Leader to Leader: Jim Solberg

Foreign Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us here at JLC Media. This is a series that we've started some time ago called Leader to Leader. And gratefully, I have a number of folks that are in my life that have played significant leadership roles. The gentleman you're going to hear from today has played significant role leadership roles in his life professionally. He is retired and I'm going to dig in a little bit with him to learn about some of the significant nature of his development, personal development as a leader. And hopefully by the time this is concluded, those of you listening will find a little something to grab onto, a little piece of practical knowledge that you could take with you moving forward. So Colleen, what are you hearing me say this one's about?

Yeah, well, I'm really looking forward to this. Jim's going to share with us some of his learnings and his personal practical knowledge and his leadership journey. And our hope is that all of our listeners, as always, walk away with something that they believe really resonated well that they can apply in their everyday leadership conversations and to help them on their leadership journey as well.

That's nice. And notice Jim, she said everyday leadership conversations. We think those conversations happen all day long. It could be one on one, could be in the hallway, could be in the bathroom. Who knows, could be any space where somebody says something about, so boss, what do you think about X? Or I'm struggling with Y. So this idea that leaders should be thinking from our take, from our standpoint, that every conversation is an opportunity for leadership. So anyway, with that said, let me get you started by telling us a little bit about you and your leadership journey. All yours, Jim.

Okay. As Colleen said, Jim Solberg is my name. I spent 37 years with Ford, including two summers while I was still in college, all in, well, almost all in manufacturing and progressed through an initial kind of a process engineer in an assembly plant. And the job was fixing production problems. And that was that organization that I was in, I was in for almost 20 years, but it was really what we would call now project management. And so we were in charge of the launches of new product in the assembly plants every year. So we'd leave home in April, come home in October. You get home maybe every second weekend or something like that while you're doing that. But all over the country we got to leave the plants when the line got up to capacity. So worried about quality and cost at the same time. After that, I moved into quality assignment, working with purchasing, visiting suppliers, learning a little bit about the supply base. Ended up going back into project management. I launched everybody's police car in 1992, and three Crown Victoria and St Thomas, where I came home, told my wife I got to go to St. Thomas. And when I told her it was in Ontario and it wasn't an island, she was not. And after that, I spent some time in a joint venture with Mazda here in the States in an assembly business. Assembly plant. We built the ford probe and Mazda 626 and spent four years there, ended up as the president of that organization and learned a lot about international business and not being in a big corporation. And then after four years of private Japanese lessons in that group, I got sent to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I got Portuguese lessons. But I had Latin American manufacturing for Ford and closed out my career coming back to the US and was responsible for powertrain manufacturing in North America and a few other related responsibilities with Lean Manufacturing around the world.

That is quite the journey. Colleen, what. What did you notice in there that just kind of stuck with you? As he was talking with us, I.

Think I was sitting there writing down. I mean, just. I believe he said he was trilingual. Did I hear that right, Jim? Portuguese, Japanese and English.

And I took German in high school, but I pretty much forgotten all of that.

That sounds amazing. I mean, I just really enjoy the journey that you took and really adaptability. The other thing that stuck out to me was, you know, you got another role and responsibility and you just pivoted and were adaptable to learn another language, to learn the culture, to learn how to best bring your best self into each new role that you had. That was probably the biggest thing that stuck out with me.

Yeah. When you jump into a new culture like that, and even, you know, the Japanese joint venture was in the US but we had 190 Japanese Foreign Service employees in the organization. You quickly become fluent in pieces of their languages. So you have to be numerically fluent initially and you need to be casually fluent in terms of social. But then when I was in South America, almost all the managers and Ford managers in foreign countries can speak decent English. And you, you take care and make sure you're heard, but you become restaurant and directionally fluent as well as numerically fluent so that you can, you know, do your responsibilities and run your business.

It seems to me that because I think about all these different cultures that you bumped into, that they all had somewhat different ways of leading. And I'm wondering if you can tell us a little story in interacting with the varying cultures where there was an incident that just Brought you up short and you said, I really need to think about this differently moving forward. Do you have one like that?

Yeah, I was. You know, the Ford culture is particularly in manufacturing, any manufacturing, everything can be measured. And so I can find out if you've done your job for an hour or less than an hour, or all day or all week or by shift or whatever. And so those. All those numbers are available. And when I was in the Japanese joint venture, we were launching a new model year and we had a facility at the end of the line. So car was completely built, bought off all quality checks, and it went through what we would. We called it a waxing machine. But basically it was spraying a protectorate on the underbody of the car because it was going to be shipped all over the world. And that machine wasn't running terribly well. And the culture part was that the thing was designed and built and installed by our manufacturing engineering, Japanese employees. And they have. Mazda had a philosophy then, still does some, that the more you practice, the better you get. And you can always fix something that you haven't done correctly the first time, but you need to make sure that the process is always moving forward, getting better every day, all the time. And that clashes with the US Culture and manufacturing that says, well, maybe you don't want to do that. Maybe you want to shut it down and fix it and then start it back up again. And that's more of the Toyota culture in terms of their lean manufacturing. And so those things clashed. And in order to get some results on that, before I was president of that, I was evp. And so I walked into the Japanese president's office and told him I needed his help, and if I could show him what the problem was, perhaps he could help me resolve it. And so the gentleman that was president of our assembly business and I walked out and looked at this machine and we stood there, you know, for about half an hour, just watched it work and not work and so on and so forth. And right after that short meeting, there was a flurry of Japanese elbows and they got the message because I couldn't communicate to them essentially the way they were used to being communicated to. But I knew I had a problem and I had to solve it. And so I used the resource of my boss, who was from the other culture, to make sure that we got the results we needed.

So, beautiful story. And this is, we always talk about developing personal, practical knowledge to do things. Colleen, what did you hear in that one that resonates with you around this development, development of ppk and the other thing we talk about leaders responsibility is to broker resources. I was probably in there too. What are you thinking Colleen?

Yeah, well I really like Jim, how you articulated that problem solving and how both of the cultures kind of addressed it a little bit differently. And so how, you know, might you address this? Because you know, there's a couple different ways you could go about it and yet you weren't quite certain. And so the big piece that I really appreciated is how you kind of went to your boss and asked for help. Right. Many times I think leaders, especially in those senior level positions, they think that's a sign of weakness. When you know from our perspective that is a huge sign of your self awareness and recognizing that perhaps you need to broker some resources such as your boss, as you mentioned, to bring him down to really co create a solution so you could move the productivity line forward. And that's what I heard you say. You did, you said come on, let's go on down. You stood there side by side for a little while trying to sort this out and just really that working together, that collaborative effort produced that end result that you were looking for.

Did she get you right there, Jim?

Yeah, I think so. But I think the basis for how, you know, the way I way I thought or still think in terms of solving problems was the first 20 years in Ford when I was in essentially project management and in manufacturing we led the, we put a mini company together at every launch. And so if it was a small launch of a new car for a new model year and it was just a new grill and headlights and tail lights, you know, we'd spend two weeks there. But if it was a major launch, we would have sometimes as many as 200 engineers purchasing people, material planning people on site, in a trailer rental trailer village outside the plant. And that's where, you know, we didn't get to go home until we had the line running properly at the highest quality levels that we could achieve. And you later in my career when I was in that roles in that organization, I was responsible for that launch and I had built a rapport. And so if I had a problem, I could call the director of purchasing for Ford Motor Company. But all those people that reported back to get, for instance that guy or the chief engineer for body engineering, whatever, none of those people worked for me. I had no direct line of authority to those people. And so you have to build a team in order to get team results. And so that's kind of how I look at my whole career doing that. And One of the. And you and I have talked about this, but one of the essential pieces of that is you go to work every day thinking, I can learn something today that I didn't know about, or I can hone something. And sometimes you learn that you learned the same thing you learned yesterday, but not always.

Yeah, there's always something. So one of the things we did in a previous podcast with another leader, that leader talked about staying in learning so they could develop more practical knowledge. And I do have a question, though. I really. You. You made me think of something. You have people from these different divisions. Right. And their collective work is supposed to produce a product that people will use and enjoy. Right. And there are metrics to make sure we're doing this. All right, how did you help them? See the interdependencies that are going on between the different shops? Tell me a little story about how you helped them or what you did so that they could recognize how what I'm doing over here is impacting the end state. Of course. And I also need to understand what's happening in these divisions around me.

Well, for instance, during a launch like that, you have a daily problem meeting, and you have leaders from manufacturing areas, body shop, paint shop, trim and chassis, vehicle evaluation. The quality guys from not only the manufacturing group, but quality guys from world headquarters have a license to show up and tell you that you're wrong. So, which happened often. But you make sure that you have prioritization on the key issues to stop annoying the customer. The speeches that I would give when I would visit my plants and talk with union leaders, and I'll explain some of that a little later on. But you always talk about quality and cost and delivery, which are the tenants of the Toyota production system and their effect on the customer. So we're not doing this for us. We're not doing this because you're a nicer person than I am or your boss is bigger than my boss. We're doing it for the customer. And if you keep it toned and directed at, what is this most significant problem causing us not to be able to meet our quality targets or cost targets, our production targets, because all of those have a money fallout. And even worse, if we can't make our quality targets, I can't ship the car, or we won't let ourselves ship the car, which was a strong ethic then. So you go through that, sharing the issues, hopefully maintaining priority on what is the key issue that has to be solved right now, and you get the resources attached to it.

So that's really interesting. So you actually opened up a whole bunch of things for us to talk about. But Colleen, what struck you the most in that set of sentences as he was talking about gathering different subsets of people together and of course having the oversight from the head shed, what struck you?

Yeah, well, a couple different things. I mean, you talked about creating a shared vision that everyone is collectively working towards that customer centric experience. Right. Mentioning get in the car. Right. The car needs to be created in a safe way so it can roll off the line and, and really produce that experience that Toyota is known for. Right. And that the customer's expecting. So I thought that was really great that he pulled people together in a daily meeting. While people are focused on day to day operations, they're still remembering they are part of the team or the system interdependently that work together to problem solve, to ensure that the team collectively can move forward.

So.

So whether it's an issue in quality, it might impact multiple of those departments, but they can be there, solve it quickly so they can continue to move forward and get the results. So I like those consistent meetings and also that conversation around being customer centric and focused on that end result.

There's something there about that. I really like that too. Numbers and metrics matter and we could hit our numbers and miss the customer satisfaction piece unless there was some collaborative, interdependent set of methods to get there. Jim and I have chatted about that actually at other times, and I think they're, they're huge pieces and I'm not going to get to the role triangle today, which is one of the things I think Jim has noted for. Because these podcasts are fairly short and this one is winding down slightly in terms of time, not in terms of interest, because this has been great. But you mentioned that you on purpose and in a very intentional manner, kept the union with you in the march. Talk to us about that. Why did that matter so much? And then tell me a little bit about how you did it.

Well, again, when I was in the project management section of my career, the union was not in my focus. I would talk to them. I knew that they were powerful in their own right and have the ability to influence the outcome. So you respect them, you abide by the rules, you don't do anything stupid. But we were focused on getting quality up to date, throughput, corrected, no mistakes, car to the customer, car or truck to the customer. So later in my career, when I had responsibility for manufacturing facilities, union relationships become pretty important. And every time I would go to a plant. It had to be at every plant every month for cost and quality meetings. And we had a set agenda that we set up around lean manufacturing. But again, the first thing that we ever discussed with anyone in any meeting and all of our manufacturing meetings had a common purpose, even when the president of the company would want to go visit a plant for some PR thing is we talked about safety first, and that's obviously a very important thing to the union. And by addressing that first, that respects their concerns. I would also then meet with the union leadership group and basically give a business 101 on cost of manufacturing, the impact of poor quality, the structure that makes profits for companies. The reason we have to be lean, the reason we have to be low cost and high quality at the same time, is that the better the quality, the less you're going to spend on warranty and things like that. The faster you can get the product to the consumer, less disruptions you have in the system, you eliminate waste within the company and so on and so forth. Part of your job is to be a teacher as a manager or a leader, and we can talk about those conflicts sometime. But you have this responsibility for results, and you can achieve them by focusing on several different things. And consistency of focus is very, very important. And you need to respect who you're talking to in terms of how you couch that message.

Yeah, to respect somebody in that bargaining unit, and especially the leadership, will always pay dividends. And what I really loved about what you said in the last little section is you help people understand that your interest in doing this well with, not because you thought it should be good, but because the entire system was designed to produce a product that the customer would be more than satisfied with. And I really love that. And if. If you can get everybody in these different spaces on board, you win. You win. So I've got to think that we have more to talk about. Jim, I think this has to be our first podcast. I'd like to talk next time about how you approached Lean and Six Sigma, because they aren't the same. They're not the same. And so many people say them in the same. They make different Lean Six Sigma. And people wander around thinking, oh, I guess that's one thing that we have to work on. It's just not true. So I'd really want your insight on that, on how you help people understand those distinctions and how, in fairness to everybody working in this arena of process improvement, that the Six Sigma piece has so much to do with the customer. So those of you that are listening, I want you to hear the next one because I think that's going to be nothing but fun. Colleen, what resonated most for you today in this podcast?

Yeah, well, I just want to say the other thing that popped up for me was another podcast. I wrote this one down too, Jim. Manager, leader, teacher, briefly touched on those three roles. And I think there's another great opportunity to get some of your guidance and insights, Jim, in the future on another podcast. But I think the biggest thing that really resonated with me was, Jim, when you mentioned the importance of showing up in a space of learning. We meet with C suite clients a lot. We do executive coaching with them. And, and many times people don't have, we call it the leadership with itness or the leadership presence to recognize when they're not showing up in a space of learning or when they show up in a space of knowing and how that impacts the team and the environment where people feel comfortable in sharing their thinking and how that in turn really limits decision making. Right. And because they're. If when you're getting limited data that you need to make an informed decision, then perhaps it might not be the best decision that you possibly could make. So I really appreciate the fact of the importance of showing up in learning.

There's something there that created a space of safety for those that you're working with. How did Colleen's thinking land on you, Jim?

Well, it reminded me of something that is developed in my thought process over time when you look back at very charismatic people who are leaders in an organization, but not necessarily managers. And so they are leading by their charisma, perhaps without full knowledge of what they're really supposed to be doing. And you get a cult of personality as opposed to a boiling pot that gives you results instead of whatever. And so you have to have people who have the leadership ability and the management ability to get people organized. And that's, you know, you talked about it, you know, the leading, the managing and the learning. The funny story I also tell is that when I was in high school, my mother was very worried that I was going to be a nobody. And so she forced me to.

All of our mothers probably thought that. Please continue.

So, anyway, I was privileged to spend four Saturday mornings at the University of Michigan in their personnel area. I can't remember the name of the stuff because I was senior in high school, but aptitude tests and what did I like and what I didn't like, and I became an engineer because I didn't like people and didn't want to deal with them. That worked for me then. But as career progressed, how do you get things done? Well, you can't talk to a machine. Well, maybe you can nowadays, but you couldn't then. You can't. It doesn't respond to profanity or kicking it. And so you have to learn how to teach and you have to learn how to have, you know, quote a great book title, learning Organization. And so my leadership skills developed through that transition. And, you know, the desire to constantly learn or not think that you can't learn anything more is essential to that. And to learn that as you go and then become the teacher to the organization of why you want to do things differently. And people can get embroiled in the technicalities of lean manufacturing. How do I keep my workspace clean? Why can't I in this big battle with the union, why can't we have a 15 minute conversation with our teams and shut all the lines down and just have talk? Well, we eventually segued into that because we got good results. But, you know, the finance guys went crazy because we shut the line down for 15 minutes. So there's a big transition through a career and if you can't make that transition, you're kind of stuck at whatever level you stop at. But it's, for me, it's been fun to sit back and look back on the career and analyze why things worked and why things didn't. And that's another part of the fun about talking about it.

Okay, so this is going to be fun. So, Colleen, please add a little learning organization piece. I love this because when it was given to me, I kind of glommed onto it right away. I was at a talk about what do leaders do? And we had people from all different leadership walks of life in the room and the person leading the seminar said, leaders do three things and they do them over and over and over. They design, they teach, and they steward. So the next time we talk, I'm going to probably get you started there and then shift into our other pieces. And Jim, I think we got a series, if you're willing. We have a series of podcasts for us to do that I think the people listening will absolutely love. So I hope you are willing and I'm really grateful that you came on with us today.

Great.

So, Callie, final thoughts for this one.

Yeah. Just once again, really appreciate your insights and looking forward to learning more. I mean, I think we just brushed kind of the top of the wave, so looking forward to learning more and diving a little bit deeper in some of your guidance on our next podcast.

Excellent. Excellent. Those are Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us. Jim Solberg is my friend and he is a wonderful friend and a wonderful man and I look forward to learning more from him. I look forward to learning more from him and I hope you enjoyed the conversation. Remember, this is conversational leadership. That's really what this is all about, that the effective, effective leaders. Effective leaders generate and sustain quality relationships how through conversation. You've been wonderful. Thank you so much for being part of us today. We look forward to the next time and we're going to. I'm going to go wrestle him back in here again so that we can go after these next set of podcasts that we're going to do. Thank you for listening. Take care, be well. And if you're listening to this around the holiday season, which I bet you will, happy holidays to all of you. Thank you. Sincerest thanks for listening to this episode.

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