GA 225 | How to Create a Strategy Execution Plan with David Asher

As you know, one of our biggest challenges isn't the tools of what we do. It's changing the hearts and minds of people, how and why to do it.

Hey folks, thanks for being here today. I'm really excited to introduce you to Dave Asher. Now, as Dave will explain, he has an interesting background and has been involved with the Lean and Six Sigma movement for many, many years. But what I'm most excited about is the future since we've recently h Dave to be Gemba Academy's Director of certification and coaching. Now, by the time this episode comes out, Dave will have already been on a job for a few weeks. But we actually recorded this episode the Friday before he officially started with us. Now on the show, Dave and I talk about the importance of having a strategy to execution plan which many folks will recognize as Hoshin planning. Now, Dave will walk us through some real world examples of what this sort of plan looks like when it's done properly, while also sharing some potential pitfalls when things aren't done as planned. Show notes for this episode, which will include links to everything Dave and I talk about, can be found over@gembapodcast.com just look for episode 225. You can also check out Gemba Academy's Lean Learning system over@gembacademy.com with a fully functional trial. Now let's get to the show. All right, Dave, welcome to the show. How's it going? How's it going?

It's going well. It's going well. Thanks for having me on, Ron.

All right, well, so this is a little bit of a unique episode in that I don't think I've ever interviewed a person that's coming to work for us in a few days. So this is kind of fun. Well, by the time this episode is released, you've already been a veteran at Gemba Academy by a few weeks. But yeah, this is the Friday before all the fun begins.

Next week it's a new one for me. I've never been interviewed like this. This for a podcast before starting a job.

Yeah. Right. No. Very good. Well, hey, Dave, we got a fun topic to kind of dive into today, but before we we get into the whole strategy and so forth of Lean a Six Sigma, let's tell us a little bit about who Dave is and your background, maybe how you first came to learn about all this continuous improvement stuff. And, you know, I guess what you've really been up to for the last, you know, whatever it is, 10, 15 years of your life.

Yeah, absolutely. No, it's it's been quite a journey for me getting into the continuous improvement process, Excellence world and, and learn and lean Six Sigma is my journey. I originally started out my career in what is called medicinal biology. Ended up working in clinical laboratory, hospital labs. Went to work for a company called Quest Diagnostics Labs.

Yep.

Was running laboratories there for them. Loving life. Life was good. And one day the site manager comes in and says, dave, we're going to make you a master black belt. We're going to send you to school. I went, what is it? What does a black belt do? I was completely confused. And they set me off. It set me off for six weeks of training. They taught us change management, they taught us black belt curriculum and coursework. They threw us into it. And we were the first ones at Quest Diagnostics. And it was, it was almost hysterical. You got a bunch of laboratory scientists that have no idea what they're doing. There's no one there giving us direction. We got one hour a month for coaching on the phone and it was, it was almost comical and amazing that we actually made it through. We actually finished our first projects and at one point we finally did get master black belts as coaches. But it was, that was my. That's how I got into it. It was, it was not by design.

And when was that? Not trying to date you, but no.

That was, that was back in 1999.

Okay.

Ken Freeman, the CEO of Quest Diagnostics at that time, came from Corning Industrials and he took over the lab and said, you know, we're going to do things better. We're going to make medicine better, safer, stronger and cheaper. And he says, starting now, we're going to be a lean Six Sigma company. And he just committed to it. And I had never seen anything. Up until my career, I'd never seen any leader so committed to anything. And he did. He took 20 of us from the 20 major labs and said, you're all going to be black belts. You're going to learn this stuff, you're going to go back and use it, you're going to teach green belts, and we're going to make this a better company. So it was just by happenstance, I was there. I was part of leadership there at the time. And I just, I kind of fell into it. The interesting thing is it kind of resonated with me. I grew up in a family of tool and die engineers, so I grew up with manufacturing mentality and they had always talked about these ideas of efficiencies and don't waste time and, you know, Utilize what you have. Don't have a lot of stuff laying around, keep things clean. And as a kid growing up, it was like, okay, that's what they do. And it kind of hit me at that point I went, wow, this is great stuff. We need this in medicine. And so I stayed with it from there. I was recruited by a company called Amgen Biotech Pharmaceuticals, went out there and was their deployment leader in their research and development area of their pharma company, getting them on their journey for Lean. Six Sigma spent a couple years there and about 15 years ago got recruited into consulting. Old company called George Group Consulting. They were brought up not too about 10 years ago by Accenture, but I got into consulting. Loved it, I loved it. Went to all of major pharmaceuticals, had a great time teaching lean, doing lean, doing Six Sigma. It was a great adventure for me. And about 12 years ago, I started my own business. I decided to be out in my own practice and been doing it ever since, practicing as a master black belt. Most of my time has been focused on knowledge transfer, trying to enable people, my clients and my customers, bring them value through knowledge so they can do it on their own and grow their programs. Spent quite a bit of time doing leadership strategy and deployment work, trying to set them up for success, which I think is a key element that we need to always think about is how do we set ourselves up for success. And after about 15 years on the road, about 4 million miles, I said, you know, I think I want to go back home. And I found the Gemba Academy. I'd known about him, respected him, and happened to come across some information about a position you all had through LinkedIn. I thought, well, this is my opportunity. It's good company, good group, good work. And I was looking for something new. I wanted to get involved with a group. I could help build more and contribute. And I think I found a home.

Yeah, excellent, Excellent. Well, we're super excited to have you, have you on board, Dave. So. All right, well, great background and obviously I'm sure you're going to do some other podcasts with us down the road so people will learn even more about who you are and all that. But I know you listen to a bunch of the podcast episode, so you know what's coming next. So we do like to kind of begin with with a quote or two. So do you have one that you want to share, Dave?

Yeah, there's was one I absolutely love that I share with all of my students and it has to do with the whole scientific and critical thinking. And it was by Deming. And he said, you know, if you do not know how to ask the question right, you discover nothing. And I always thought that was a very insightful, very concise quote, because we don't tend to ask the right questions. And this really kind of struck me when I first read it years ago, because when I was doing research, my professor would always say, if you don't ask the right question, you'll never get the right answer. And I don't think. I think sometimes we run down the road with our hair on fire, and we never ask the question, how did it get on fire? And we just keep running. I think we need to ask those questions in order to actually discover what is relevant. It's just a matter of learning how to ask that question. So I've always loved that quote.

Yeah, yeah, good stuff. Good stuff. All right, well, hey, listen. Today we want to kind of dive into the topic of strategy and kind of its role and, you know, lean on Six Sigma journey. So let's begin just opening it up a little bit here with why do we want to. Why do we want to think about strategy? Strategy to execution, however you want to phrase that.

Right? No, that's fantastic. Because, you know, it's an interesting conundrum, and I've discovered this working with some of my clients is they go out and they think, wow, Lean Six Sigma is going to change my business. And they go out and they train a lot of folks and they get everybody excited. But what happens is we never chose the right projects to move, the right measures to make things really better. And then people lose faith in it, and then they get tired of it because they don't see anything happening that's real. So when we talk about strategy to execution, really what we're trying to say is this. Every organization has some level of strategy at the highest level in the C suite. How do we actually start to create projects that we can execute on that actually moves our objectives and not just do projects for the sake of projects? So that's one of those areas that I think a lot of deployments miss is we get so excited about the tools, we get so excited about what we can do, and we just start running out there, and we just start doing projects for the sake of projects without any real alignment to what are we really trying to move, what's really important that these energies and these wonderful things we're doing, how is it really moving our organization? Yeah, and sometimes we miss that boat. And that's why I call it strategy to Execution, I find it's just imperative. What we find is what I always like to call the project, which is go resurface the parking lot. It's a great project, but is it really moving our organization in the right direction? Right. So we tend to just kind of pick projects in a very willy nilly kind of fashion because we have it put a plan in place that gets our thinking around it and we don't ask the right question. You know, what, what are we, what are we going after and what's our current condition and what are we going to do to get there?

Yeah. Now is this like within the lean world? You know, as you know, we talk about hoshin kanari or strategic, strategic appointments, you know, policy deployment. Is this similar?

Very much so, yeah. It's very much ocean. It's, it's, it's the ocean planning. It definitely is. But here's the thing. A lot of organizations that I work with don't like those terms, but when you go in there and say it's strategy to execution, it's like, oh yeah, we know strategy. We have our MBAs, we're good with it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so it's just, it was a way for me to really start to influence a lot of my clients that. Well, basically they're kind of lean, six sigma phobic. You know, they got, they just tired of hearing the terms and what's with all the Japanese stuff? And the strategy to execution is really hoshin. And sometimes it's as detailed as hoshin, sometimes it's not. It's a matter of what's appropriate for that client to fulfill their needs.

Yeah, you know, the whole Japanese word thing, it's always, it's always fascinating. I mean obviously we use Japanese word. Gemba Academy, our name has got a Japanese word. But yeah, I find it, I guess my. What is your approach to that? I mean, if you go into some hardcore lean company, I mean they're not going to care. Right. But I find many times it's the folks who are just kind of learning and just uncertain. Sometimes I feel like it's more of an insecurity. They're just, they're scared of the whole thing. And just one other non normal thing just want to blow their mind. So they say quit calling it kaizen or whatever. So like how do you approach that? Do you just kind of read the audience and kind of kind of do what works best for the situation or what's your philosophy there?

Well, typically how I do it, I tend to read audiences. So I'LL go in, especially if it's a new engagement with a new client. And I'll ask them, so, what's your experience with operational excellence or continuous process improvement? And if I start getting the feel that, you know, for instance, I've done work with some manufacturing companies, I walked in and asked that question, go, yeah, we're doing Kaizen's on changeover. We're doing a Kaizen over here on 5s. I'm good. I can use the terminology, but in a lot of cases with clients, I'll ask them, so what have you done on your journey? Well, I bought a book on Lean Six Sigma and I haven't read it yet. So at that point, I know what I'm probably going to do. I don't want to start intimidating or in any way put them off by making them feel as though they're not adequately prepared. So I try not to get into the Japanese phraseology.

Right, right, right, right.

No, I got you. So I'll talk to them about, well, you know, we talk about a strategy to execution rather than, we need to sit down, do some Hoshin planning here. Let's get this on the board.

Yeah.

They're going to look at me and go, oh, shit. What that? What is that?

Yeah.

So I tend to. And then as time goes on, I start to introduce things mostly with my practitioners.

Yeah.

And then what I do at that point is, as the practitioners start to present their projects to leadership, it slowly brings up the education level on the sponsors, the process owners, the C suite people. And I'll work with them on the background and go, hey, you're going to hear some weird words. This is what they mean.

Right.

When they talk about going on a gimbal walk, they're not asking you on a date. They just want to go down to the shop floor and look around.

Right, right.

So it does work better. And I find that most professionals, they're willing to learn, but they're also easily intimidated by people forcing things on them too quickly.

Exactly.

And I just don't want to do that because I remember when I went through it, my head was spinning. I had no idea what was going on.

Yep, exactly.

I usually try to take it, you know, we can rephrase things and get the same contextual output.

Yeah, yeah.

And I guess that's where I always go to is let's not overload people. Let's use some common phraseology here that they don't get freaked out about and run for the hills.

Exactly, exactly. Well, we got a greater purpose to go here beyond what we call it. Quit calling it whatever, call it whatever you want, man. You know, let's just go do it.

Uncle Fred's, whatever. I don't care. Let's just get this thing moving. And a lot of clients the last five years that I've worked with don't even want me calling green belt training. They don't want me to call it lean practitioner training anymore or black belt training. What they want it to be is expert problem solvers, you know, operational efficiency experts. Yeah, they're even getting away from those traditional names because they're just not comfortable with it. And that's fine. You know, we're still giving them the same tools and enabling them the same way.

Right.

It's just we got a different bow on the package.

Yeah, I got you. So what's the basic structure of the strategy set execution plan?

Well, it follows from the top down, which is the senior leadership has to establish those high level strategic objectives. And so as you roll it down, it goes, you know, from the C suite down to the directors, down to the management, down to supervisors and staff on the floor. So that's a basic roll down, which is pretty standard. But what's really interesting about that structure is how quickly we lose focus between the director and the shop floor. So at the very top, most organizations will say, yeah, we have a strategic objectives, we know where we're going. And then you go down to the supervisory level and you ask them where are your metrics that indicate what your strategic objectives are for your area and how are you doing? And they look at you in the head, they have no idea. It doesn't tie back up. And if they do have it, when I go to roll that dashboard back up, they don't connect. They're working on things that are not related to the overall strategic objectives. So while those are the levels that happen, what really is structurally important is that there's a common thread that goes from the C suite all the way down to the shop floor that is continually reporting up and being monitored for effectiveness and impact. Right.

So where does that disconnect come from, like you mentioned, between say the director, supervisor, whatever, but at any level, why does that disconnect occur, do you think?

I've noticed? What I've discovered is that disconnect is mostly at management. And a lot of it is because that's the level of supervision. The manager level is where they are being pressed by the top strategically and pushed up from the bottom practically. So they've got all the staffing issues, They've got all the resource issues, they've got all these other things going on to practically make sure things get done. And on the top end, they've got senior leadership pushing down saying, here's all our strategies, here's the things we need. So it's a matter for them of just priority too. It's not a matter of inability, but it's priority. And also a lot of it's about change management. I've never had to do this before. It's a waste of my time. I got production to get out the door. I don't have time for this. Right. We'll do projects, sure. But I'll decide what they are because I run the dailies here.

Right.

That's where we lose it. And it's not a slight on them because they're doing the best they can to get things done. What it comes down to is how do we connect them, that middle section up and down and say, here's the plan, here's how you're going to run it, here's the resources we're going to give you to do it and continually check on it and follow up. The other thing that falls apart that I've noticed is they just roll it down to that manager and say, get these done by end of year, come up with some projects to make these happen. And there's no other support. And I think that's a shame. We're not doing enterprise wide value stream mapping. We're not looking at the operation from a practical standpoint and saying strategically, where in the value stream map against the entire enterprise are we going to focus to increase productivity, to increase quality, to increase safety, to increase profitability? Where is this going to happen across the entire enterprise? And that's where those middle managers become heavily involved. But we disconnect there.

So can you give an example? And I don't want you to use any names or anything like that of companies or whatnot, but maybe just a brief example of where you've seen this done. Well, maybe talk a little bit about maybe just one of the. One of the these streams, if you will, one of the strategic initiatives from the top and how that sort of flowed down all the way down to the frontline worker.

Sure. Big pharma company. I won't mention any names, it's proprietary. But they started their journey and they did a fantastic job. They researched it for three years. It was a wonderful deployment, wonderful engagement. But what they did really well is they sat at that C suite and said, look, as an organization Here are seven strategic objectives, and one of them was cycle time. Right? It's fundamental. That's usually one of them is cycle time. But in our case, that started to float down from the top down, which was cycle time for research and development. And that got even further down to the next level, which is cycle time for drug development. And then it was cycle time for a particular phase of drug development. Well, by the time you got down to that level, now you're at the manager and director level. So what they did really well is they went through and they mapped out the entire enterprise process of how they develop a drug, found the key measuring points, the metrics for the cycle time milestones, and then dove into each of those areas to find out critical path, what projects needed to be done to get drug development quicker. And then they would do this. And then every month this was rolled back into the director, back to the senior director, into the vice president who was at the CEO saying, here's what we've done to move overall cycle time in discovery for this portion. And it was a matter of contribution at that highest level. But at the lowest level, we could see a clear line that all this work we're doing to improve cycle time for drug delivery is making a direct impact to the organization.

So what did they do differently? So that made it so it didn't fall apart at that director manager level, where sometimes it fragments accountability.

Accountability and structure were the two things they did well. It was a matter of, we know we have an alignment. They mapped it out from the top down. We mapped all the projects against all the strategic objectives, and then we assigned people accountability to those projects. So if we're running a half a dozen projects in one particular lab area, that manager was accountable for those. They had to make sure that those things were done, they were done on time, they got the value out of it, and then they would roll that up to their director. So everybody was always in constant communication and everyone was accountable for their own level of strategic involvement to execution. So that at the end of the day, at the end of the year, when they sat down, they'd say, our lean Six Sigma adventure, how have we done and what has it done to move us to a better strategic point? And then all of that, the managers and everyone would come in and show exactly what they did throughout the year, all the projects they ran, how they aligned. And there was this also one thing they did extremely well. A lot of open discussion about project selection, meaning it wasn't a matter of me, Dave, the manager, saying, here's my projects. It was help me as a manager generate a lot of ideas and then I'll sit down with a group and we'll vet them out and understand which ones will make the biggest impact. So it's like a benefit effort, matrixing, if you will, so that we don't waste time on projects that aren't going to give us a lot of energy and a lot of result. So it wasn't done in isolation. There was accountability to it, there was resource support to it. And here's a big one. It mattered to senior leadership because they constantly engaged with that middle level of management. It wasn't as though they were two steps removed and never talked to them. You know, the senior vice presidents and this is in a pharmaceutical company, they did their gimbal walks. Basically. They'd walk around the labs and go, what are we doing that for? Well, we're doing this because. And we're changing this because we had the visuals out on the walls. They would stop and talk to the staff scientists, you know, wow, that's pretty interesting. Talk to me about what you're doing here. How's that going to make it better? It was a cultural shift as well, and it came from leadership. So unfortunately, I'll give you the antithesis of another company I worked at, which was they gave us a whole bunch of money and said, go ahead and deploy and have a nice day. Let me know how it goes.

Yeah, yeah.

And it was just a complete flop.

Yeah. Well, I mean it sounds like, you know, I don't put words in your mouth, but it sounds like when you have such alignment and such support from the top that everyone kind of has that three letter word why understood, why are we doing this? Everyone knew the purpose, purpose behind it. Right. And I think that when that and, and, and you know, frontline folks know that senior leadership's behind it. Support them, whatever. I'm sure it wasn't all, you know, hugs and kisses all the time and you know, but, but you know, when people understand why they're doing what they're doing, it's just so much easier versus like you said, oh, here's some money, Mr. Consultant, go make it happen. Clearly they're not engaged at the top, you know, and they don't, they probably really don't care. They would love for it to work, but they're not willing to put any effort them the work.

Well, I think to that point too, Ron, that's a very lucid point, is they demonstrated their belief, they demonstrated the direction, they demonstrated the purpose and why we're doing this. And they did it so well that I had senior vice presidents and C suite people in my green belt and black belt classes being trained alongside regular folks. And every single course that we taught, vice president or higher, had to come into that room, explain to that class why we're doing this, and have at least a one hour discussion on how they felt about what they're about to embark on. And quite frankly, it sounds like not much effort, but it was a huge impact to doing that strategy, the execution. Because now when I would coach them, it was not difficult to say, you know, why you're doing this. Right? Well, yeah, we're doing it because of these things have to be moved and this is how we're going to do it. It's like, good, let's keep going. But that was a true success point for them as well. And I think when I was at Quest, they did that also when the CEO goes through greenbelt training, you know, they're serious.

Right, right, right. So you mentioned about one of the challenges of this, of this strategy execution plan is when it breaks, there's the disconnect, lack of communication, that sort of thing. Are there any other, you know, kind of things that you need to look out for, other potential challenges that we need to be aware of?

I think the other challenge that really starts to come up and this is a change, a change issue, a change management issue, is when you don't have that communication, you don't have that alignment. You have rogue supervisors and managers that start to degrade the program because they don't believe in it. They talk bad about it. They start doing projects just because I have to do them. They're verbally, very much making their staff aware of it. And I've seen that happen a lot. And that's a disassociation that will destroy a program. Because as you know, one of our biggest challenges isn't the tools of what we do. It's changing the hearts and minds of people, how and why to do it.

Yeah.

So. And when we don't have this alignment, we don't have this synchronicity. We get these folks that just, I don't want to participate. I think it's stupid. Yeah, I have to do four projects this year and here's some really, just.

Go do these four folks.

It's just, I don't really care if it works or not. Just go do it. Yeah, it sends a bad message and then it starts to spread. It's. It's like they, you know, poisoning the well. Pretty soon people start to talk and, gee, that department doesn't really do it. You know, the Uncle Fred, the manager, you know, thinks it's stupid, and, you know, he's smart guy, so it must be stupid. That's another huge one. And that's nothing to do with structural, if you will, as it is more cultural. Yeah, we need. We need to stay on that path. Changing how people approach, support, and engage is probably more critical than how we structure a dashboard or a Hoshin plan or anything else. And unfortunately, leadership has to identify those people and make changes, and that's difficult.

Right. All right, Dave. Well, gosh, we could talk about this topic all day, but I definitely want to. I definitely want to ask you a few of these reflection questions here.

Sure.

So, you know, and people want to know more about strategy execution. By the time this episode comes out, you'll already be working at Gemba Academy, so just holler at us there. And part of your job will be to coach and mentor people so they want to learn more. Have at it.

That's it.

All right. Well, hey, the first one is kind of the one of the oldie but goodies. We talk a lot about, you know, these two pillars of continuous improvement on one side, and then the other one being respect for people. And continuous improvement is a little easier to define. We can touch it. We can put our hands around that. But respect for people, that's a little harder to wrap our arms around. So I'm curious to hear, Dave, what you think respect for people means.

Fundamentally, my respect for people is simply this. You treat them with admiration, you treat them with honesty, and you treat them in a way that you're always helping them develop to do better, and you include them. The inclusion part is a lot of respect that we tend to overlook. By including people in things, by getting them engaged, it's showing them that they're important, that what they know is important, that what they have to contribute is important, and that ultimately is respect. We're respecting them as a human, respecting them for their talents and what they do. And as we know, this pillar of respect for people, if it wasn't there, we wouldn't have effective teams, we wouldn't have great solutions. And the minute we don't respect people, we take that out and we don't show them that honesty, we don't show that encouragement or involvement, then it falls apart on itself.

If you look back on your career so far, Dave, and the most exciting part of your career is yet to start, that's Right, absolutely. In all seriousness, when you look back on your career, if you could go back and do anything differently, is there anything you would do differently, or would you just want it to play out the way it's played out?

This is a retrospective question of doom. Yeah, I guess we can always say there are some things, but quite honestly, I look at everything I do, be it positive or negative, as a learning experience. So if I didn't have bad things happen, if I didn't have these really awful days or awful weeks or awful conditions, I would have missed that growth opportunity. So I honestly. And not to sound trapped, but I wouldn't change a darn thing.

Yeah, Yeah.

I needed those moments where I got my head handed to me. I needed those moments of, I'm gonna pull my hair out right now.

Right.

That's how I got through. That's how you learn to get through life. And I don't think I'd want to go back on that.

Yeah, beautiful answer. I mean, I think someone asked me the same question. I'd probably answer the same way. You know, one of my favorite books, I've mentioned it on podcast before, is the Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. And, you know, and it's. That's what it is, man. When you hit an obstacle, that's the way, man. That's where you're supposed to go, you know? How do you get through that obstacle?

Absolutely.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good.

Hey, so where do you think this whole movement of Lean and Six Sigma and just continuous improvement in general, where do you think it's headed?

I personally think it's. It's headed away from official programming, and I think we're now, especially in the States, we're starting to get to a point where we're looking at it as just the way we do our work. I think that's where it's headed now. I think there are areas within our country or industries that are already getting there. I still think there's a lot of opportunities for other industries, particularly like healthcare service industries, to be doing this, but I see this becoming much more readily available. I see it heading to more pervasiveness as far as deploying this stuff very easily. It wasn't like it was 20 years ago when I started where it was very specific. You had to go see a consultant. You didn't have a whole lot of support. I think we're getting better at it. It's becoming more of our culture, and I see this as headed for full integration is how I see it.

Yeah. I mean, that's the reason Gembe Academy exists. A site based license. Everyone in your company has access to this stuff. Where back in the day when you and I were going through, it was like you said, a few. 10 people were plucked out and they were the special ones. Right. And yeah, we want everyone to be special now.

Right. That's just it because, you know, I have clients and first thing they do is sit down and say, so who are our best people to send? The green belt and black belt. Yeah. I'm thinking, hell, you ought to send everybody.

Right, right, right, right. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Hey, so can you think of any particular advice that you've received over the years? I mean, it could be any advice. It could be from grandma or grandpa or football coach, whatever it was that, that just really resonated with you and stuck with you over the years.

Wow, that's. That's a, that's an interesting question. Because I've had a lot of people give me advice. I would probably say the best piece of advice that I ever had was from my father. And he said, you know, whatever you do, never give up. Always stay positive because the worst thing they can do is kill you and your problems are over.

Yeah.

And that sound morbid, but that advice has served me well because when things you talked about, when things get bad and you're. You have regrets in your life. It's gotten me through those obstacles.

Yeah.

Just keep going. You'll find a way through it. You're smart. Yeah. Just don't give up. If you give up, you're done.

Yeah.

No matter how bad it gets, don't give up.

Yeah.

That's probably the best piece of advice I ever had. That was from my father.

Right. Beautiful. Beautiful. All right, last question. What are you most proud of so far on this journey that you've been.

On for Lean Six Sigma journey?

Sure.

Wow. I would say my proudest thing is the number of folks I've trained as practitioners that call me up years later and say, dave, I'm now the VP of Operations and I'm still using all that stuff you crammed in my head during class.

Yeah.

You know, I'm making good decisions with this stuff and I really appreciate it. That, to me, has been the greatest part of my life and my success. I look at that as my successes.

Yeah.

I had a phone call two weeks ago, guy that I trained in 2005 as a black belt, and he called me up to tell me about all the great things he's done with all the stuff that we taught him and Coached him through and. And he stopped being a black belt years ago. But that's that full integration, Right. That's taking all those practitioners, and it was part of his daily life now. So I get a lot of those, and then that makes me feel good. That's. I'm very, very proud of that part of my life.

Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yep.

That my horrible golf game?

Oh, yeah. Okay, Well, I don't even have a golf game, so that's not even. I can't even call mine horrible. I don't even have. Yeah. All right, well, hey, Dave, it's been great having you on the show, and again, we're super excited to. To welcome you to the team officially this coming week. But again, by the time this episode comes out, you'll be in the full throes of things already. So, obviously, people will be able to go to the Gemba Academy.com website and find you there on our contact page. But what other ways can folks connect with you on your social media and all that kind of stuff?

Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. It's David T. Asher. David T. Asher. And if you look in there, you probably right now, if you were. You can. You can search it under Asher Associates. It'll pop up that way as well.

Yeah.

As being an old. My old company.

Yep, yep, yep. Got it. Got it. Yeah. And then, well, I guess I don't even know what your email is going to be, but I imagine it'll be davidenbaacademy.com so people can bug you that way, too.

Perfect. Excellent. Love to hear from them.

All right, well, thanks a lot, Dave. We'll see you bright and early on Monday. And looking forward to it. Yeah, it's gonna be fun, man. We're gonna have a lot of fun.

Absolutely. And thank you very much for your time, Ron.

All right, you take care.

Bye. Bye.

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