10. Taking Ownership

The first in our series on Hahn Ready Mix Values, Andrea and Griffin discuss Taking Ownership. Also: Why wearing safety glasses is necessary both on the jobsite, and in the bathroom.

Hahn Values: https://hahnrmg.com/about/values

Jocko Willink Book: https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Loaded, the Hahn Ready Mix podcast with Andrea Meyer and Griffin Hahn. We're still letting producer Lex come help us out once in a while. Don't worry, he knows exactly what he's doing.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

All right. Excited to be here again.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Yes, how's your week? What's new?

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Uh week's gone pretty good. Uh it's nice to start to get a little busy again. It's been a it's been a bit. So um yeah, it's good to get back out there on job sites and have some bigger pours. Had a good time uh Monday night at Bob Wells' retirement party. That was a lot of fun. I know you I know you were there. We had a great showing for that.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Yeah, really, really nice party. Uh Bob Wells, if if anyone doesn't know, he retired recently from Edwards, and he had worked for the company for over 30 years, like before we had really good records of exactly how long he worked here.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

I think it was 1976 he started there, but then he took four years off in the late 80s, early 90s.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

That sounds right.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

So, you know, it's like mental math here. So it's like for 45 years total he had in, which is wild.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Hugely influ influential on a lot of people that that worked here and will continue to be. He's said he would remain on call and come in and help us out if we needed him. So it was really nice to kind of set give him a good farewell and meet his family, and it was a really nice party.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Yeah. And here's another thing I learned Monday night. Bob, fan of the pod.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Oh, yes. Yes. He and his wife are listening to the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Bob, if he's listening, uh yeah. Thank you for everything you did over the years and have done. And it's um yeah, we're gonna miss you. So uh on on similar news, Tim Bouch's last day. We're recording this on Thursday, uh the first in today's Tim Bouch's last day. He's retiring as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Aaron Powell Yes, another Han family guy. I've been around a long time.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Yeah, absolutely. I know he'll be missed around here and and Schultz is moving into his truck, I believe. So we we told him don't be a stranger either. Great.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

What do you want to talk about today?

SPEAKER_02 2:12

We've hinted at it for a while, but I think maybe it's time to start talking about values.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Aaron Powell We're back on values, huh?

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Aaron Powell Yeah. We have these values that are posted everywhere, and I think it would be behoove us to kind of go through each one and what they mean. So uh they're not just words on the wall, they're things that we live, right? So yeah, let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Aaron Powell I do think it is a a very important topic. And I do think the more we talk about it, the more it will resonate with people and it will become part of what we do every day. So I'm I'm reluctantly on board with your plan.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Well, when we think about the values, I I think I said this on one of the loaded questions on one of the earlier podcasts, but we really thought hard about what does it look like when we're at our best? Not necessarily what do we want to be, but when we are shining, when we are doing well, what are the things that we're doing? And and we that's how we came up with these values. So we will post uh a link to a picture of all the kind of our values plaque in the in the show notes. So for that, if you haven't seen it, you're not familiar with it, I'm hoping that you don't work here if you don't, if you don't aren't familiar with it. And but we then you can see what all the values are. But we figure we'll do one value per podcast episode. We'll we'll dive in.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yes. So when we worked on creating the values, we started off with kind of four main categories. Do you want to go through those to start with?

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Yeah. So the four tenants or pillars, I don't know what you want to call them. The first one, which we'll talk a little bit about today, is customers and coworkers are our team. And we have do the right thing as another of the tenants, level up, and be positive are the four. But the the one we'll dive into part of today is customers and coworkers are our team. And what that really means is it speaks to the way we treat those that we work with, both externally and internally. And, you know, we have to work together with our coworkers. We have to work together with our customers to achieve our goals. We really don't want to foster any kind of us versus them within divisions of the company or with it, you know, with with customers, right? You can't it's it's easy to fall into the trap that, you know, they're not looking out for us or whatever. And and that's just we're only successful if we work together. That is what that whole tenant is about. And each of the values underneath it is kind of explains how we get to acting like that or or or behaving like that and thinking like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yeah, I think this was, I mean, it's probably the first one because I think it was the first one that we thought of, the easiest one that most most central, most, most core to who we are. And I think what makes us essentially different from most of our competitors is how we do view, especially customers as part of our team. Their success is our success, and we feel that very, very true to ourselves. And then, of course, working with our internal teammates too.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

So two things that happened in the past that in my mind, you know, when I started here, there was a lot of finger pointing between divisions on who's to blame for for what happened or things that didn't go right or whatever. And that created some natural animosity and friction between different divisions. And we we just don't want that. We're not not as interested in blame as finding solutions, and we can find solutions when we work together. And then externally, Andrea, I know you'll remember this, but we had a quality control manager that moved back home to Texas. He left us, and we did an exit interview, and we asked him, you know, what what uh what could we improve on as an organization through his mind, uh through his eyes, uh, with the experiences that he had. And he said, I think that you guys are customer focused to a fault. And that was one of the proudest moments professionally. I thought, what a compliment. And he was trying to say, like, you need to look out for yourselves a little bit more. And it's just not who we are. We we want to be customer focused to a fault. And that means looking at them like we're part of the same team, which speaks a little bit to like Kelsey's metaphor, plugging in as an extension cord of the customer.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

So yes. Okay. So within customers and coworkers are our team, the first value is take ownership. Tell us how you came up with that.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Well, it wasn't just me that came up. We we uh we came up with it together. Uh taking ownership, I think there's there's kind of three definitions for it in my mind on ways we can apply it. And there's three definitions kind of for taking ownership in my mind. And the first is address the issues we find. And we talked a little bit about this with uh that load question before. Address the issues you find, even if it's kind of outside your role. One is admitting when you're wrong, right? Taking ownership of mistakes that you've made, and then also treating your equipment or your role or your place in the company like it's your own, right? Like treat this whole place like it's your own. So those are kind of the three main categories or three main definitions, I should say, of what take ownership means to me. But you did a really good job before explaining the first of those, kind of like moving out, working outside of our role. So why don't you talk about what that means to you?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Absolutely. I think taking ownership is like the difference between thinking to yourself, that's not my job, and thinking to yourself, how can I make this better? So everyone has specific tasks that they're assigned with, but it's when you go above and beyond outside of your normal duties to do something more, to make something better, to address a problem that really feels like taking ownership to me.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

And the key to that, a lot of times, is communication. So when we we talked through these values with uh Steve Ott, who did some leadership development with us, and he uh challenged us actually on this one, and he said, you're running a risk of people stepping on each other's toes and having friction because of that. And we understand that. And the way to combat that issue is to make sure we're communicating well. So if you are moving outside of your role to help solve a problem, whose ever problem that might fall into the definition of we need to keep them kind of abreast of what's happening and say, hey, I saw this issue, I addressed it, and this is what I did and how I did it and why I did it. And that way we all stay on the same team. But if we wait until someone takes responsibility, there's a lot of things that could fall through the cracks. We don't have a, you know, a problem that doesn't fall into a clean definition of whose job it really is to handle it. And then it might be less timely, right? So if if somebody's there and present and able to fix a problem, let's fix it. Let's not wait.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yeah, for sure. Communicating is a big piece of taking ownership where you don't ever want to assume that someone else is going to get something done. So you always want to ask the question. You always want to ask for clarification, make sure you say, I'm doing this, are you doing this? And that way everybody knows that we're all aligned and heading in the same direction.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

We talked about that also as doing one more thing or saying one more thing. After you think you've done it, saying one more thing or asking one more question is a good way to make sure you're taking ownership.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

So the next area that you mentioned where we were taking ownership of our mistakes, how do you see that playing out?

SPEAKER_02 9:43

I think back to kind of a seminal moment, maybe in my early part of my career. I made a mistake where I sent a mix to the panel at the river plant. I think it was 24 or something when this happened. And it did not have any slag in the mix, and it was supposed to. So the mix was short, the total cementitious that it was supposed to have by like 150 pounds. It was significant. And we put it on a foundation for what would eventually be a water tower, and it did not meet the required strength. And so we were working with the contractor on how to uh mitigate the situation and all that. And I made the comment uh to Wayne, who many of you will know. And I said, Well, you know, yeah, I sent the the mix wrong, but you know, the batch guy, like if Darren was batching that, he would have seen that that was short spent for what a 4,000 PSI mix should have had. And I remember Wayne stopping me, he goes, Stop that right now. He goes, if you ever want to be a leader in this organization or anywhere else, if you ever want to be respected, you have to take ownership for your mistakes. You have to own your faults, right? And nobody will ever respect what you say if you're trying to to rub off blame on someone else. And so that really hit home to me. And I've I've tried to live that since then. That, you know, if if I mess up, I want to be the first to raise my hand and say, yeah, that was on me. And I'm not saying I'm perfect all the time, but I really try to do that. And I think that organizationally, it can be a benefit to us if we're not pointing fingers at each other or trying to look good when I when we have mistakes and we do have mistakes, right? What I want to hear is, yes, we made a mistake. This is what I'm gonna learn for it, and it won't we'll we'll make sure it doesn't happen again. Excuses or trying to point fingers at others just makes us think that we're not learning from those mistakes. So yeah, that's I think that's an important part of taking ownership.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I do too. And I think we actually have improved in this area quite a bit just in the time that I've been here, from from big things to small things, right? Like there's mistakes that happen every day. But the way that we have started working together and asking people what their thoughts were behind it, we've all gotten so much better at communicating through tough situations because of that that mindset. So I think I think we're doing better. We're always working on it.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Okay. So the third thing you mentioned, I kind of think of it as taking pride, right? Like you can take pride in the smallest tasks or the the biggest challenges, but that consistent pride in doing your best at whatever it is you're doing, I think is Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

So uh, you know, we've the the simplest and most obvious example of this is keeping your truck clean, right? So there's a lot of examples, but two guys that come to mind are are Josh McDaniel and Steve Kellenberger, that they definitely treat their truck like their own. And again, I'm not trying to uh put down anybody else. There's a lot of others that do it too. But you can see the the pride that they're this is this is my truck, I'm gonna take care of it. And and that definitely is something we want to promote. And and that could be, you know, more than just a piece of equipment. It can be your role or the tasks you take on every day. You know, you could say this is, you know, if you're fixing a truck, you say this is this is where I can shine, this is where I can make a difference, because people know if I fix this truck that I fixed it right, right? And that and so that could apply to to really any job we do. It could apply in in dispatch. People take ownership of the orders that come in and they're personally invested in making sure that that order goes right, keeping an eye on it and and watching that the truck didn't get lost on the way there, or that uh we're the spacing is, you know, they're unloading at the spacing that we anticipated, and then we don't need to make an adjustment or talk to them about it. So there's a a million ways that that that taking ownership can show up on on kind of treating it like your own.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah, I think discipline plays into that, like doing the small right things repetitively, even though a lot of times it doesn't matter. When it does matter, if you're disciplined and doing things the right way, it's gonna go better. That's reading back the orders, it's putting your tools back where they go so you can find them. It's making sure you have a washout bag in the truck, like just those little discipline things that you have to do over and over again when you're doing them. That's taking ownership and taking pride in your work.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Have you ever read the book Extreme Ownership? I have not. Oh my gosh. You almost always read books that I've read.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Yeah, but I like books with dragons in it.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

So there are no dragons in this book. I can't even remember who the author is, but it's um from the U.S. Navy SEALs and about how they um teach their new recruits to take ownership. I think it's really interesting. I think it's hard to find leadership books that apply to our industry. So this I think was a little bit more relevant and I liked it. But one of the things that I took away from that book is it's not about doing everything yourself. Like taking ownership isn't doing it yourself. It's making sure everyone's aligned and we're all doing our part to get to the goal.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Really good. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Okay. Well, here I'll throw this out. If anybody wants that book, let us know. We'll order it for you and give it to you.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

I think we do have a few copies. I know Sean read it and Geneseo, Zach and Jake, I think read it in Muscatine. So we have a few copies we can share. Awesome. I had a couple other things I was thinking of as we were talking about this. One thing is speaking up when something's off. Like you don't always have to have the solution, but if you're ignoring a problem, that's kind of the opposite of taking ownership. I think. Like if you see something that's not quite right and you keep going because it's you know stay in your lane, not my job. That's kind of the opposite of taking ownership. I also think supporting other people is a way that you can take ownership. Like if it's not your job to do the thing, but you can make their job easier by getting them the tool or supporting them or taking something else off their plate. That's another really good way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

You're foreshadowing in the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yes. Absolutely. That was very intentional. And then just to kind of wrap it up, you think about it from the perspective of if this was my company, how would I want it to be done?

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

It's easier for you to say that, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Aaron Powell Well, we're we're always taking suggestions.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

All right. Well, let's move on. Should we move on to loaded questions, or do you want to do announcements first?

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Uh I think we'd do some announcements. Uh so some good news to start. We've picked up um three new customers this week. And I'm very proud of how this happened. So, you know, we've talked a little bit before. Our our whole strategy is doing things the right way and having best in class service and quality and products and and and attracting customers that way, that we're not out just slashing prices to to get to get work. I mean, we had three, three customers approach us that want to work with us, I think mostly based on that reputation. And maybe are might or might not have been getting that that same service or or quality somewhere else. And so now that's an opportunity for us, right? We we get to prove it to somebody new that we are, you know, the right choice in this market to work with. So that's a challenge to all of us. It is uh the onus on us on us to perform, and that's really exciting to me.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

That is great news. I like that challenge. My guess I'll take the next topic of good news, which is the bathroom renovations are in progress.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

We're starting bathroom renovations here in in the main office. It should take uh probably about three months to do it all, but five to six weeks, the both the men's and women's will be being remodeled. Uh the handicapped bathroom will still be open, and then there's bathrooms over in the QC lab and out in the plant if those are being used. So appreciate everybody's patience. I'm sure there'll be a line or something at times, but uh about five to six weeks and the the main ones will be done, and then they'll remodel the handicapped ones. So yeah, uh I'm excited for the elevated pooping experience afterwards. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Much anticipated improvements around here. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Chris Jergens uh requested uh a bidet, and I think I'm on board. We'll figure out how to get a bidet attachment on the rows.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Uh well, maybe that leads into this next topic here about wearing safety glasses on the job.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Wow, geez.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

We had a couple incidents over the last couple of weeks where we had to take people in to get their eyes flushed, which is not a fun or enjoyable experience. And both of these happen to be on job sites. Please, please wear your safety glasses for your own safety and sanity and for saving you a day in the orthopedic office.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Aaron Powell Yeah, absolutely. And and your hard hat. You know, this is not hard hat-related incidents, but I've definitely noticed that some people have gotten a little lax on the hard hat as well. Uh there we wear them for reasons.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Absolutely. I'd want to remind everybody from the a couple podcasts ago, we talked about turning off trucks while we're waiting in the yard. Just want to keep reminding people and reminding each other when you're out there if you see trucks running. That's gonna waste us time in the end. So please turn those off. I also wanted to talk about a new mechanic that we have in the shop working a second shift. And we also have Irish, of course, across the street that comes in really early. So it's super important that everybody leaves their keys here. That's the best way to make sure your truck is ready for you in the morning, is if you leave your keys, then they have a chance to fix it.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

I have uh another note on a more somber note. So a kind of adjacent ready mix supplier to our territory. Uh unfortunately, last week they had a fatality with a driver. I don't know the whole story on what happened, but it's just a stark reminder of kind of how serious this industry is and you know the stakes that are at play. So please just we want you guys to go home safe every day. Your families want you to go home in the same way you came. So please just make sure we're taking, paying attention to our surroundings and and doing things the right way so that we never have to have that happen here.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

So okay. The final uh announcement or reminder that I had here today was we are still chasing the too much water on job idea. So we're checking that every day and talking to drivers and batchers when those situations come up. But just to remind the drivers, if you're if you find yourself adding, you know, 25, 30 gallons of water to let your batcher know or let dispatch know, so somebody can check in. And if we need to adjust the slump that we're sending to that job, we can do it. And we specially noticed that this week when we were getting busy again and we needed trucks, those minutes add up when we're adding water on job.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Yeah. All right. I think we have a loaded question. Lex, you wanna you wanna hit us with it?

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Yes. Chris asks, what do you think sets our operation apart in this market and how do we maintain that edge? That's a great question.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

So I think that is um definitely multifaceted, right? I think our differentiators are are multiple. So first I will say the biggest thing is our people. We have people that care, we have people with knowledge and experience, and you know, we're we're we're very strong from a technical aspect. But but the caring is is probably what the customers are looking for the most. We have people that we're truly invested in making sure that our customers have a good experience with us. And I think that that is the biggest differentiator for us is that uh, you know, we we stand behind any issues that happen or you know, our our problems, and we look for ways to correct problems kind of preemptively and and and before they become a disaster. So that's that's one big one. I think we're very selective about what materials we use and our mixed design process so we have high quality concrete. I'm not saying that our competitors are have bad concrete or anything, but I think the consistency of the quality of the product we put out is is a differentiator and a big deal. What do you have, Andrea? What else do you think of on that?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

It's really weird that I have a long answer in my head and you had a relatively short answer.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Well, I could keep going.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

I'm not gonna go into all of it, but I will say that uh this whole series on our values probably will cover all of the things that make this company better.

unknown 22:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

And that our customers probably see it.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Yeah. You know, I think there are a lot of differentiators out there.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

So good question, Chris. Keep on coming, everyone. We really need to get uh more interactive with those loaded questions. Thanks everyone for listening to Loaded the Hon Ready Mix podcast. Please remember to subscribe wherever you're listening, and we will talk to you again next week.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Thank you.