This is going to be a very short blog. Many people at Willmar Electric have been studying and reading about subject of LEAN construction. The book we are focusing on is "2 Second Lean" by Paul A Akers.
It is a great book. To learn more check out this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pDcmUvtL6w
To learn a lot more check out this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUmY8WnnpU
The website http://www.2secondlean.com/ has many more interesting videos that will get you fired up about continuous improvement.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
A Tale of Two Basketball Players
My oldest daughter Anne has gone off to college. That means we only have two children living with us full time.
Mike is a junior in high school. Sara is a freshman in high school. They both play basketball and that means my wife, Sue, and I get to spend our winter in the stands watching a lot of basketball.
Mike was recently promoted to the varsity. It is dream come true for him. (As a former basketball player that had to quit for health reasons in the middle of my sophomore season I will admit it is a dream come true for me as well.)
Well done Mike you are awesome. I was told by the coach that it came from hard work and practice.
Sara is a very good basketball player but has had injury problems the last two years. It has cut into her playing time and made getting on the court hard this season. But she is gutting it out and has told me that “she has three years left” and we are sure she will get back to 100%.
As a parent it is fun to watch your children play basketball. Especially fun when they score points.
But Mike’s position as the new guy on the varsity and Sara’s health means we haven’t seen huge point totals out of either of them.
That leads into the next two stories about this basketball season.
A few weeks ago we saw Sara sitting in the stands watching Mike play and talking to a girl that is about 3 years younger than Sara. Later that day that same youngster posted on Social Media how awesome Sara was.
It isn’t anywhere close to the first time we have heard from somebody about what a huge positive impact Sara has had in the life of a young child. In fact we hear it a lot. Sara wants to grow up and be a 4th grader teacher. It seems like a perfect fit.
Over Christmas break we were told on multiple occasions about how a younger high school player was excited because something made him more like Mike Chapin. The player had brought up many examples of being like Mike. But younger player wasn’t talking about jump shots or rebounds. It wasn’t Mike’s basketball life that he wanted be like.
He wanted to “be like Mike” the person.
If Mike or Sara finishes their basketball careers with 1,000 points we won’t be as impressed with them as we are with these two stories.
(P.S. We are sure that the same stories are going on at Bethel but we don’t know those students parents and siblings.)
Mike and Sara are People Making a Difference for People!!!
Mike is a junior in high school. Sara is a freshman in high school. They both play basketball and that means my wife, Sue, and I get to spend our winter in the stands watching a lot of basketball.
Mike was recently promoted to the varsity. It is dream come true for him. (As a former basketball player that had to quit for health reasons in the middle of my sophomore season I will admit it is a dream come true for me as well.)
Well done Mike you are awesome. I was told by the coach that it came from hard work and practice.
Sara is a very good basketball player but has had injury problems the last two years. It has cut into her playing time and made getting on the court hard this season. But she is gutting it out and has told me that “she has three years left” and we are sure she will get back to 100%.
As a parent it is fun to watch your children play basketball. Especially fun when they score points.
But Mike’s position as the new guy on the varsity and Sara’s health means we haven’t seen huge point totals out of either of them.
That leads into the next two stories about this basketball season.
A few weeks ago we saw Sara sitting in the stands watching Mike play and talking to a girl that is about 3 years younger than Sara. Later that day that same youngster posted on Social Media how awesome Sara was.
It isn’t anywhere close to the first time we have heard from somebody about what a huge positive impact Sara has had in the life of a young child. In fact we hear it a lot. Sara wants to grow up and be a 4th grader teacher. It seems like a perfect fit.
Over Christmas break we were told on multiple occasions about how a younger high school player was excited because something made him more like Mike Chapin. The player had brought up many examples of being like Mike. But younger player wasn’t talking about jump shots or rebounds. It wasn’t Mike’s basketball life that he wanted be like.
He wanted to “be like Mike” the person.
If Mike or Sara finishes their basketball careers with 1,000 points we won’t be as impressed with them as we are with these two stories.
(P.S. We are sure that the same stories are going on at Bethel but we don’t know those students parents and siblings.)
Mike and Sara are People Making a Difference for People!!!
Monday, January 6, 2014
Elmo Chapin Day 2014
Today would have been my Grandpa’s 92st birthday. Every year I send out a tribute to him and encourage others to consider leaving their world better than they found it in honor of him. I call it Elmo Chapin day.
Last year I posted this note and I am reposting it today.
Here is how my Grandpa worked. He was a servant. He thought that you should always leave a room or any other place in better shape than you found it.
So if he saw a piece of garbage on the floor he didn’t wonder who put it there. He picked it up and threw it away. If he was leaving a room he turned off the lights when he left the room.
He wasn’t perfect.
At times he left you wondering how a person could so easily notice and take care of three scraps of paper in a public restroom but was unable to clean the stacks of useless piles of paper out of his own office. The temptation to ask him how a 6 year old magazine on a subject he could care less about wasn’t garbage just like the paper towel you picked up off the floor ten minutes ago came to me quite often. His office was always beyond a mess.
My Grandpa not only used this concept on the small level I have suggested above but he carried it out to a much larger level. Thing that he worked on in his life like give to and supporting missionaries at church, starting the alarm division at Willmar Electric, and helping widows or the underprivileged are larger examples of his wanting to make the world a better place. Giving people a hand up in the world made his day.
Finding a job or a place to live for somebody down on their luck was typical of Elmo Chapin.
Over the past few years of my declaring an Elmo Chapin day I have received several warm responses from people about how much they appreciated and loved my Grandpa. They are always fun to receive. I have also seen countless examples of people being like Elmo Chapin. That is even more fun. (Even when it was Dan Williams shutting off the lights on a room full of people leaving us in complete blackness as he left the room. He laughed and we reminded him that shutting off the lights when you leave a room applies only if you are the last to leave!)
But his concern for his fellow man and the world around us was something we all need to try to emulate.
A link to another post on “Elmo Chapin Day 2012” is below.
http://willmar-electric.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-birthday.html
Last year I posted this note and I am reposting it today.
Here is how my Grandpa worked. He was a servant. He thought that you should always leave a room or any other place in better shape than you found it.
So if he saw a piece of garbage on the floor he didn’t wonder who put it there. He picked it up and threw it away. If he was leaving a room he turned off the lights when he left the room.
He wasn’t perfect.
At times he left you wondering how a person could so easily notice and take care of three scraps of paper in a public restroom but was unable to clean the stacks of useless piles of paper out of his own office. The temptation to ask him how a 6 year old magazine on a subject he could care less about wasn’t garbage just like the paper towel you picked up off the floor ten minutes ago came to me quite often. His office was always beyond a mess.
My Grandpa not only used this concept on the small level I have suggested above but he carried it out to a much larger level. Thing that he worked on in his life like give to and supporting missionaries at church, starting the alarm division at Willmar Electric, and helping widows or the underprivileged are larger examples of his wanting to make the world a better place. Giving people a hand up in the world made his day.
Finding a job or a place to live for somebody down on their luck was typical of Elmo Chapin.
Over the past few years of my declaring an Elmo Chapin day I have received several warm responses from people about how much they appreciated and loved my Grandpa. They are always fun to receive. I have also seen countless examples of people being like Elmo Chapin. That is even more fun. (Even when it was Dan Williams shutting off the lights on a room full of people leaving us in complete blackness as he left the room. He laughed and we reminded him that shutting off the lights when you leave a room applies only if you are the last to leave!)
But his concern for his fellow man and the world around us was something we all need to try to emulate.
A link to another post on “Elmo Chapin Day 2012” is below.
http://willmar-electric.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-birthday.html
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