GA 135 | Lessons Learned in the Mud with Steve Kane

You're listening to episode 135 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. As always, thank you so much for taking time out of your day, your week to listen to the show and for watching our Lean and Six Sigma training videos over@gembacademy.com so today is October 28th, it's a Friday, and we just got back from the AME Conference and wow, wow, wow, was it an amazing week. I wanted to say thank you to everybody that stopped by the booth. Thank you to everybody that came to our cocktail party. We had so much fun connecting with so many people, and man alive, did we get a lot of amazing feedback about this very podcast that you're listening to. I lost count of how many stories we heard of from existing customers, from folks who just kind of found us stumbling through itunes or whatever it might be about how the show is adding value to them, how they're listening to it. Some folks have listened to every episode and it's just really humbling and just really, really appreciate everyone for listening and especially thank you again. I want to name out names because there were so many folks and I'll miss somebody and I'll feel bad, but you know who you are. And several of the folks that came up to us are actually going to become guests here on the show in the coming weeks. So look for them. And yeah, thank you. Now, one other quick Gemba Academy update. Since it is November, we have brought back our popular free DVDs and free lean Enterprise Institute workbooks promotion. I won't get into all the details here on the podcast. I don't want it to be a big sales pitch, but I do want you to go over to gemba academy.com to check out all the information about this promotion. It runs through all of November. It is the most popular promotion that we do every year. So again, free DVDs and free Lean Enterprise Institute workbooks. Go to gembaacademy.com and you'll get all the information. Now, today, I'm excited to welcome my colleague and my good friend Steve Cain back to the show. Now, Steve recently took part in a tough mudder challenge. Now this for those who don't know. A tough mudder challenge is a pretty incredibly difficult. Well, it's not really a race. They call it a challenge. It's 10 miles and you're going over all these crazy obstacles you're running through. Basically, imagine barbed wire above your head while you're crawling through the mud like a snake. I don't know how else to describe it. So Steve is going to tell us about that experience, but more importantly, he's going to kind of tie back some lean lessons that he learned from this very challenging experience. Now, Steve's recently written a blog article on this same topic, so we'll. And we'll point to that in the show notes. But Steve goes into much more detail here on the show. So show notes for this episode can be found over@gembapodcast.com just look for episode 135. Again, gembapodcast.com, look for episode 135. Okay, enough for me. Let's get to the show. All right, Steve, how's it going, man?

Hey, it's going well. Going really well.

All right. Well, I haven't talked to you since, well, few minutes ago on the morning call. It's always fun to have you back on the show. And so I kind of mentioned on the intro that you recently took part in a pretty golly, what's the word, Spectacular, intense, crazy, I don't know, kind of event called Tough Mudder. A few weeks ago, you published a blog article kind of summarizing 10 points that you took from the race. And I thought it would be kind of fun. We'll link to the blog article in the show notes, but kind of fun to have you kind of bring that blog article to life a little bit with some stories. So I guess first of all, just to level set everybody who may not be familiar, what is a Tough Mudder race?

Well, so Tough Mudder, they call it a challenge. They don't call it a race. It involves a 10 to 12 mile course with 20 or so obstacles in it. So this course, I mean, it's unpaved. So I did it in Michigan. Tough Mudder is done all around the country in many different cities. But this event, it's running across some pavement, running across grass, through the forest. There were parts where we had to actually go through a pond and up a stream. It was just kind of a wild off road, cross country sort of course. Now, you don't have to run it. You can walk it if you want, but there are 20 obstacles along this course, and these obstacles they're not like jumping over a hurdle that you might see on a high school track, Right. These obstacles are things like imagine a barbed wire fence laying down horizontally over a mud pit and barbed wire fences 6 inches off the top of the water. And you got to go under that and wade through it for about 25 yards or so. And then going through things like there's an obstacle called the Arctic Enema. We climb up onto a platform and then you slide down a slide into ice water. And when I say ice water, I mean there's somebody there all day long pouring 20 pound bags of ice into this water. I mean, it's like half ice, half water. You can kind of imagine what that's like. So you've got to go under a fence, make sure your whole body gets underwater, then you climb over a fence into another ice tub, and then you climb out and get on your way. So there are other things like climbing, climbing wooden walls, I think is about 10, 12ft high or so, but it's sloped, it's leaning towards you. So the typical run, kick off the surface of the wall and pull yourself over. I mean, that's not going to work because this wall is leaning toward you or climbing up a 30 degree slope that is polished and wet and muddy. So you slide down it. I mean, it's just impossible to do alone. It just simply can't be done. Right. So, I mean, all kinds of tough obstacles like that. The very last one, just steps from the finish line, is called shock therapy, where you run through a tunnel of electrical wires. You're running through water, maybe 4 inches of water, and then you have this tunnel of electrical wires hanging down. And these wires are charged with 10,000 volts so that electricity pulses. And the challenge is run through it and keep standing. Right? And you can imagine 10,000 volts going through your body will send you to the ground pretty easily, but that's the way you finish. So they kind of give you an idea of the intensity of what's going on there.

Wow. Now, so you did it on like, I guess you showed up to the race by yourself. So how did you get through it all? I mean, you didn't have a team there with you. What did you do?

Right? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I showed up by myself. My wife was with me. Anya was there to give some encouragement and a little inspiration, but I showed up by myself. And the way it works is they start 100, 150 people at a time, so they kind of go in waves. But again, you can't get through it alone. So you find people along the way to help you through some of the obstacles at the starting line. They're really good about getting you pumped up and super inspired. And they remind you this is a challenge. This is for you to do your best. It's not a race. It's not about you being any better. And in fact, there are no clocks here. There's no time recorded. It's about you finishing. And the way for you to finish is to help other people finish.

I love it. All right, well, let's get to the. I guess the. The 10 points that you. That you took from the race and how it kind of, you know, really applies to lean thinking and the things that we, as continuous improvement practitioners, you know, should be thinking about, should be doing on a day to day basis as we, you know, try to make things better. So let's just kind of just step through them. Start with number one, I guess.

Yeah. So number one, I mean, the whole. It was a two hour drive to get there in the morning, and the first one kind of came to mind while I was driving there. I mean, it was rainy, it was really, really dark. And I was just kind of thinking, man, I think I could better spend my Saturday sitting on the couch and be nice and comfortable. So the first point is just do it. Don't overthink things. Because really overthinking obstacles is really you starting to talk yourself out of it. So once you figure it out, once you know what your challenge is, just do it. Just move. Start and you'll find your direction, but just get going.

Yeah. The whole analysis, paralysis can be deadly, right?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just do it. That's number one. What's number two?

Yeah. So focus. Focus on the task at hand. Right. The life is full of challenges. I mean, this course had these 20 obstacles, and thinking about what's down the road isn't helping you with what you're dealing with right now. Right. So focus on the task at hand. Put your effort into it, do it well, clear it, and then move on. But don't carry the weight of the world. With all the possible obstacles, all the challenges that you're facing, just focus on what you're dealing with.

Yeah, I love that. And I think about kind of pdca. It's kind of like, well, first of all, to Tough Mudder. So obviously, you know, you'd been working out. I know you've been doing CrossFit, you know, for some time, and you're getting you in much better shape looking Great, by the way, too, Steve. Not in a weird way or anything like that, but, you know. Thanks, Rob. Yeah. Married here, got a lot of kids. Don't worry. But in all seriousness, you prepared, right, to go to this event. So as lean thinkers, we also need to be prepared. We need to have some basic knowledge. We need to understand, you know, principles and philosophies. But then once you showed up for the game, right, or the. Or the. Or the challenge, if you will, on that day, what's the first obstacle? Let's get over that. So in lean, right, we think about what, you know, we might have that future state vision, right, where we want to get, but we know to get there, we've got to take it one step at a time. And I love that analogy. To focus on what's in front of your face and nail it, right? Crush it, do it the best you can, and then what's the next one? Doesn't mean that you haven't thought ahead and have a general idea and a plan that, you know, I know I can run 10 miles. I know I can get over this thing. But, you know, focus, not agonizing. Oh, my gosh. I don't want to go through that electrical thing. Oh, my gosh, that electrical thing, you know? Meanwhile, you got nine other ones to get over first, right?

So, yeah, yeah. You know, this whole thing took me about four hours to complete, so there was a lot of time for me to kind of think along the way and kind of reflect on that, but that's exactly it. And I knew there was a finish line. I had even seen it because the start and finish are near the same place, but I had no idea how to get to the finish line. And lean is like that, right? You never finish your lean journey, but reaching your vision, you really don't know the path exactly. But clear your obstacles, keep going, and. And the path becomes apparent. And the same thing was happening. I mean, there were some trails out there and trails through the woods, and you see a little arrow that kind of pointed down a particular trail, like, oh, okay, this must be the right way to go. If it isn't, I'll figure it out soon enough.

Yeah, yeah. Love it. All right, what's number three?

All right, so number three. Yeah. The course is tough. Pace yourself and keep going. Thinking about how much farther you have to go is really a negative mindset, Right? Because what you're doing is you're thinking about, when can I quit? When can I stop? And instead, the mindset is, what do I need to do to keep moving, right? Maybe the best thing to do is slow down, let's prevent burnout. But we keep going step by step and have the mindset of never stop, never give up, and really just never quit.

Yeah, I love that. You know, I've been also doing CrossFit for a while now, and I had a coach one time kind of tell me as a female coach, and she was fantastic. She said, just, just focus on the next step. Like if you're running literally the next step of your foot, think about that one and then when you get that one, think about the one after that and, you know, and almost embrace the suffering a little bit. Right? Well, you know, just take it in and embrace it, Put your arms around it, you know, love it and just fight through it. Right? Because life is tough, right? And if you can find a way to push through something like tough mudder or a 10 minute hardcore CrossFit workout or any sort of workout, you know, I think that trains your mind, it trains your soul and your, your being that, you know what, we can make it through other tough things in our life, right? And including lean. So I think that's a fantastic. Keep going, don't stop. Think about the next step. Yeah. All right. What's the number four?

Number four? Hydrate and nourish along the way. So imagine this four hour course. Now, I had committed to running the entire distance and crossing every single obstacle. I was going to clear every obstacle. Those were my goals. You have to be realistic about it. That doesn't mean there aren't moments to rest. And along the course, there were places for the hydration stations and they were handing out energy bars and bananas, that kind of thing. It kind of really made a point to me, like, yes, I need to gain nourishment, right? I need fuel. And in lean, this would be at least for me. Things like reading about Lean Lean stories, watching videos, taking lean tours, attending conferences. For me, that's nourishment. That's where I get my energy for lean because it kind of goes in waves. At least that's my experience. It kind of goes in waves, right? You get really excited about things. You hit the finish line, you get moving, and then week after week, month after month, the energy starts to get depleted. And doing things like attending AME for me is a great experience. I spend a few days there and then, man, I am fired up. And that just keeps me going. So nourish along the way. Yeah, great.

What's number five?

Core strength is crucial. And running the course, I Have a bad habit of relaxing my abs, particularly when I run. It's important to keep your abdominal muscles engaged and active because that helps keep your back straight and relaxing puts more strain on your back and other parts of your body and actually wears you out faster. So keeping your core in shape and keeping it active is important. That's stability, it's agility. And in lean, to me, the cores are principles and core values of the organization. And everything I do, I've got to keep those principles active. Everything I do has got to be within the lean philosophy and the company's core values. That's what gives me stability, that's what gives the organization agility, and that's, I think, what keeps lean organization strong.

Well, yeah, and it, you know, tying it back to the human performance. You know, if your core is weak, this is where back problems come in. This is where, you know, injuries come in. And strengthening your core, physically speaking, just, just allows the whole machine to operate. So you could say the same thing for the organization. If you have no principles, you have no core values, well then, you know, you could so called injure yourself if you will, or you are going to have many failings, if you will, along the way because you have no core.

Right, right. The back injury I think is a great example because what happens with that back injury, first of all, you're in pain, you're distracted, you're not taking on challenges and your self esteem goes down. It very easily turns into a negative mindset of I can't do it.

Exactly. All right, what's number six?

Be humble. And I got to tell you, tough mudder is for me, it was a humbling experience.

Now you've got military background, so you've been through some crazy stuff before, right?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there are some pretty good challenges in the military for sure. I think a big difference was tough mudder was completely optional. Right. And in the military I was with a team of highly trained, very physically fit people and there was really no question about our ability to finish. Yeah, right now I hadn't, with a tough mudder, I hadn't worked out, like really, you know, been in shape since my 20s. Right. So at least 20 years. And I started training four months before this started. I went, I went to a CrossFit box, told the trainer, here's my goal, four months from now, I'm running a tough mudder, already signed up, I need to get in shape for that. And four months, I mean, you can finish it, but you're not going to be any Star athlete just ripping through the course. So it's tough, it's painful, it's a humbling experience. But what I really thought about here as I was going through the course, the humility comes in the fact that you won't get through this alone. Even if you're in great shape, you're not going to finish this course alone. You need to let other people help you. And right at the finish line, they start you with a little dose of humility. Right before they blow the whistle to start. There's an American flag flying there at the start line. And they have everybody taking a knee, kind of getting briefed and getting prepped and kind of getting motivated. And they say, okay, please rise for the national anthem, right? So everybody stands and turns toward the flag and kind of looking for the.

Singer or the music to start.

Music to start. And the guy just says, okay, ready, begin. I mean, it's you. You sing the national anthem, right? So, I mean, sing your heart out. And I'm no singer, so, like, okay, humility starts right now.

Yeah, very good. I love that. All right. Well, I guess how does that relate then, you think, to the lean world?

Well, you're going to have to. I think, in lean, especially in our organization where there's transformation and perhaps we're not a lean expert, but we're learning as we're doing it, there are plenty of opportunities to have to stand up and say, hey, I made a mistake. I thought this would work. It didn't. We need to try something else. But I think there's many opportunities to. I don't want to say, well, you.

Can even say, I don't know. I mean, exactly.

I don't know. And also, in any organization, you're not going to. Lean doesn't work by one person. You have to let everybody help you, and you've got to be willing to take ideas from anybody in the organization. A great story. I don't know if this is true, but the story is still pretty good. One of the big baby powder manufacturers in the U.S. production was good, the quality was good, delivery was good, everything was going great. The baby powder product line was profitable. And two executives were doing a Gemba walk, walking around and just saying, everything's working so well. How do we get people to buy more of it? An entry level employee just working the manufacturing line overheard it and just turned to him and said, make the holes bigger so people use more of it. You've got to be humble enough to be even at the top of the organization to take ideas from people anywhere in the organization. It doesn't all have to be the leader.

Yeah, okay. Well, speaking of leader, what's number seven?

Servant leadership. @ the Tough Mudder, the only way to be successful is to help others. Essentially, you have to help people want to help you. Helping them over an obstacle, giving them a hand, giving them encouragement when you hear people saying, oh, I want to stop, and I was there alone, but just being able to step up next to somebody and help them along, I mean, just give them the encouragement. Keep your chin up, take a deep breath. Keep moving, keep moving. You can do this. That's what it really takes. And I think the same thing happens in lean, right? Regardless of our position, particularly for people who have directed reports. But anybody in the organization has the opportunity from time to time to be a leader. And we lead with the idea of we are here to help other people be successful. It's not about me as a leader having everybody else help me be successful. It works the other way, Right?

Exactly. All right, what's number eight?

Keep your eyes on the horizon. So imagine running and completing some incredibly difficult obstacles. I mean, difficult to the extent that the run was the relaxing part, Right? So I noticed this in myself as I'm running, particularly the second half of the course, you know, more than a couple of hours into it, just running and having to focus on my steps. And I noticed that my eyes were at the ground, down at the ground. And if you think about somebody in that running posture, eyes down toward the ground, like what happens there, first of all, you're holding up the weight of your head, which strains your neck and your shoulders. You're rolling your shoulders forward, which actually reduces your lung capacity. Your lungs can't expand now. You're not breathing as well. And because you're not breathing as well, you're fatiguing easier. Motion is emotion. Looking down, head down, shoulders forward. What emotion is being experienced there and how do I change it? Well, I change it with head up, eyes on the horizon, shoulder back, big cleansing breaths. The thing is, keep your eyes up, you know what's ahead of you. You've already seen it now. You don't need to look at every step, but keep your eyes up, and it's going to make it a lot easier for you to have a positive attitude and keep yourself moving.

What's the lean tie in?

Well, I think the same thing happens with the lean journey. Every lean journey is difficult. There are moments of great accomplishment. There are moments of great challenge. Keeping your eyes on the horizon, keeping your head up, keep your chin up. Right. Is maintain your positive attitude and don't let yourself. Don't wear yourself out. Right. I think just kind of keep your chin up mentality when it gets tough.

Yeah. What I like. I think you could tie this one with number two, which was focus on the task at hand. So you could almost think they're in contrast, but really I don't think they are. I think number, number. And from a lean perspective, keeping your eyes on the horizon is thinking about, eventually we want to get to this future, our ideal state. Right. I mean, we really. We do gaze at that, but we're gazing while focusing on the thing right in front of us. Right. So it's almost like you have to be able to do both. Like my friend, you know, I know you have a police background as well. My friend's a SWAT detective. And. And the guy, when he sent a. A room, a restaurant, he will not. He has to see the door. Right. Like, he's got. I mean, he cannot not see the door. Right. And so, so sure. It doesn't mean that he's not talking to you because you're right in front of. He's focused on our conversation, but the minute somebody walks into that door, his eyes are on him and just checking it out. It's just natural. It's instinctual for him. Right. And so he's doing both.

Right, Right, Right.

Yeah. I know you're a former cop. You do the same thing, don't you?

I've had people tell me, hey, can you just once, can you sit with your back to the door?

No. So what's number nine?

Number nine is commit to overcoming the challenge. The hard part of dealing with the challenges, particularly with the unknown. Now, I had never done a tough mudder before. I'd seen some videos on YouTube, read some articles, but I hadn't actually done it, hadn't been there, hadn't seen it. So I wasn't really clear on it. So to some degree, I was kind of like, kind of working in the dark. Right. And again, like I mentioned earlier about overthinking things, you can get into that analysis paralysis, but I think you don't need to get worn out with that. There's a challenge ahead. It's going to be great. It's going to be uncomfortable. It might be frustrating, it might hurt, but I'm doing it. The hard part is overcoming that challenge, just committing to that challenge. And then all you need to do is figure out how to do it step by step.

Yeah. Same thing with the lean Journey.

Right.

It's just leadership has to just say, you know what? We need to get better. Right. We need to improve, and we're gonna. We're gonna commit to this. And again, how we do it, what the exact steps are, you know, no one knows for sure. You'll figure out along the way. You'll fail, you'll learn, you'll pivot, you'll adjust. That's the journey, Right?

Right. And if you kind of. Kind of think about it, overcoming the challenge to me is kind of like burning a bridge, right? We're on this path, right? Our journey as an organization, we get to a point where we say, we must cross this bridge, so we have to get better. And then once you get to the other side, you burn it. That's your commitment. Now it's kind of like, hey, look, we're not discussing this again. We're not going back. We're not going back to the way things were. We're not going back to the old way of thinking. We're committed to. We're moving this forward.

And the beautiful thing about lean done correctly is no one wants to go back if it's really working and you're doing it correctly.

Well, committing to overcoming the challenge as an individual is difficult. Having a leader or a leadership team convincing many other people to. To embrace that challenge together is much, much more difficult.

Well, it's just like having your wife on you there. I mean, I'm sure she was encouraging you, but imagine if she had been like, oh, it's okay, honey. Why don't you quit halfway through? Just come over here. Let's go to dinner. I mean, we make a joke about it, but that's what a crappy leader does, right? I mean, they're just like. They're not really encouraging their employees to. To want to think and grow, right? They just say, no, it's okay if we quit.

Right? It's kind of funny you mentioned that, because it just made me think. There's a path for spectators that Anya was on, and she was taking pictures, and she had this drink I take called fuel. I saw her at an obstacle about halfway through. That was the first place that I was able to see her. You can just walk right up to the spectators. It's no big deal. And she gave me this drink, and she kind of encouraged me to take on the obstacle. Keep going. And she grabbed it back from me, and she said, okay, I'm going to see you at the next one. There's like, okay, I'm not even going to Entertain the idea that you're not going to do this. I will see you there. And then every time, she said, I will see you with the next. I will see you there. And it's kind of like, okay, it hurts. I can't let her down. I can't let her not see me. Right. And just being there watching was kind of like, yeah, I can't back out of that.

Yeah, that's pretty powerful. Pretty powerful. All right. What's number 10?

Yeah. So number 10. Yes, it hurts. Enjoy the experience anyway, you know, and you can imagine what it's like in the tough mudder challenge, running the whole distance. And I mean, going. I mean, head underwater through the mud, over and over, running through water, running through. And it had rained like 12 to 12 hours before I started, so it was, like, seriously muddy. And walking through mud is hard. Running through mud is even harder. And it's really easy to just try to get your mind on something else. But I was focusing on things like, how are my feet hitting the ground while I'm running? I can feel my hip flexor is really stressed. My hamstrings are getting sore. What am I going to do about Was like, I want to embrace this. I want to focus on everything that hurts, everything that's difficult, because I know that tomorrow I'm going to see this as an accomplishment. The funny thing about memory, it's kind of like, there's the past, there's the future. There is no present. Once you recognize the present, it's already in the past. Right? So the interesting thing about memory is when you think about pain, if you kind of think right now, think about an extremely painful event in your life. I mean, like, physically painful. If you had a broken bone or ran wrong race, you remember that you were in pain, but you don't relive the pain. Right. But think about joy. Think about your first child being born. Now, when you think about that, you're probably smiling a little bit right now, Right. You do get to relive the joy. Right. So even though it's painful, there are some elements of joy in that. And the accomplishment, of course, is huge. And it's kind of like be aware of the fact that these are the good old days. You're going to be looking back on this someday, and you're going to remember with joy. So keep your mind in the game. Stay engaged. Right. Kevin would describe this as being mindful, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Right. I mean, get everything out of it that you can.

Exactly. You know, friends of I that work out we're all pretty serious about our faith and we kind of unite that with our fitness side. And we always talk about when we're working out and we're suffering, you know, we're hurting, that we want to suffer well, that's what we say, let's suffer well. So before we begin, it's like we're going to suffer well, we're going to work through this, unite that pain for maybe a sick family member or something like that. And you know, and think about them as you're suffering and yet you don't give up. And, you know, it's pretty, it can be a pretty moving experience and really help you get through, you know, a hard obstacle. But then you could do the same thing when you're sick or when you're younger. You know, you can suffer well, right. Or you can suffer poorly. Right. And so I think whether, you know, you can choose, you know, because the suffering's coming, right. We all suffer in one way or another. And then Lean journey, you are going to suffer. How are you going to do it? How when you fail in that experiment or you make a big mistake and you cost your company, you know, a bunch of money or something like that, and you're suffering, how are you going to deal with that? You're going to suffer well or you're going to suffer poorly? So the choices are. So you almost have to prepare for that. And little events like this, I think are great ways to practice that.

Right, right, right, absolutely.

So the last question that I have, Steve, is, you know, I've heard some people when I, as you know, I haven't done a tough mudder yet and gonna do one, we're gonna do one together. I guess we're committing here on the podcast he does. We're gonna do it together. But somebody might say, you know, really, what's the point? You know, are you just trying to show how tough you are? You know, put it on Facebook, look at how awesome I am, you know, like, what do you think about that when you, when you do something like a tough mudder, and you might see someone that's a little skeptical about, like, what are your true motivations? What would you say to that?

Yeah, you know, it's kind of, I mean, I could go take a 10 mile walk through the woods, like without the challenge, but I'm not really interested in doing that. And not many people are. Right. Take a look at any big park around, like, what proportion of the population spends their free time doing that? But you do something, create something like A tough mudder. And there's this following. They call it Mudder Nation. That people are so into it that they do it over and over. So why do it? It's about doing your best and learning, figuring out what you're capable of. Right. Because that easy walk through the park, that's not going to tell me anything about myself. And it's not going to challenge me. It's not going to help me grow physically, emotionally. It's not going to help me develop relationships. But taking on, I think, this kind of a challenge does. I think. I mean, it takes, I think, a commitment, certain amount of fortitude to do it, and being part of something greater than yourself. Right. You know, when you're. I mean, there are like 11,000 people went through this course here in Michigan, so, you know, it's a large number of people. So just knowing that no one's doing this alone, and I contributed. I helped people. I helped somebody finish, I think is, I think, a great feeling. It's a sense of accomplishment. But for me, I had never run that distance before, hadn't done it, hadn't gone through those kinds of obstacles, at least since the Army. And when I started, when I was at the finish line, I honestly was not sure that I was able to. To get across the finish line. I just didn't know. And I just remember standing there, actually jumping up and down, kind of like bouncing like my dog does when he wants to go outside. Right. Just all amped up and just thinking, run the entire distance, clear every obstacle. That's all I need to do. So it was just about do my very best. Yeah.

Oh, I love it. All right, so I'm gonna run through them real fast, and we're gonna link to the blog article as well. But number one was just do it. Number two was focus on a task or challenge at hand. Number three was pace yourself and keep going. Number four, hydrate and nourish along the way. Or five, core strength. It's crucial. Number six, be humble. Seven, servant leadership. Eight, keep your eyes on horizon. Nine, commit to overcoming the challenge. And number ten. Yes, it hurts. Enjoy the experience anyway, or suffer. Well, as I like to say. So, yeah, very, very cool. I'm so proud of you, Steve, for doing that.

Thank you.

And really inspired to do it. Together we'll make it a. That'll be a unique Gemba Academy live, you know?

Right.

Maybe we could try to do some teaching points. But I was like, no, I think we're just going to try to finish.

One step at a time.

One step at a time.

Yeah, we'll get through it once together, then we'll PDCA and we'll see about teaching points for the next one.

There you go. Awesome. All right, well, thanks again, Steve. Keep up the great work, and I guess I'll probably talk to you later today.

Yeah, sounds good, Ron. Thanks very much.

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