Quick Printing

Open and Honest

(This blog was submitted by Bill Greif of TG & Associates)

Debra asked me to take a cut at a blog about a subject that we feel is critical to business success and growth. We often emphasize the role of leadership in the business and we cite the traits that we think represent leadership. Being open and honest with your staff is such a trait. When we work with owners we ask if they are open and honest, and they always say they are. Then we ask if they share the numbers, and the response is usually, “No, of course not. They don’t need to know that.”

When I worked in aerospace, the employee profit sharing at the end of the year depended on how the company did against the goals in four major areas: Bookings (New orders), Sales (Delivered Orders), Cash On Hand, and Profitability. Every quarter, the General Manager would conduct a series of meetings across the plant site (I guess we would call them town halls today), and she would provide the status YTD for each of those four areas and the actions underway to make sure they would be met at the end of the year. If there were some serious concerns about meeting any of them, she would be open and honest about those concerns and would answer any questions from the employees. There were over 10,000 employees and they all had a chance to hear the news from the top and to question what was going to happen.

In this era of economic stress and uncertainty, your employees need to know what is going on in your business and what actions you are taking to deal with the issues. They need to know that you are managing the business and that you are on top of what it takes to secure their livelihood. They also need to know how they can contribute to help secure their future. When did you hold your last town hall meeting? Don’t remember? Then it is way overdue. If you won’t be open and honest with them, then fear of the unknown may drive them to another company where they can learn what is going on.

Bob and I will be traveling to the Florida office next week for Quick Printing’s annual planning meeting, along with our two sister publications Printing News and Wide-Format Imaging. As part of that event, we have to present the editorial calendar for 2011. Some issues are set in stone, so no worries there. In April we’ll publish QP’s Annual Franchise Review, June will see another edition of our Top 100, and December will host the Company Capabilities advertorials. That leaves nine months in play.

Most years we end up filling in the blanks with subjects such as monochrome and color digital output devices, mailing services, offset, sustainability, prepress, and finishing. Of course, we always leave some wiggle room because you just never know what might pop up in the course of a year.

As always, we’ve mulled over the conversations and suggestions of our columnists, various industry leaders, and the printers we’ve talked with in recent months. However, we’d still like to hear from you. What would you like to read about? What would make QP more interesting, more useful, more valuable to you? Please take just a few minutes to share your ideas with us. We really want to know!

Okay, maybe I oversold this a little, but this morning I was looking at all the good stuff posted here by our columnists and editors and noted that the comments in response were few and far between. Does that mean folks aren’t clicking through to get to the blogs? Or does it mean that those who read them don’t have any comments to make? Is the link to the blogs too small or hidden? What’s the deal?

If you’ve read this far, I’d appreciate it if you would take the time to tell us what you think about our Print Talk blogs. We’re always open to suggestions and value your feedback. I look forward to hearing from you.

Why does it take us so long to train someone?

I think I found the answer. Visited a print shop last week where workers weren’t trained. In talking with the owner about how to get them trained, I think I stumbled onto something profound. The reason it takes us so long to train is we don’t train; we wait for enough different jobs to come through so we can show them how to handle each one. In short, that’s not training; that’s waiting for them to gain experience.

What’s the difference? Training is teaching vocational or practical skills so the trainee gains the knowledge, skill, and competence to perform. Experience is figuring stuff out in the heat of battle. Which is better? Both are necessary, but we typically don’t do both, rather we rely on the Osmosis Method of Training. You know, you stand there and watch me do this and pretty soon you will know how to do this too. Some say that experience is the best teacher, but the problem is you have to die to graduate.

Okay, what if the Army trained only using experience? Here’s your M-16, son. The bad guys are coming over the hill, so I’m gonna be busy, but you be sure to ask me if you run into anything you don’t know. Hmm.

How do you do it? Set aside time to train. It can be before you open in the morning or anytime you can carve out specific heads down time. Do not train during the heat of battle. Now, here are the four basic steps in On the Job Training :

1) Put the worker at ease and find out what they know. Who knows? They may know more about it than you think and you can tailor your approach to their level instead of being too basic or too advanced.

2) Show them what you are doing while you tell them what you are doing.

3) Have them show and tell you while they do it.

4) Test them by using another person, and have them signed off on the task.

The most important step is the last one—testing. The other person commonly is the trainer’s boss, but since you’re the boss and the one usually doing the training, you need someone else. It can be anyone, but you’re better off with someone credible like your paper salesman. Okay, I used a paper salesman once and he did alright.

Anyway, you also need a task listing. Go to your computer, open up a Word.doc or whatever and begin making a list of tasks that a person has to master to do whatever. Also assign a time to each of the tasks.

Assume you wanted to teach someone the care and feeding of a desktop printing calculator—assuming there’s still one around. What do they have to know? Break the job down into individual tasks and assign a time standard to each step. Don’t worry about if you are wrong on the time or even if you leave out a step. You’re the boss. When you get into the training if you think you should change something, then do it. In my example, a trainee has to:

1) Change paper rolls, 2 minutes

2) Change ribbons, 2 minutes

3) Clean the print head, 1 minute

4) Know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. We don’t do square roots or differential equations in this business, so those four are the basics they need.

But wait, have you ever shown someone how to do something and then they don’t remember the next day? That’s why you use the four step process.

1) Ask them what they know about changing paper in the calculator.

2) Show them how to do it while you change the roll.

3) Have them do it while they show you.

4) Then test them by having them show and tell your mysterious other person within the assigned time. Remember the task listing you prepared? Print one out. For each of the tasks, have the trainee as well as the rater (mysterious other person) initial and date each step. Now put the training record in their personnel file. (Okay, scan it to a PDF and file it appropriately on the hard drive if you want).

Now, if and when the person is unable to accomplish the task they have been trained to do, you can go back to the training record and discuss why they can’t do what they knew and demonstrated on such and such a date.

Rarely is that an issue. Most common is when you have to train someone else to do the same thing when the first guy quits, you have a task listing to go back to and jump right in. You don’t have to create a lesson plan every time you have a newbie.

While my example is a little bit on the simple side, you can train a person to run a nuclear reactor in much the same way. And now you don’t have to wait a year or more for enough jobs to come in. You can just train them and get on with life.

Now my printer-friend has a plan. If he uses it, he will begin digging out of his time management quagmire.

Quick printers have a lot of technology at their fingertips, but it isn’t worth much unless customers need it. PDF files can automate the workflow, but printers don’t tell customers the benefits or how to use it. Online ordering is easy to provide to customers, but how is a customer suppose to learn about it? Printers buy technology because they think it will increase their sales. When it doesn’t, the printer is disappointed and disenchanted with technology.

The problem is that printers aren’t listening to their customers. Printers are just telling them about technology and hoping the customer is interested. They should be trying to find out what their customers need and what they want. They must find out the benefits the customer is seeking from a printer.

To be successful, printers are going to have to improve their listening skills. I’ve been helping a number of quick printers dissect their sales calls and the recurring problem is that the printer uses the first sales call to talk about his company—not to find out the needs of the customer. The printer is so afraid that he won’t get the chance to talk to the customer again, he hits the customer with everything he has. This leaves the customer confused and the printer looking like, well, just another printer.

Cool technology will get you in the door. Statements such as, “We can make your ordering easier using the Internet,” or “We can help you avoid problems submitting your files,” can get you in the door. Once you get there, you need to just listen. Ask questions. Find out what the customer needs. Find out his pain. Asking questions and listening will help you build a solid foundation for the relationship.

The standard practice of many printing salespeople is to list what they do and hope the customer has a need. If you will take time to learn about the customer, then you can begin using your experience to solve problems and offer benefits for using your company. Don’t start selling until the second appointment when you know something about the customer and really can help them with their printing needs.

Last week I got a heads-up email from an old college buddy who is involved with the graphics industry on the sign side. It read: “See attached from a recent issue of the Federal Register. Go to Page 7 to review proposed changes to NAICS classifications. Quick Printing is to be lumped into an ‘Other Commercial Printing’ category. So too is Digital Printing, Also litho. Also flexo.”

I took a look and found out that this was indeed the case. I also found the rationale for the move:
“Recommendation: While less than optimal from a production function standpoint, the ECPC recommends combining the national industries for lithographic, gravure, flexographic, quick, digital, manifold business forms, blankbook and other commercial printing into a new national industry. In recent years, the printing industry as a whole has undergone significant consolidation and a move towards establishments that cross current NAICS industry definitions. The expansion of digital printing by establishments that also print using other methods is significantly re-shaping this industry. The increasing overlap of printing processes within a single establishment is expected to continue throughout the next decade.”

No doubt there is an increasing overlap, but lumping litho, gravure, flexo, business forms, blankbook, and quick into one big blob makes little sense. Quick/small commercial printing is a definite category unto itself and should be recognized as such. The final date for comment or objection is July 12, which is fast approaching. I don’t know if this is really a big deal or not, but it just doesn’t seem logical, and the move itself is admittedly described as “less than optimal from a production function standpoint.”

Monday was one of those days that just leave me feeling sad. That was the day I heard two pieces of unrelated news that, taken together, paint a somewhat poignant picture. The first item was that Steve Johnson is resigning as executive director of NAQP. The second was that Townsend Industries is closing.

After leading the association for more than 10 years, most of you know Steve’s name, even if you don’t know him personally. He’s a great guy—quick with a laugh and deeply committed to the industry he served. He guided the association through some seriously troubled waters.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with three leaders of NAQP—Tracy Poyser, David Steinhardt, and Steve Johnson—and I liked and respected all of them. In light of NAQP’s merger with NAPL, I sort of wonder if there will be another executive director for NAQP. Steve may well have been the last.

The other item, the closing of Townsend Industries, was the one that really got to me, though. Younger printers may not even know what a T-head is, but a lot of printers made a whole bunch of money using that piece of equipment to print two-color work on their old single-color AB Dick and AM Multigraphic presses back in the day.

Bob Townsend, the company founder, died this February. It doesn’t look as if the company ever moved beyond the production of the old T-51, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that it would be ceasing business.

Thursday, June 17 is Steve’s last day at NAQP. It is also the last day of operations for Townsend Industries. The future is bright and beautiful, but only because of the past upon which it is built. Those of us who have been around awhile might want to take a moment and contemplate this quiet passing of an era.

I don’t know if it has been officially announced yet, but Steve Johnson’s last day as executive director of NAQP will be this Friday, June 15. Steve took over the association’s reins in some troubled times and has held things together through years of turmoil and transition. He was there when the association reversed its shortsighted name change to PrintImage International and helped reclaim the NAQP moniker. He was also there during the transition from an independent association to an affiliate of NAPL.

Unlike many departures, Steve isn’t leaving “to pursue other interests” but is moving directly to a new position as head of a Chicago-based trade association. As I understand it, Christina Ciurej will remain as VP of membership development and the association will continue along the same track it has been on since joining with NAPL.

I’ve been working with NAQP for more than 20 years and have seen several association leaders come and go. If I am not mistaken, Steve’s tenure is the second longest, if not the longest, in NAQP’s history. Despite the bouts of “Sturm und Drang” the association has experienced during Steve’s time at the helm, it has always been a pleasure working with him—both as NAQP’s publishing partner and as a friend. He will be missed.

If you are printer, you need to invest in a smartphone. A smartphone is a cell phone with an Internet browser and a camera. What it does is open a new service opportunity for printers called mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing links the print world with the Internet. By scanning a QR code that is on a printed piece, a smartphone user can be instantly directed to an Internet page on their smartphone’s browser. Mobile marketing is big in Europe and the Far East and it is just hitting the US. Printers should see any company that sells a product and has a website asking about including a QR code on their printed marketing material.

Haven’t heard about QR codes? A recent episode of CSI New York featured a QR code as a clue in an investigation. The National Basketball Association used a QR code for a promotion during half time at this year’s All-Star game. HBO ran a special QR code in a television ad during the final episode of Lost. QR codes are quickly going mainstream in North America.

If you are a printer, buy a smartphone and make sure you have a QR code reader application downloaded. You need the application to read the QR code. Then you will need to learn how to create QR codes for your customer. It is a simple process that is explained through hundreds of YouTube videos online.

What is exciting is that mobile marketing will drive printing as more customers try to drive eyes to their websites. The QR code uses are unlimited and can make printed material even more powerful when linked to the Internet.

Now printers will ready need to get a functional website to promote mobile marketing.

People are so adaptable…up to a point. Speaking strictly for myself, I usually discover that point when I’m about two steps past it.

Business requirements today are such that we feel the need to do more and more just to stay in place. For anyone in the media, the world we once knew so well and traveled so easily looks like an alien moonscape these days. The situation is much the same for printers, too. Everyone’s talking about inkjet, you have to consider the environmental impact of your work, and labor laws are something else to contend with. There is confusion about what the new healthcare legislation will require of employers, and there are plenty of people who want to give you the answers. The problem is their answers are all different and it’s hard to know who to trust.

Then there’s social media. You want to be LinkedIn with all your customers, to send clever tweets, and to have tons of fans for your business on Facebook. Oh, maybe you should do a cool, funny video in your printshop and send the link to all your customers and prospects. Who knows, maybe it would go viral!

But even with all the new tasks that you feel you have to take on, you still have a business to run. (Or still have a magazine to put out.) So you run faster and faster, work longer hours, and delegate as much as you can. Still, there comes a day when you walk into your office and look at a desk piled high with essential business duties that have been pushed aside to make room for the new work. After an impromptu primal scream session, you ask yourself, “How the heck did this happen?”

That’s why it’s so important to set priorities and to honor them. Before we get to the need for scream therapy, let’s dig out everything on the desk and organize it, prioritize it, and tackle one job at a time until we reach the bottom of the pile.

Years ago, Tom Crouser advocated putting things into three piles labeled “Important but not Urgent,” “Urgent but not Important,” and “Not Urgent and not Important.” You work through the first pile immediately. Work through the second pile after the first one is complete, and toss out the third pile.

I still like that approach. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find three boxes. Judging from the look of my desk, they’ll need to be big ones.