my mind is, am I really qualified to do this? And there's like a little bit of a transformation there. He gets out, and I just kind of go through my checklist and I start taxiing back to the Runway. Get out on the Runway. And I'm, yeah, yeah, I can do this. And went off and did it. And I took off. And the first thing I thought was, this is actually easier alone than it is with the instructor. I guess I had received enough instruction to that point that I knew what I was doing just to fly in the pattern, but I knew what I was doing, I could do it safely. And once I Got the thing off the ground and I was in control. It's like this huge boost of confidence. I just felt great about it.

What do you think the instructor was feeling when he opened that door and got out?

I don't know if it was, okay, I've had enough of this, or I think it's really more along the lines of, okay, you've developed the skills to do this safely and now it's time for you to develop your confidence.

So obviously he was supremely confident in your ability to do it or he wouldn't have gotten it.

There's just no way he'd let anybody do anything that wasn't safe.

Okay, so he, he gets out, I guess. You said you had a checklist to kind of follow through.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In aviation, I mean, there's a checklist for everything. I mean absolutely everything. Before you get in the air, the airplane, there's a checklist to go through, the pre flight check. When you, as soon as you get in, there's a cockpit check. And when there's a checklist to start the engine, there's a checklist.

Do you like literally check it off with a pen or is it just more of a visual kind of thing?

It's a visual thing. You just read through it. And one of the things about checklists is that you really don't want to memorize them because you start going through the checklist, you build your confidence in your memory of the checklist and you forget something once and then you reinforce that the second time and you miss something. That can be dangerous. So the practice is to actually read the item on the checklist and then say out loud the condition that you're checking. So for instance, if you're checking out the altimeter, you don't say check. You would say the altimeter is set for 840ft, the elevation of the airfield.

So even when you're by yourself, you're.

Just talking to yourself. Right. And actually when you go through the CheckRide, when the FAA conducts a final examination, they're expecting you to say everything that you're doing and say everything you're thinking. So if you're going to run the throttle up, you actually say it, I'm running the throttle up. And for this reason, so. So that is the practice. So when you're alone, you actually read your checklist out loud.

Okay. So you follow your checklist. And how are you feeling at that moment?

Confident.

Scared?

Both a little excited, you know, Racing? Yeah. Yeah. There's, I think there's a Little bit of adrenaline going, and I suppose there's a little bit of fear there. But if I didn't have the confidence to do it or didn't believe I was able to do it safely, I would have just said, no way.

I'm not ready.

Not ready to do it. But the reality is that the instructor required me to do it with his hands off so many times I had to demonstrate it so many times with him right next to me, that he knew it was safe. I think, you know, intellectually, I knew it was safe. And then there's the whole emotional side of it, you know, just really having the confidence to do it.

So now you're going down the Runway. I don't know how fast you go before you take off, but you're going pretty fast.

Yeah.

The wheels lift off. Was it a different kind of feeling when it lifted off by. On your own versus when he was sitting beside you?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's. I kind of imagine like teaching a child to ride a bicycle. Right. The training wheels are off, you let go of the seat, and then it's just that big grin.

Yes.

Right. I did it. Right. I'm doing it.

Are you smiling?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

Now, could you talk to him, like, when you were like. Or with a headset or anything like that?

It's possible. I didn't.

Okay.

He had a little handheld radio on the ground. Yeah, yeah. And with the whole idea, he was doing two things. One, if traffic came into the pattern, he was going to keep the traffic away from me so I didn't have to concentrate on it. And if he saw anything that wasn't correct that I was doing, he would get on the radio and tell me.

Yeah.

So what does this have to do.

With what we do for a living here? Continuous improvement, leadership. How does it tie in, you think?

Well, yeah, I think there's some. Some parallels there. I mean, and we can talk on and on about checklists and standard work and how everything in aviation is a process. And it's very. It's just broken down into the scientific aspects to the point that it really becomes easy to do, it's easy to learn, it's easy to fly. It does take time and effort, but. But because it's broken down so well into such clear processes that it's. It's achievable. And I think the other thing that relates to what we do here at Gemba Academy is there's the whole leadership and teaching aspect of it. The whole teacher learner relationship is just critical. And the Teacher understanding that there is a teaching process and there are methods that are effective and methods that are not. And I think one thing, talking about flying solo for the first time, there's that whole point for the instructor of maybe realizing this person's ready before the learner realizes they're ready. Right. Because when we went to the end of the Runway and he got out, I was not thinking, okay, it's time for him to get out and for me to do it by myself. He was thinking it, but I wasn't. And sometimes people.

He probably knew that day.

This is the day. This is the day. Yeah. This is going to happen. Yeah. And before the flight, I was thinking, what happened today? And then during the flight, that didn't cross my mind at all. Yeah. So there's just that I think that aspect of the instructor, and there's one thing about just transferring the knowledge. Right. And then there's kind of that inspiration moment, and sometimes it's creating a struggle, too, and it's like, okay, it's time for me to be hands off, maybe take a step back, and I need to let you do it.

Well, you know, we've talked a lot about, you know, autonomy in the past and past episodes and autonomous teams and, you know, helping someone achieve mastery and purpose and all this rest of it. I see big parallels here. You know, autonomy is so hard.

It's easy to talk about, but it.

Is hard to do.

Right.

And so that's why I asked the question about how do you think the. Your trainer was feeling? Because many times we're that trainer.

Right, right.

And so when do you get out and let them take over of the, you know, take control of the.

Yeah. Of the plane, you know, and I've been on both sides of that coin. Right. I've been the learner. I've been. Been the. The. The teacher. And I tend to think it's harder for the teacher than it is for the learner.

I agree.

Right. I mean, there's the. The. When it comes to training, I think the learners can kind of say, yeah, all right, I've got it, and, you know, give me some space. Right. But they typically don't say that during training. And it's. I think the teacher has to recognize when those skills are developed to the point that you've got to let the person do it, you know, back away and. And let them fail. Now, in aviation, you don't want to let your. Your students have any kind of a mistake. Right. But if you look at, say, teaching. Teaching someone to ride A bicycle. There's just the expectation that bike has fallen over. Yeah.

That's why they got a helmet on.

Yeah. Right. Maybe you'll.

Your knee pad or something like that.

Yeah. And maybe you'll, maybe you'll teach them on grass. Yes. Right. You keep them away from traffic.

Yes.

Right. So you know, some safety there. But, but there's the point of. Okay, you're gonna learn by stumbling, and that's okay. We have to make sure that when that happens, you do it safely and, and that you're actually going to learn something from it. You don't just throw somebody out, you know, and say, well, figure it out yourself. Right. You guide them along and, and then let them have at it.

So what's, what are your dreams as it relates to flying? What do you, I mean, have you.

Flown places now or are you just.

Kind of like taking off, flying around the hangar sort of thing and then landing?

Yeah, yeah. So most of the flying to this point is, is, is local. So in aviation that. That's described as take off and land at the same airport without going anywhere else. I just recently got into cross country flying and so that's flying from one airport to another.

So you have done that?

Yeah, yeah. Multiple airports. So like a three leg trip.

How do you know? Like, I don't know anything about flying, but like, I've always wondered. Like, obviously there's controls and they're.

Right. Right.

Kind of like a Siri or whatever, guiding you or whatever the airplane. Siri.

But like you've never seen this airport before.

Right. That you're flying to.

Right.

How do you figure it out?

Yeah, so there's that. Yeah. So how do you see it? And sometimes that can be a real challenge. And you know, we're flying airplanes. I mean, aviation is really inaccessible to most people if you're limited to brand new airplanes. I mean, a new airplane is going to be a few hundred thousand dollars. So the airplanes that we fly, they were built in the 70s or possibly even before that. And the technology in them is that same era. So we're not using gps, we're using old instrumentation. And there's a radio homing system that is used and it's called vor. And there's a beacon off in the distance. You know where it is, it's on the map. And you tune to that beacon and basically this instrument points to it. And that beacon is right in the middle of an airfield. So you just point to it and you keep a needle right on center. And as long as you're on center. You're on the right course.

Wow.

So. So it's a matter of jumping from one beacon to the next on your cross country course.

You know, what's interesting about that is flying an older plane. He's thinking about within, you know, in.

A business environment or manufacturing.

You know, a lot of times we'll talk about, you know, use your, your wits over your wallet.

Right, right.

You know, you don't necessarily need the, the newest machine or whatever when you're right, you know, OEE is 30% on those older equipment over there.

Like, what can we do to raise.

The, raise the bar there? So.

Right, yeah. So, yeah. And so modern instrumentation, hugely expensive, but it won't get you anywhere that the.

The current, the needle on the beacon.

Yeah, yeah, it works just fine. Yeah, yeah.

Very good. Very good.

Yeah.

Well, that's awesome.

Steve, congratulations on taking off and congratulations on your new role here at Gemba Academy. I know, I'm excited for it and can't wait to work with you and see where that takes us. So, you know, we, before the show started, we talked about a quote, and we never did, we never did touch on it, but why don't we kind of turn it over a little bit and have you end the show with your quote?

Yeah. The quote that comes to mind for me is, and I don't know who said this, but don't look at the size of your mountain. Just start climbing. Eventually you'll make it to the top. And I think that really ties into lean, because a lean transformation can just be so big. If you're standing at the base of a mountain, you can't see the peak, but just take your first step and just keep going. Yeah.

Awesome. All right, thanks, Steve.

All right, thank you, Ron.

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