Aug. 29, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by South Dakota Manufacturing & Technology Solutions.

Whether you’re a manufacturing business owner, HR professional or team member, the upcoming South Dakota Manufacturing Summit will leave you with the tools and insight you need for success in this rapidly evolving industry.

Held Sept. 8 in Watertown, it will be hosted by Lake Area Technical College, which also will offer tours of its robotics lab.

“If you have attended the South Dakota Manufacturing Summit in the past, then you know it’s an exciting day full of ideas about continuous improvement and professional development,” said Morgan Larson, business adviser for summit organizer South Dakota Manufacturing & Technology Solutions.

“With over 20 speakers, numerous manufacturing- and business-related vendors and networking opportunities throughout the event, this is another can’t-miss summit.”

The keynote speaker, best-selling author Eric Termuende, will address how a “one-degree shift” can help create a culture of trust and help your business thrive in the workplace of the future.

We sat down with him for a preview.

Your keynote focuses on the “one-degree shifts” in companies that will help build trust, remove friction and encourage a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. What exactly is  a one-degree shift?” 

In the work I’ve done, I found there are two things people hate. The first is change, and the second is the way things are. I say that kind of tongue-in-cheek, but a one-degree shift is the smallest change that’s not scary, that’s easy to test and pilot. And it just removes the slightest bit of friction again and again so change isn’t so scary, and the future is more exciting, and we show we can get there together.

As a business leader, where do you start to achieve that?

The question I like to ask is: what should we start doing, what can we stop doing, and what should we continue doing? And when we ask those questions as a framework, one-degree shifts might emerge. Do people feel they need a better opportunity to voice concerns? Maybe then twice a month for 15 minutes, can we have a conversation about that? Maybe it’s how can we better onboard or look at performance management. So a one-degree shift is the opportunity to bring any small new idea to the forefront.

Many manufacturers struggle to attract and retain talent. What are some best practices you’ve learned in your work?

What I have found and what Harvard Business Review supports is that when team members are allowed to experiment, be part of the conversation and encouraged to try new things, engagement and productivity go up significantly. We’re talking 30 to 40 percent, and what I’ve learned along the way is that while experimentation is important, it’s not really why engagement goes up. It’s become that the team trusts members at all levels of the organization to hear their idea and be understood. In a world that’s busier and more distracted, I think giving people attention and time and the opportunity to learn and have their ideas tested or educated is key in ensuring we can build better teams.

There’s a lot of talk about “quiet quitting” now, which basically means doing the minimum amount of work, checking out basically. Quiet quitting is what we do when we’re not connected to people, the work or the company. There’s a disconnect. But the best attraction strategy is a good retention strategy, and a good retention strategy is making people feel trusted and like they belong and they’re making a difference. If you create great places to work, your employees become your storytellers and ambassadors.

Manufacturers also are somewhat disadvantaged when it comes to offering hybrid or remote work. How can they approach this and potentially turn it into an advantage?

When we try to be everything to everyone, we end up being nothing to anyone, and companies have fallen into this trap. We’re trying to be flexible and bend and be too many things to too any people. We lose cultural identity and bad things happen. If you’re an in-office company, you have to state that right out of the gate, along with the experience you’re going to have as an employee.

In your book “Rethink Work,” you tackle what’s being called the “Great Resignation” but focus especially on young workers who typically quit even sooner than most. What’s the takeaway for employers trying to connect with this generation?

My takeaway is that this generation or the one after that wants the same thing every generation before did. They want to be heard, seen, understood and valued. The numbers around how distracted we are, though, are staggering. We check our phones 85 times a day, we’re getting 120 emails, we’re on a screen 11 hours a day. Mental health, depression, anxiety are higher for this generation than they’ve ever been. And I think what they want is the same as any generation before them: attention and care. It’s not entitlement and narcissism.

In addition to the keynote, the Manufacturing Summit includes breakout sessions involving a wide variety of topics:

• Using Your Website as a Recruitment Tool
• Overlooked Opportunities to Improve Productivity
• Leveraging 3D Printing to Streamline Design to Production & Create Flexible Supply Chains
• Group Benefits 101 for Small to Medium Businesses
• Root Cause Analysis in Quality
• Protecting Our National Advantage: Intellectual Property in Your Care
• Simple Automated Vision System Solutions
• Construction Success in a Volatile Market
• Building an In-House Automation Culture
• Sale-Leaseback Transactions: Why, When and How
• Patent Considerations for Manufacturers: Strategies for Developing and Creating Value
• Valuing a Manufacturing Business
• Securing Your Critical Supply Chain: Near-Term and Long-Term Actions
• Top 10 Things to Guarantee Trouble in Paradise for Family Businesses
• Education and Misconceptions About Hemp
• Student Networking Roundtables
• Export Assistance Resources for Small Businesses

To register and learn more, click here.