Frontline Innovators

This week on the Frontline Innovators we have a special guest who happens to be a Skyllful customer, Gary Brown, EAM Manager at Denbury, Inc.

Gary has a wealth of experience being on the frontline and now is on the operations side. Listen to Part 1 of the conversation and stay tuned for Part 2 next week.

Today's guest is a retired military pilot of 20 years turned change management professional - Sean McCarthy, Director, Change Management Lead at Takeda. 

Sean has realized that there are so many parallels between the change that happens in the military world versus the civilian world and thinks there is much more we can do to help the deskless workforce adopt the changes. 

Quote: "You can have the best technology in the world. If you can't use it as a community, as a business, let's face it, the military and that team together are using that technology to not just use it as one person, it's the whole community that's using it together to leverage and make everyone better. So, if you've got a frontline worker who's using the best technology but doesn't get how it's connected and everything else, then they're lost. They're not adding any additional value."

Here are a few key takeaways from the episode:

➖ Ask yourself: how can I use these technologies to be more productive, not just to gather more data?

➖ Usage is just getting people to log in, but adoption is actually integrating it into their workflows

➖ User Acceptance Testing is so valuable

➖ Understanding the gap between success and failure

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-mccarthy-9515b53b/

Company Website: https://www.takeda.com/

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS

Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators

Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw

Youtube - https://youtu.be/IJdSRmWM11w

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at https://www.frontlineinnovators.com

Today's guest has a passion for leading people, change management, and driving and evangelizing programs. Welcome Kayla Thorpe, Senior Manager of Professional Services at Softchoice. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated excellence in program and project management, technology implementations, employee experience, and end-user productivity.

Quote: "What I find when you're meeting with people is humans are humans, people are people. I can throw those numbers at people and sometimes they stick. Sometimes it resonates with folks. So I actually, instead of even bothering trying to quantify with data the value that adoption or change projects bring to any implementation or any change, whether it's technical or otherwise, rather than trying to give numbers and give data, I usually approach it from the human and the people perspective and I start to ask creative questions."

Here are a few nuggets of wisdom from her episode 🧠

➖ In order to anticipate where the stumbling blocks may be  along that path toward change, you have to be able to ask the right questions

➖ It's not enough to know what hardware the company has issued, you also have to know what hardware they're actually using whether is BYOD, etc.

➖ You've got to pull in the right people in the right times—And it can't just be IT, L&D, and HR 

➖ 85% of technology projects fail without the right tech adoption

➖ Aligning user adoption/change strategy into a customers existing problems makes it more meaningful

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaylathorpe/

Company Website: https://www.softchoice.com/

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS

Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators

Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw

Youtube - https://youtu.be/Ik3Jeo1dnWg

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at https://www.frontlineinnovators.com

This week's guest is Dave Rozelle, Senior Manager Learning Development at Take 5 Oil Change. 

Dave brings many years of management and supervisory experience supported by decades of computer and communications technology experience. Dave has developed new software products and is a strategic thinker and team builder. 

Quote: "It's a primary goal of what I'm doing with like our employee feedback surveys, is not to make the frontline feel better or to solve every possible complaint, but establish a level of comfort that you're willing to speak up. If you don't speak up and express a concern, it will never be resolved and without that level of confidence in the company from the frontline, you're just shooting in the dark."

Key Takeaways:

➖ Give clarity to your frontline above all else

➖ Culture is not what you want it to be but, the sum of people that exist in the organization today

➖ Even though everything you're saying/doing from the top is in line, your reality at the front line is not the same

➖ You've got to be able to close the feedback loop and come full circle

➖ You need to be able to establish a level of comfort that your frontline is willing to speak up

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daverozelle/

Company Website: https://www.take5.com/oil-change/

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS

Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators

Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw

Youtube - https://youtu.be/LZWm_hd6m8w

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at https://www.frontlineinnovators.com

This week's guest is Gail Norris, US Lead, SITRAIN Digital Industries Learning, Digital Industries Division at Siemens Industry

Gail is experienced in all aspects of customer and employee learning, performance management and optimizing organizational growth. She has extensive experience with tech support, consulting for contact centers, field service management, and meeting the needs of the frontline worker.

Quote: "I think if you focus on what does work, the biggest one to your point is communication. Making sure you've got that dialogue, making sure you've got the stakeholders engaged, and having an understanding of what the end goal is so that everybody can kind of revolve around the same thing."

Key Takeaways:

➖ Improve the employee experience and connect your people - and you'll retain and motivate them accordingly

➖ Appreciate and respect how different generations need support

➖ Make sure you have the stakeholders engaged and understanding the end goal

➖ We can't lose the human connection 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailnorris/

Company Website: https://www.siemens.com/us/en.html

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS

Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators

Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw

Youtube - https://youtu.be/qRePunV31ns

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at www.frontlineinovators.com

This week's guest is Steve Mason, General Manager - Field Service Management at GPS Insight.

Steve has extensive experience with tech support, consulting for contact centers, field service management, and meeting the needs of the frontline worker.

Quote: "You can't achieve a good outcome unless you're creating a great positive environment for your employees because otherwise their frustration that 'they can't deliver good service' is picked up by the customer."

Key Takeaways:

➖ Dark data is an invaluable asset for field service management

➖ Community-based approach to aggregating knowledge from other workers is key to passing the knowledge to other technicians

➖ You can't achieve a good outcome unless you're creating a great positive environment

➖ You need to fix systemic problems faster to go out to site less

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemason3/

Company Website: https://www.gpsinsight.com/

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS

Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators

Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw

Youtube - https://youtu.be/UMTC8VHVctA

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at www.frontlineinovators.com

This week's guest is Cori Chang, Organizational Change Management Sr. Manager at Unisys | Global OCM Team.

Cori has over 18 years of experience in helping organizations align strategy and improve performance, and she has expertise in developing and implementing effective Organizational Change Management strategies. She is skilled at working with all levels of management and staff to create innovative and sustainable solutions for the frontline.

Quote: "I think sometimes too, people don't feel like the automation's going to replace them and they'll lose their job. Sometimes that does happen, but I think the greater fear is that the automation is going to be so different that they won't have this capability to learn the new job well and that they'll just opt out and quit or they will, their fears, they'll get fired right, they won't be able to do the job."

Key Takeaways:

➖ Communicating to the frontline is not a cookie-cutter or one size fits all

➖ Leaders should empathize with the frontline worker's fears of automation

➖ Feedback loops are vital in communicating with the frontline

➖ OCM should not be brought in after a project fails - it should be included at the very beginning

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cori-chang-80579233/

Company Website: https://www.unisys.com/

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS

Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators

Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw

Youtube - https://youtu.be/Z3MfOubLES8

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at www.frontlineinovators.com

We're excited to be back from our hiatus! This week's guest is Gyner Ozgul, President & Chief Operating Officer @ Smart Care Equipment Solutions. 

Gyner has a passion for building successful teams and creating positive experiences, He has achieved significant success and growth in my career over the past 25 years by empowering teams to succeed. He oversees a commercial kitchen services business with exceptional technicians and a support team that serves customers nationwide.

Quote: "Don't wait for a stable process to fail. Step back from it and say, 'Hey, what could that be? If I kind of injected some thought into it, how could I make that better? How could I improve the experience for a frontline worker if I just took that and maybe did it totally differently or it just improved that process?' because if you run the failure, now you're kind of picking up the pieces and it's already too late."

Key Takeaways:

➖ Don't assume that all frontline workforces want to engage tech positively

➖ Knowledge is a currency in the organization

➖ As you get further up in the organization - you must stay accessible to the frontline

➖ Put your team in an environment where they can grow financially and professionally

➖ Don't wait for failure to start something new

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gynerozgul/

Company Website: https://smartcaresolutions.com/

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at www.frontlineinovators.com

We're excited for this weeks guest - Carl Hefele, the Director of Field Services East @ Idemia. 

Carl has extensive experience with field service operations and leads a large team for oversight and leadership for the Eastern half of the United States Service Operations Division.

Quote: "When I work with these people, I'm trying to use all of the experiences and all the headaches of everything I had and all the frustrations, you know? And it's just that all the life experiences, you know, we got to figure out a better way to do this."

Key Takeaways:

➖ Use all of your experiences to help the frontline in a situation

➖ Let the field techs know why you're asking for the data

➖ Learn how to scale knowledge to the frontline

➖ Don't put in garbage data or you'll get garbage reporting

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlhefele/

Company Website: https://www.idemia.com/

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at www.frontlineinovators.com

Join us for our newest episode with Marie Elliston, Sr. Manager Commercial Sales Learning and Development @ WestRock Company. Marie is a learning and development strategist with 15 years of experience delivering enterprise-wide change and talent management initiatives within the performance and product fields.

Quote: "I'm a big proponent of giving people a play space, whether it's a sandbox, if it's ai, let the people get used to it in a safe environment, rather than just throwing 'em into production and being like, 'Hey, good luck.'"

Key Takeaways:

➖ Kinesthetic learners need time to fail and figure it out themselves

➖ Encourage a continuous improvement loop

➖ You need to pinpoint the issues and assign them

➖ Having a sandbox for them to fail in is invaluable

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-e-4539bb186/

Company Website: https://www.westrock.com/

Here's other ways you can listen:

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

Find more episodes of Frontline Innovators at www.frontlineinovators.com