I recently received an assignment to put together a Procurement Plan which needs to incorporate the vision of the Procurement function for a customer for the next 5 years. As you have gotten to know me, I use everything, everyone, every thought and every creative input from all walks of life to help me solve the problems faced by myself, our customers we work with to bring to them what they need and more. So, when I was asked to put together this plan, I immediately thought of getting my colleague Colin involved. I accept that I am pretty awesome ((:-)) in most things (not singing, ask my family), but knowing that I am awesome in most things also means that I know my blind-spots or limitations in other things. This takes an enormous amount of self-knowledge and being honest with yourself. So, when I know that I have come to the end of my knowledge or I need someone to give me their input, I call in the big guns.
In Emeryst Colin is our big gun when it relates to Continuous Improvement (CI) and Lean Management. I mean what he does not know about processes mapping, -analysis of operations or asking the tough questions, does not exist. He has a Black Belt in CI and can process map and solutionize you out of your current and into your reality. He is one of the scariest people I know. I have the best time speaking and trouble-shooting with Colin because we speak the same language of offering our customers better and more progressive/quantum leap choices for themselves, their organizations and their end customers using Continuous Improvement methodologies. I can spend hours listening to Colin talk about his field experience with companies and how they could have/should have and do run their operations to optimize outcomes.
At Emeryst we have a moto and 1 goal which drives everything we do for our customers. Our moto: It is not your money and our goal: Drive Value into and Cost out of our customer’s operations. This is our focus day in and day out.
So I asked Colin to help me put together this plan, because he will find all the areas that I would overlook or will give a different perspective to a situation. I may be amazing, but I know my limits and knowing one’s limits is the key, because if you do, you can ask your colleagues, your suppliers, your superiors and other interested parties to help you, but first you have to acknowledge and realize that you might have a blind spot. It is like in rehab, you need to acknowledge that you have a problem before you can get to a solution and make it stick. I do not see asking for help from my colleague or someone who is invested in our organization's success as being less than, actually I see it as giving me and us a lot because 2 heads are definitely better than 1. Be courageous in your self-assessment and know your limitations - you can choose to correct this by getting more knowledge. Know however, that you do not have to know it all and everything about everything, but you do absolutely have to know others (within your network) who can fill in your gaps.
