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[Music] [Applause] welcome to supply chain now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience the people the technologies the best practices and today's critical issues the challenges and opportunities stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now hey good morning scott luton here with you on supply chain now welcome to today's show hey on this episode special episode we're talking with a leadership dynamo that helps companies create an army of problem solvers a culture of problem solvers and much much more she's a sought-after executive coach strategy consultant and keynote speaker and she hosts her own podcast series the lean i'm sorry the lead lean podcast i think i've got that right so you're in store for a treat today a repeat guest which we love here at supply chain now let's welcome in crystal davis crystal how you doing hi scott thank you so much for inviting me back i love it love it love it and i'm so excited to be here today well we're glad to have you know this has been a um to get you back we had to go through your agent and your uh your agent's agent and my email agent that's right well you've been you've been busy and it was neat to catch up at the end of 2020 and and finally get you back on here because we didn't we didn't talk enough i guess it was um was that may 2019 does that sound about right i think it was yeah when you were you were in atlanta or you know you you hail from atlanta but you were uh amy came to atlanta and brought amd came to atlanta they had their regional meeting here that's right and you keynoted i think mark braun also keynoted uh absolutely good stuff so you somehow influenced me and now i have a podcast i don't know what happened well and we're going to talk about that too i'm not surprised in the least bit as we talked about um so we're gonna chat about that in a minute so first off for the handful of folks that don't know you and for some of the folks that maybe weren't listening to our podcast when you first came on let's get to know crystal davis a little better so tell us where you're from and and tell us about your upbringing a little bit absolutely so i'm crystal yvette davis that's what the y stands for i hail from jackson mississippi so i'm a country girl i uh i'm a mississippi state uh hell state bulldog so i always get into fights about you know who's the real bulldog you know over here in georgia we just lost half our audience i know right no but i i play fair i play fair i love all the bulldogs and i love the sec so you know we're we're good there we're good there and as long as they beat alabama well you know i just have to put that in there in georgia i have to represent the bulldogs here well so um you were you graduated industrial engineering degree from mississippi state right from mississippi state yes so uh so that's well above my pay grade every time i talk with a professional engineer that's that's too much math for me but what was it you know why did you choose ie you know what was interesting i went into um i went into college thinking that i wanted to be in computer science and computer engineering and um while i loved technology i i felt like there was a side of me that was just i felt like that was that was going to it didn't represent my personality that's the best way to say it so i actually went on a hunt to every engineering school and talked to the deans talk to some students and when i landed in the ie department what i loved about it was the interaction with the human being and that fit my personality uh and so that's how i how i landed um there you know and being able to to to impact change um we all need folks that want to impact change i love that hey one more question before we we talk about more of your professional journey kind of after college uh so jacks what was it like give me one thing about what it was like growing up in jackson mississippi my brain always goes to food and and like the places that you grew up loving to eat at you know i think with southerners we enjoy that but um what's one thing that was special about growing up in jackson you know what one thing that i found special so i'm a 70s baby giving my age away but one thing that i found special was um it was it was peaceful and it was rich in family and friends and culture and uh and then there were just for for me in particular my family had you know very high expectations and we just we loved family time most of my friends were family right and cousins love her yeah did you come from a big family lots of cousins like i do yeah yeah yep nothing like it family nothing like it and sunday dinners sunday dinners homemade things from scratch homemade biscuits and oh gosh yeah yeah you got to stop crystal you're still i'm about to starve now um well hey one more uh i was oh culture you mentioned culture and that because that seemed like an early lesson learned an early value strongly associated with culture that that seems like it would it would play out with the rest of your career and we're going to we'll probably circle back and talk about culture here in a minute but let's talk about your professional journey so after college you kind of walk us through you know a couple of key roles to help shape your world view so after college i landed at a tier three in the automotive industry and i made my way up to um to tier one and so i went uh i spent 17 years in the automotive industry and that really shaped my life that's like 57 years in any other industry right it is and people don't understand that they used to talk about the life expectancy after you retire from automotive because just high stress very fast paced high volume but the the blessing in my automotive journey was it took me around the world and so you've got this little country girl from jackson mississippi that ends up in working in spain and working in portugal and germany and you know all around the world working four and a half years in mexico um so you know i learned so much and i i think going back just briefly to the culture piece that um my family always just focused on treating people right okay and i think that helped me be able to learn and be open to all of these cultures that i that i experienced um in moving around but the automotive industry probably uh was for me uh the most prevalent part of my career because that is where i learned lean before i learned six sigma lean and six sigma uh both in the automotive industry but really cut my teeth and lean in the automotive industry well if i am familiar with your bio accurately enough i think you you had some time spent with toyota senseis we're really learning now you talk about the big eureka moment those two um gentlemen uh rick harris and mr yamada they taught me so much um very tough teachers but i wouldn't trade the experience um scott because um i learned the true essence of um you know what we were doing before my encounters with both of them i was more of a person that was really just focused on tools and tactics and and process improvement i learned so much from from rick about understand understanding the whole business um and understanding the connection between everything and then from mr yamada i learned about corporate responsibility community responsibility understanding the financials understanding where the business was going and how all of that plays into continuous improvement but prior to both of those experience i was just you know i was happy learning tools and implementing tools and didn't understand the principles well you know what what's interesting though going back to um what you learn from your family about you know treating people right you know that early lesson learned in a role where you're driving change and you're working with people to drive change that's got to be a critical early lesson learned to impact your career as well right oh absolutely because um you know i although i had that lesson as a child you come out of college right you're supposed to be this hot shot engineer and people are looking to you for answers and what i learned was that you know um before i went to mexico i was working in factories where people had they you know they were at 45 years in and still working and so i had to learn to respect that the people who have worked there all this time are truly experts that's right yeah right and and although i might know some engineering and some math and science um i needed to learn how to respect show respect and that's how i started to learn the true essence of what that means i love that you know we're going to bring you back because i bet you could write several books on your 17 years in automotive alone and then there's so many big issues facing that industry here today but we'll have to we'll have to bring you back to address some of that let's talk about one of my favorite topics which you're you're touching already is leadership all right we're i'm a i'm a big old leadership nerd all right um so let's the pandemic uh you can't overstate it enough of course it's changed life in so many different ways it's also helped it's also whether we like it or not probably shape most people's views on what real no-nonsense practical leadership's all about so any any any thoughts on how your view on leadership has has evolved a bit in recent months yes let's see i i could talk forever on this but i'm gonna i'm gonna identify a couple of things here one thing that i've noticed um is that um i think that a lot of uh people in leadership roles um are being tested on in a number of facets from the pandemic one um i've seen actually more micromanagement than i've seen in years and i and the second thing is busyness so with zoom or well i won't cause them specifically but with virtual meetings um i think that that they've lost sight of you know there are people that make decisions have made decisions when when they were physically on site that they've now taken that power and that autonomy away from them because they're of the micromanagement and constantly being in meetings and needing to be informed about every aspect so i think from the perspective um of some some organizations the crisis of being able to deliver to customers having you know choppy supply chains has led a lot of organizations to where they're managing down too much the second thing that um had that kind of surprised me i don't know why um is that we've lost a little bit of human um the human appeal and respect so working virtually now means that the boundaries of work and home are blurry and a lot of people don't recognize that and i know early on and this may have softened some i know early on you know there were lots of lots of questions around well how do i know that people are working how can i measure productivity with people working remote and again you know thinking very tactically instead of thinking about the person and thinking about the strategic elements of what actually needs to get done what are the milestones that are important not what tasks are you doing every day so those are two two things that have really stood out uh on the negative side on the positive side i've seen some very beautiful um things happen not only as a result of the pandemic but some of the social things that happened because we were all still that people started to pay attention to and so i've seen a lot of good human kindness empathy desire to learn and connect more with people at a human level and i love it when i see uh people and their kids will run into the shot you know and they'll get embarrassed and i'll say don't be embarrassed why don't you introduce your child like this is an opportunity that like none other this these are just normal work now so so those are some of the some of my views um i do think that it's a it's a precarious position for leaders because there's so many uncertainties i mean the environment is so volatile how how you make decisions how much risk you take um you know how you hold people accountable to performance metrics all of that's changed and i think people are still figuring some things out so you know i imagine uh one of the things that helps you successfully navigate and help organizations navigate you've got a variety of experience in different sectors as i recall from our last couple conversations and and so kind of seeing a unique and common challenges in different ways organizations and leadership teams have tackled that but you know also i know you do um executive coaching and certainly i can tell you from a supply chain now standpoint we've relied on advisors key advisors have been there and done that and helped us navigate these times when when everyone is surprised to some degree some folks more so than others but really leaning on um that that internal or external expertise and talent and leadership has been really important um we could talk about leadership i feel like probably you and i for for hours on the end but i love that the the human element you speak to because there is if you really go looking for it there's lots of good news and there's lots of learning uh taking place and there's i think uh folks are leaning leaning into some of the conversations that they have shied away from for a long time and that's when we we all can tackle things together that need to be so let's talk about uh let's shift gears a bit we'll talk about continuous improvement uh i can hear the angels singing when i bring up that that phrase continuous improvement so let's let's um i've got two questions i'm going to ask you one thing that that you see that works well and one thing you see time and time again it doesn't so for starters when it comes to continuous improvement what's one thing that you see leaders or organizations do that's really just a core best practice so a little off script of my normal answer so i like that in the framework of of the pandemic one of the things that i have really appreciated is i know in the beginning right in crisis when things are so unstable people kind of relaxed their their ci initiatives but one of the things that um i'm very excited to see and i think has been done right is that in the in the same way that leaders are trying to figure out how to deal with people working remote they're also trying to figure out how to continuously improve when you have a hybrid organization where you may have people on site and your centralized functions like supply planning uh remote and so it's not the ci way that we are traditionally accustomed to but i'm very delighted that people still recognize the importance and the value that continuous improvement can bring to an organization and i and and what i said in the beginning because i'll be honest with you a lot of a lot of my colleagues felt like oh no you can't do you know you can't do it the right way if you're not on site and so we had to learn to evolve right to figure out what tools and techniques could work virtually because here was my push back to them if ever there was a time to solve problems it's now no kidding it is now businesses are struggling to try to figure things out you know just think about from a supply planning perspective when we're accustomed to depending on forecast no matter how uh unreliable or inaccurate they are that's our lifeblood we look at the forecast well the forecast means absolutely nothing now because behaviors have completely changed right right so it's that kind of stuff that i'm i'm very appreciative of that the the companies that were true to continuous improvement have continued to try to figure it out they have to they have shifted but they have continued to try to figure it out so uh just a follow-up question there do you think it is given the current environment with some of the dynamics that you're speaking to and i'm speaking to is it is there any difference in terms of the difficulty of driving change pre-pandemic to hopefully soon post pandemic but this in current environment can can you compare and contrast that for a minute is it about the same is it a little bit easier since there's so much pain folks are looking for solutions or is it is it tougher um so it's a great question i would say that it's a little bit of both s
it's tougher for organizations that try to stick with with their their normal um ci plan instead of making the pivot so i call that uh you know we have this plan we may have a three-year plan of the things we need to go out and do but you need to be able to pivot to the just-in-time challenges that the organization is having so the organizations that that were able to pivot effectively they're faring well um in that aspect the organizations that try to stick to the plan they're struggling somewhat yeah agreed from a pr perspective i think you know in retail we've seen tons of course sadly of lots of bankruptcies however uh on that list and all of them chalk it up you we hear leadership teams chalking up to the pandemic but i don't know about you but i knew some of those companies that i had interacted with pre-pandemic and the priorities were not right and you know so they were already struggling that the pandemic and these these shifting consumer patterns that you're speaking to which is is amazing such an incredible study on i guess psychology human behavior but that that was like the you know the straw that broke the camel's back in some cases uh but but to your point this this um the pivoting you know we've heard we've heard that and resilience and and you know whatever words we have we've also heard a lot of in the last 12 months but those companies that that boldly shifted gears despite the challenge despite that there was no certainty that it was all going to pay off and it's really there's been some to your earlier point there's been some really amazing leadership stories out there that we're going to be probably studying and writing about a lot more in the years to come oh absolutely i think you know for for you and i this will probably be the most vuca environment we will ever experience in our lifetimes really but you know volatile uncertain right complex ambiguous we got it all all at the same time these business schools they're going to have content for for decades to train folks on which is good uh you know several linings there's always good several linings and and you know some of the empathy you brought up and the human element all that certainly is part of silver linings here so you spoke about one of the things that you've seen that the folks get right when it comes to continuous improvement let's go to opposite now what's one thing that you've seen countless times or a couple of times that you should not do if you want to drive good successful change with your people focus on the tools only on the tools i think you know the tools are the tools and they are you know a core element or aspect of of both lean and six sigma i think that the mistake though is to only focus there and not do two things have the principles that align with the core values of the company and connect the ci strategy or plan to the business those are the two biggest mistakes because most of the time they focus on the tools thinking tools are or magic wands right exactly exactly you know and uh and and and the value to the business is that it needs to align with the business problems and the business strategy right i could take any of those tools and go out and make something grand make an improvement see a productivity hit but if it doesn't serve the business it's for not um it doesn't help business grow or save customers or expand why do it yeah okay i love that um along the same lines when it comes to tools i think of professional development and i think of uh um you know all the training that really you know companies seemingly pre pandemic had cut corners on training and and uh you know investing in in workforces in some cases and i bet they really it bit them here in the last you know 12 15 months but on the other hand i was counting your credentials as i told you pre-show crystal i was trying to figure out okay what's the best way to introduce and i've got 18 pages to pull from a certified leadership development coach by the john maxwell team certified lean six sigma black belt uh of course you've got your mba from sanford and all beyond on top of and other things on top of your your ia degree right before we um we talk about your radio your podcast can you just speak to our community here about the value of really investing in yourself regardless pandemic or no pandemic oh absolutely um this is again going back to my mississippi background my my father used to say to me he's like you know as i was growing people say read a book save money read a book save your money and those those messages were ingrained in me and the one thing that i say about you know the read a book part is that whatever knowledge you acquire no one can take it away from you and as long as you are figuring out how you can apply that in what you love doing it i find it to be a beautiful marriage now i'm a i'm a probably more an aggressive learner i feel i'm a fact finder so my my kobe a is i'm a high fat finder so i love information i love learning i love um data but for just you know anyone else who learn about who you are your personality and again those skills as long as they help you do what you love doing you you can find it in a book you don't need to have a degree you can get all sorts of certifications or take webinars the plethora of information out there agreed and lots of prestigious uh organizations have been offering up for free that's been a neat development in recent years but read a book save money words lit by read a book save money what's your father's name james davis james davis read a book save money love it um all right so now let's talk about it i can't only imagine i don't know if when you're getting sleep at night crystal uh you launched the lead lean podcast i want to say in the last six months or eight months or so is that roughly actually yes october time frame october okay so uh tell me why why'd you launch it and and tell me just how much how much fun it is and why do you do it great question so i wasn't i wasn't podcasting was on my bucket list at some point in the future but um i actually had someone reach out to me about this opportunity and it's a unique opportunity one like i've never heard before so ibgr.network is a business talk radio and it's about helping entrepreneurs and business owners that want to eventually grow and possibly sell their businesses i've never had someone from a business angle reach out about lean and operations and so a friend of mine recommended me we talked and it just became a perfect marriage that i'm able to talk to um c-suite leaders small business owners about the things that i help you know large organizations be able to implement around lean i don't talk a lot about six sigma because that's you know the statistical part the data part it's probably it's way heavy for radio but to be able to help people understand operations and make it sexy and fun and help them grow their businesses i love it i love it um i i can tell and and i i'm looking forward to tuning in um you mentioned six sigma i i i've got some of that in my background as well and it can be you know especially if you're not if you're like me i'm not a mathematical genius by any stretch and it can make your eyes roll but it's funny how certain things stick with you i was interacting on twitter with one of my friends and she was writing invitations i can't remember what it was for and after 37 straight correct ones she messed up the 38th and i said she was bemoaning the fact that she's gotta you know get get 600 knocked out or something i said well you're not quite operating at one sigma hey we'll get there we'll get there um all right so how can folks connect with you how can folks tune in to your podcast so two ways one you can go to any um podcast uh provider and just search for the lead lien show and um if i may the lead lien show it's intentional because normally we talk about lean leadership and i believe that leadership is an action it's a verb and so i flipped it we have to lead lean you might have to chart that out for me crystal yeah i mean i'm a little bit slow sometimes so think about it this way when you think about lean leadership you think about an individual or people or a group of people right and leading can be from anybody at any level right john maxwell says leadership is influence right not a position or title right so when you think about when you think about leading you want to think about what's the action that i want people to take so whether that's a team lead a supervisor a manager a director what's the action that i want them to take not just tactically but how do they lead others love that so that's but you can find it at ibgr.network you can find the podcast on any podcast um channel and then you can also find it on the app there's an app for the radio so and uh we'll include links in the show notes to help make really easy we're after one click here for for what folks hear about um so you know uh as we thought uh before we kicked off the conversation i'm not gonna have enough time to ask all the questions i would like for you to speak to crystal but but hey we gotta leave folks wanting a little bit more we'll bring you back next time and and hopefully live next time i'd love to get some the q a from from our audience and one of our favorite things these live streams um all right so we've already kind of talked about how folks can find your podcast how can folks connect with crystal davis though yes absolutely so the best way is linkedin linkedin is the new facebook and uh it's easy crystal with a c crystal y davis you just search for me there and you'll be able to connect and um we can inbox there as well and you know as we conduct this interview you're speaking on a panel at an event this week i know you do a lot of keynotes and panel sessions and just like we met when we first met you were keynoting for the association for manufacturing excellence so i would just add to that uh if you cannot find crystal through any of those methods she just shared uh keep your social radar on because you'll see her on the keynote circuit very regularly uh so a lot of good stuff there all right so one big final question for you so we have got football well that's baseball right on the corner but you know football year-round football down here right so what is mississippi mississippi state how many games are going to win in the 2021 season i'm gonna be fair here you know i want to say all of them but i'll be fair they're gonna win they're gonna they're gonna win i want to say eight okay we'll roll with it eight wins and we're gonna hold you to it i'm not professing it right now scott [Laughter] well uh crystal such a pleasure to connect with you um i really uh have enjoyed your perspective here uh there's so many more questions that we'll get to next time but uh we've been talking with crystal davis the lean coach inc and of course check her out check her podcast out lead lean podcast be sure to connect with her on linkedin and other social and and uh crystal we hope to see you again really soon thank you so much you bet all right so to our audience hopefully you've enjoyed this as much as i have this is really neat uh you know we all see those ask me anything sessions and some folks are good good at it and some folks aren't as good at it i'll throw myself in that ladder camp i got a sneaking suspicion crystal we could ask you anything and we could take it to the bank so we'll have to we'll have to uh test that theory down the road but hey uh be sure to check us out at supply chainnow.com on behalf of our entire team here scott luten wishing you nothing but the best hey do good give forward be the change that's needed on that note we'll see you next time here on supply chain now thanks everybody thanks for being a part of our supply chain now community check out all of our programming at supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain now 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