Frontline Innovators

Mario Aguirre is the Project Manager of Programs, Change & Analytics at a Major Electric Utility. He has over 15 years of management experience in diverse areas. He is driven by his profound desire for a positive impact on others. He joins host Justin Lake and together they talk about some of the biggest challenges the deskless workforce faces. 

Takeaways 

• The deskless workforce is becoming less and less deskless. Innovation in technology is great but with it comes technology that makes those frontline workers tied to certain areas such as trucks or cars. 

Quote of the show

0:42 “The deskless workforce is becoming less and less desk-less as innovation is being deployed much closer and closer to those frontline employees… As leaders of innovation, we have to ensure that our leaders are engaging those frontline employees and making sure to have a process to do that. What we're deploying is ensuring that our leaders observe the frontline employees and that they seek input from those frontline employees, they solution the opportunity, then they communicate the solution.”

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mario-aguirre-782b90149/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

Sally Fahey, a Global Black Belt - Modern Work Specialist, and First Line Worker at Microsoft, has had the privilege and experience of working with some of Australia's most iconic brands. After graduating from school she worked with a large telecommunications company, where she discovered she really likes how technology can help organizations. Sally is also a Prosci certified change practitioner and she joins host Eugene Signorini to discuss some of the biggest challenges that frontline workers are facing. 

Takeaways 

• The biggest challenge facing the deskless workforce is being understood. It’s important for management to understand the role frontline workers play in the company so they can better help.

Quote of the show

0:54 “I think it's as simple as being understood. So it's having people understand the work that they do, the environment that they do it in, and the tools and processes they need to do the work they do today. But also how their role fits in the broader ecosystem of an organization, because these are the people that are making the products for our customers.”

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-fahey/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

Kristine Dunn is the Manager, Organizational Change and Learning at DTE Energy. She is a certified professional and talent developer with ATD. She has a background in developing cultures, leaders, and teams to create a positive employee experience. Kristine and host Justin Lake discuss some of the challenges that plague frontline employees.

Takeaways 

• The biggest challenge facing the frontline workers today is balancing their daily work while also staying connected to the extended teams back at the office. 

Quote of the show

20:39 “Right now we're introducing a lot of new technology to help them work more efficiently. And with that comes this major transition of going from an expert and having that expert status to a learner or a novice… but the reality is it takes time to move back into that expert status again.”

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisdunncplp/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

Doug Eichhorn, Vice President of Change Enablement at Whole Foods Market has extensive retail experience with over 25 years in various leadership roles. He is both BMI and Prosci certified. Doug joins host Justin Lake to discuss what frontline workers are going through and some of the challenges they face, like the rapid pace of changing information.

Takeaways 

• The biggest challenge facing the deskless force is making sure that they have enough time to adapt to the changes that are coming towards them. 

Quote of the show:

0:38 “I think one of the biggest challenges they face is giving those team members that desk-less workforce enough time to absorb the changes that are coming down.

So many times there are multiple originators of work or multiple originators of change requests to that team and team member that they just don't get enough time to actually absorb the change and be able to process through what it means to them, how it impacts their day to day, what it means to do work differently before the next change is hitting them all.”

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-eichhorn/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

Tulsi Keshkamat, Product Management Director - Modern Workplace Transformations at Microsoft has empathy for all the deskless workers and wants to empower them to be the best they can be. She recognizes that digital transformation impacts those on the frontline first and foremost. She joins host Eugene Signorini to talk about ways that upper management can better help those who work on the frontline.

Takeaways 

• Frontline workers need to be a prominent part in the conversation about digital transformation as it affects them more than anyone else. 

Quote of the show:

1:13 “One of the things that this pandemic has brought front and center is that digital transformation, as we think about it for an organization, Critical information workers or what we call the people who have desks, but it is also critical to frontline workers or what you described as the set of people who are desk-less, they're typically mobile first, but the pandemic really did a good, good job of showing us how critical they are.

The world cannot run without them. That just became immediately obvious, but also it became important for us to realize that they need to be part of this conversation of digital transformation. If we don't include them, we are going to be left behind and we can't adjust to the changes that are happening.”

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tulsik/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

Today’s guest has been working in the natural gas industry since 1995. He worked his way from the bottom of the industry to being a foreman on sites, which is where he discovered his passion for helping people and interacting with them. Now, Brent Shoemaker is the Applications Process Improvement/Training as a Consultant at Williams. He sits down with host Justin Lake to talk about some of the biggest challenges that frontline workers face today. 

Takeaways 

• The biggest challenge facing the frontline workforce today is the rapid change in technology and all different kinds of regulations to follow. 

Quote of the show: 

22:17 “We had this massive puzzle and everybody's a piece of that puzzle. You need to know where you're at within that puzzle and how you understand and make sure that the end user knows where they are, how they fit with all these other pieces that creates this one puzzle.

Because the work that they would do on, in their role affects somebody either positive or negative downstream, or vice versa. So it was teaching people, here's Maximo, or here’s Piqua, or here's a locus or here's GIS. Here's these applications and here's how to use it. But here's why you're asking, being asked to use them. And this is how you use it within your role.”

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-shoemaker-7330361a0/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

Adrianne Kelly, Change Management Manager at a major CPG company, has firsthand experience as a frontline worker having worked at a grocery store for over 7 years. While there, she would watch as new people were hired and she developed them to become district managers or be very successful at other companies. Adrianne joins host Justin Lake to share her insights about the biggest challenges facing those on the frontline, such as the amount of time it takes to adapt to new technology.

Takeaways 

• The biggest challenge facing the deskless workforce today is the assumption that learning new technology will be easy no matter what age you are. 

Quote of the show:

15:12 “In all honesty, my first few months or so I literally got trained by the people who worked for me. They showed me everything.

I was like, okay, you're going to have to take, if it's a half day, if it's 15 hours, if it's 20 minutes, just take me through every app that a frontline leader uses and how they use it in the field. Take me out to the field. Let's look at product lines. Let's look at sales, let's look at everything that we need to look at.

And that's how I got acclimated to it. It was truly like what we were talking about earlier. It was truly like I had to get my hands on it. I had to kind of bypass my own fears and say the only way that I'm going to be able to teach this is to learn it. So I need to go learn it.”

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianne-kelly-65b709a/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

Jennifer Pickert earned her degree in theater and has adapted those skills to help in her role as Manager of Change Leadership - Front Line Operations at Southwest Airlines. While directing plays in college she learned how to have interactions with people that built great relationships. Jennifer shares with host Justin Lake that sometimes the best way to solve issues facing those on the frontline is by simply asking them what you can do to better help them.

Takeaways 

• The biggest challenge facing frontline workers today is finding a way to communicate effectively with management about what changes are happening and what it means for them.

Quote of the show:

2:29: “Truly at the end of the day I really believe what moves that needle, are relationships. It's not going to be about the fancy newsletter that you put out with a digital sign that you show, it's really about understanding the culture and the dynamics at a specific location. Be that an airport, an area headquarters, like wherever that environment is and going there and understanding what people are up against, understanding what their days look like, understanding what's most important to them. You can't win hearts and minds without knowing their language.”

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-pickert-6273391/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

On today’s episode of Frontline Innovators, the guest went to school for chemical engineering and has spent his entire life in technology. Alok Pant, the CEO at Unvired Inc, joins host Euegene Signorini. Together they go over some of the biggest challenges that deskless workers face, such as learning new apps designed to make their lives and jobs easier out in the field. 

Takeaways 

• The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed every company to switch as much as they can to digital rather than paper, and this creates more technology for those on the frontline to learn with very little training and constant updates and changes

Quote of the show

17:03 “If you think of change management, OCM, it starts with leadership. Right from the CEO to the vice presidents, everybody has to be committed to something they're trying to change, the process. And that's why digitization is happening. So I think it starts from leadership.

A very important component of change management is communication to all stakeholders, to all your employees, even to maybe board members, investors. the money spent is significant, and of course, to your vendors. Communication has to be key. That's what we found.”

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alokpant/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS 

The pandemic has had an effect on all frontline workers that we are still trying to understand today. That’s what today’s guest sees as one of the major issues that frontline workers face. Cristina Rivera, the Manager of Future Ready Workforce at PepsiCo, has a passion for finding new ways to make others lives easier. She joins host Justin Lake to sit down and talk about how not only the pandemic, but the speed of change are some of the issues that currently plague today’s deskless workforce. 

Takeaways 

• The biggest challenge facing the frontline workers today is the speed in change of skills.

Quote of the show

15:34 “​Any time we want to roll out something with the intent to make their lives easier that with the intent to make things smoother or more effective, the fear comes in. I think that fear is one of the biggest things that people who are in charge of change management and any culture shift in an organization, those human elements are the pieces that we have to tend to the most because that's what is changing much more than my behaviors and me pushing whatever buttons.”

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristinamrivera/

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS