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This podcast offers business solutions to help listeners develop and implement action plans for lean process improvement and implement continuous improvement projects, cost reductions, product quality enhancements, and process effectiveness improvement. Listeners come from many industries in both manufacturing and office applications.
Andy Olrich 00:04
When we're leading with purpose that we'll talk about today. How do you do it and make sure that it's aligned to what you're really there to do? What
Hessam Vali 00:10
makes organizations different is the level of leadership that the outcome develops within the organization. Was sitting in a in an office, what the CEO of spirit, Arrow systems, when he said, go home today, grab a piece of paper, put on top of it that when I'm 75 years old, who do I want to be? There's a lot of things that you're you're so concerned about today probably doesn't, doesn't, doesn't matter that day. A couple keywords that built in my head was development, delivering and legacy. And I said, I want to be in my organization. Want to be an entity that developed other people. That was my introduction to to the topic of living with purpose. Do and
Andy Olrich 01:05
G'day everyone, and welcome to this episode of the lean solutions podcast. I'm your host, Andy Ulrich, and it's just me today, and we're going to be having another fantastic guest on here. He's been on here before and talking to something that I find, you know, really, really valuable in, how I interact in the working environment, but also in life in general. And that's that's leading with purpose, and how do we do that? And we've got a fantastic guest today. We've got Hassan Bali, and Hassan is going to share how he defines purpose in his leadership and how he keeps it aligned to his organization's mission. So we're going to unpack this a bit. He's going to reflect on a pivotal moment when leading with purpose helped him navigate a really challenging decision. And I'm sure you've been in that situation before. Yourselves, we're going to unpack, you know, what that was. There's going to be some practical insights so things that you can apply. And also, Hassan is going to give us some advice that we can take away and reflect on and then go forth and see how we can truly lead with purpose and and help us all be successful. So I'll bring Hassan to the stage. G'day, Hassan, how you going? How you doing? Good, good. Great to have you on here, mate. It's awesome. It's, it's we did the session together last time you're on the podcast. And so for our listeners who may not have heard that episode and want to know a bit more about Hassan. So Hassan is the co founder of tech, tech am solutions, and that's an engineering and management consulting firm, and they're dedicated to improving the bottom line through operational excellence and business transformation. So he's a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, an ASQ certified quality professional and runs on the board a proven track record of leading teams through change to deliver consistent processes and measurable savings. Wide range of expertise, lean manufacturing tools like Valley Stream Mapping, Kaizen, SMED 5s and also to make and DMA dB. So if any of that picks your interest and you're a fan of those, or you want to learn more, buckle up, because we've got a great episode. So Hassan, if I miss anything, welcome to the show.
Hessam Vali 03:15
I appreciate the introduction. That was great. Thank you very much. I think that it was more than who I am, but I really appreciate that,
Andy Olrich 03:22
and it's great to have you here. And we talked about the technical side of things, right? But, yeah, this is really the cut through is about you and how you lead with purpose, and what makes you unique and so successful in what you're doing. So we're ready to jump in, and I touched on purpose in leadership. And, you know, that's something that the you see that word thrown around a lot, but what does it mean to you? Has and when we, when we're leading with purpose that we talk about today, how do you do it and make sure that it's aligned to, you know, what you're really there to do?
Hessam Vali 03:56
Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's great a topic. And yeah, I'm really glad to be part of this, this episode, and with this topic, because leadership. I mean, I'm an engineer. I went to school all the way undergrad, Master, PhD, and I've been fully engaged with all the technique, technicality of what we are doing. But my personal side is, is very excited about leadership. So I've spent a lot of time going to different conferences. I've spent a lot of times to just read content, read books, to just, you know, try to learn what leadership is and and how some companies, when you look at and they deliver the same service, but you look at some of them, they're absolutely stand out across the other competition or the competitors. So what's the specific about and I think that at the end of the day, I make peace with myself that the difference is in the leadership. Right? The technical aspect of what we are doing is pretty common. I mean, some people are using it differently, but. What makes organizations different is the level of leadership that they built and developed within the organization. I think I've been really lucky because I had the opportunity, even when I was working for different corporates, even when I was working for smaller companies, I had the opportunity to work with people who just mastered and and leadership. I even I work with companies, who the leader of the organization had this huge or or unbelievable purpose of transforming people within manufacturing. But believe we're not engaged with some correctional facilities that people that did bad things are involved now through transformation, how they transform those people, and through manufacturing, how transport those people to their better version of themselves. So I had the really opportunity to work with people like that and and that helped me to start shaping what what leadership and what purpose means in my head. At one point, I was sitting in a in an office with the the CEO of spirit, Arrow systems, giant organization here in Wichita, and we've been talking about leadership, and he said, He that this goes back to five six years ago. He said, I want you to do this. Go home today, grab a piece of paper, put on top of it that when I'm 75 years old, who do I want to be? And try to less that and just list and write down who do you want to be when you get to 75 years old, because a lot of things that you're, you're so concerned about today probably doesn't, doesn't, doesn't matter that day. And that was really a good moment in my head. And I started doing it. I went home and just got a piece of paper to start writing down who do I want to be, and I ended up that the a couple, a couple of keywords that built in my head was development, delivering and legacy. And I said, I want to be in my organization. Want to be a an entity that develop other people, develop businesses, transform businesses, deliver value to Who are we call them stakeholders right in our personal life and our professional life. I'm talking about myself on top of everybody else. I'm talking about my family. I'm talking about my clients and customers. I'm talking about our our consultants within our organizations, how we can develop each other, how we can develop our community and deliver value to that, and then put something that it just lasts longer than than we last and, and that's really how I started building, you know, the purpose behind, behind myself as an individual and tech I'm as a company. So that was, that was my introduction to to the topic of leading my that purpose.
Andy Olrich 08:01
Yeah, that's thank you for sharing that. And, yeah, there's the, you know, some things are jumping out of that for me, Hassam, is you had that person that all that you noticed that point of difference in that organization and that person, and then they just said to you, just, just write this down. And it made you look, you know, five or six steps down, the road, as you said in your 70s, and then, you know, you were just forced to take that moment and reflect on Well, yeah, not so much. What do I want to be, but who do I want to be, and how do I want to be remembered? And then who's next in that legacy? Word is, what's coming coming through. And I it made me think of a time when I was an electrical apprentice, maybe, maybe not so long ago, I had a leader. He was he was all about that. And he used to say to me, when you walk around this place, walk with purpose. And I didn't know really what he meant. I thought he might have been fast or just don't get distracted and chat like I can do. But yeah, he was able to unpack it in a similar way as to say, like when people are watching you and see you're going from point A to point B. They can see that you're, you're, you're doing something, there's, there's a why there, and you're, you're dialing in, and you're, yeah, how do you want people to look at you and see how you're behaving? And so it was, it was a deep cut, and I was, I was only like, 16 at the time, but yeah, you've really, some of the things you called out there has some, yeah, really resonated. I appreciate you sharing that and and that'll, you know, how we can be authentic. We'll talk about authenticity in a little bit. But you've unpacked that, you know, initial interaction, what really got you going, and what's filtered into your your company and your community, etc, as you said. But is it really a moment where you've been trying to do that in practice, and, you know, you've really hit a wall, really challenging situation, like, can you give our listeners an insight into, you know, a moment that really stands out for you, where we're doing what we've been talking about has really helped you out with the decision or the situation? Situation? Yeah,
Hessam Vali 10:01
absolutely. Well, before I get into the to this, to this question, I just want to clarify and make it, make it very clear that even though I've been intentionally looking at that, I'm not, I'm not where I want to be by any means, right? This is a journey, because, yeah, and probably let's say that's a good follow up question, because in my good days, I'm proud of myself that, hey, I this is, this is who I want to be, and this is how to have impact on and people around me. And but on my bad days, I look at it and say, Hey, Hassam, you failed. Man. This is not so I want to say that this the specifically, when we are talking about leading with purpose. One important point is we all have moments that we may fail, right and and I think that that's the reality, because it happens that you have all these competing priorities that you have, and sometimes we cannot just make the right decision. I think it's okay, as long as we reflect on it and we say, Yes, we didn't, we didn't stick to what we called as our value. But how I can fix it for the next time? How do I make sure that I I'm not repeating that situation again? Because again, it's going to happen. And, well, when you're talking about some moments that I was looking at, hey, this is our purpose. And obviously, when you have a purpose, then you start building your value sets. You say, in order to to to admire the purpose that we have in order to just follow that, translate that to day to day. That's that's what, what in our company. We call it our value sets. And we try to look at as our value sets are as our guiding principles, right? So when we get to a situation that we don't know what the right answer is, a lot of times we try to go back to our value sets and purpose and just consult with it. And we do that quite often, and we have really, really good team together, and we call off at that moment that we say, is that really what we want to do? Is that really aligned with with our purpose and values. And again, there are points that we miss that target, meaning that we take make decisions that, if you look back to our purpose and values, may say we should have done that. So just want to give you a couple example, examples along the same line, that line, obviously, as a consulting business, right? We, when we have a clients coming to us and requesting some services from us, we need to stay healthy. We need to look at the project and see how we are going to just meet the customer requirements. And sometimes, as the consultants, when you look at the problem statements, you may say, that's not the that's not the right problem statement. Your Hey, customer, have clients, you're looking at the wrong problem, even though, if you fix this problem, is not going to fix your your problem, really, at the end of the day, because you're looking at the symptom of the situation, and that's a really difficult moment to be, because you may go ahead and say, Hey, you're looking at the wrong problem, and they say, Well, no, this is what we want. So if you're not a good fit, and you may lose that, that opportunity, right? Yeah, the other side, you say, hey, we want to deliver value, so we know that this is not the right thing to do, and we've made decisions on both side of that spectrum. We made decisions that we should shouldn't have made that decision. We said yes to things that we should have said no. I mean, we had this particular clients at one point came to us, and it was a was an automation project. They wanted us to automate a process for for packaging, and the whole problem they had was all on evidence that they had in that process. We did a bunch of time studies, we did a bunch of analysis, and we ended up with the problem is not really that area that they tried to automate. The problem is the upstream that feeding into that internally. We talked about it. That was a great project. It was a long term projects. It required a lot of engagement. And we we shared our thought process that, hey, we probably looking at the wrong the wrong problem to solve. We did that at one point, and they didn't like it. So we, instead of saying no, we believe that by doing or delivering that project, we are not going to fix your problem, we said yes to that, and we expect. Accepted, even though we looking at our purpose and value map, we are not delivering value by doing this well, bad decision. We didn't follow that. On the other hand, we had moments that we definitely looked at something, and even at the cost of losing the project, we made the right decision. And you know, a lot of times when you do it one point, some point in the future, come back to you right, even when we said no, at one point, we develop trust with our clients, and they came back to us down the road, and at this time coming to us they they were at the point that they believed what we are saying is is the right thing to do, and it helped us quite a bit to again, to just build that connection, the right relationship with the clients. So yeah, you've the combination right making a decision making wrong decision, if you look at your purpose. But question is, when you make that, are you aware of that? Are we aware of that? To go back and reflect?
Andy Olrich 16:13
Yeah, I was just, I was just going to say, like, the key word at the start of that piece that you just shared, there was reflection. So it's important we talk about it a lot in Lean and continuous improvement. Is we must, as leaders and teams, reflect and just go, hang on a second. Where am I now? So we talked about the down the road. You know, what do you want to be remembered as, or by? Whatever the right words are, yeah, if you don't take that time to reflect and look at Hang on. Am I leading? Am I following my purpose? Am I displaying that? The thing that also jumps in is like, how and get asked a lot is like, how do we actually really know or show others that we are or we aren't? Like, how do we measure that? How do we have something tangible instead of a feel or a vibe to go you know what, by doing those things like that, yeah, yeah, really, we're living our purpose. Or the other side of that, like you said, is, well, actually, you know what we we kind of let that go. And as you said, they're bringing you in to pay you to provide expert advice service outcomes. And if you are brought in as that, and you and you start to unpack that just to keep the client happy all the time, yeah, it is a bit hard. You're devaluing that relationship a little bit. And the outcome might be there, and then it can maybe they might say, well, Hassan, you didn't Oh, we thought this was going to be heaps better, and it didn't work. And that's where I think the power of no comes in as well. Like that. There's those, even if they, I think you said if, even if they don't get us, you know, may in future, then they might come back. It's like, well, I might be a, you know, they might have said no, but you know what, I'm glad they did. And they gave us a little bit of a checkpoint there. It wasn't just yes all the time, and that's really important. And can see that you've had those lessons learned on either side of that, that coin. So I really appreciate you sharing that. And I think you know, it leads into the next question I have here, around there is, I talked about measures or how so you feel it, you see it, and you kind of know, right? But how do you get your teams to really connect with that? The bigger, the bigger why? Or get them to plug into what you're doing that you believe is where you want to go. So how do you do that?
Hessam Vali 18:32
Yeah, that's a, that's a that's a difficult task. It could be difficult, or it could be easy. And you know, we are, again, we are a group of consultants. So everybody looking at us as experts in what we are doing, experts in what we're delivering. So I just want to, for a second, I want you to go back to a great book that is called Good to Great. I'm pretty sure a lot of people have read that book about Jim Collins, and he's using this analogy of the bus, right? And he's saying that a company is like a bus if you have the right just look at the seats that you have. Look at the qualifications of who whoever is going to sit and take those seats. If you have the right person in the right seat, whatever the destination is, you can get there, right? Just having the right people, and this on the seat, is the most important thing. So I think the the question that you're asking, it starts at the moment that we engage with a new employee, right? Finding the right employee, I think it's the starting point. Because if we have the right person identified and brought in, we are, we are, like 20% there already at the get go, right? So in our organization. Been so lucky. So far, pretty much, I can tell you, everybody working in our organization, I had the opportunity to work with them, for them different capacity in many years. So when they're ready to just jump the ship and come to our company, we already had a great relationship. We already had a good, you know, foundational beliefs and values to start with. But even if we don't have that, and we want to bring someone new, we always start with our value sets, even if you said in any of our interviews, whoever is interviewing. We always bring our value sets up, and we looked at as a guiding principles. We ask questions. We have questions that as taking people through scenarios, and we want to see the way that they're responding to those questions, how matched they are with our value sets. So that's our that's our starting point. And then the other thing that we're doing, Andy, as we document a lot of things, our purpose is documented. And we have all different kind of SOPs and procedures right for HR, we have procedures for financial, we have procedures for operation. We have procedures. And if you go to any of procedures, you will see that our purpose and value set is just a top of that. It's a triangle shape that talking about what matters the most for us as a company. So we try to just have a continual reminder everybody, Hey, this is our guiding principles. Obviously, we encourage everybody, myself, my business partner, we encourage everybody that when there is a situation that you don't know how to make the decision the first, the first step is to look at the guiding principles. See what the guiding principles says. If you if, if you can get your question answered right away, that's great. If you don't, let's talk about it then. And and so these are, these are steps we are taking right finding the right people, making what we believe and absolutely documented, make it bold and and loud and different documentation processes we have, and encouraging everybody to talk about it and share those situations. So these are some of the, some of the steps that we are taken to make sure we are embedding our purpose and values into our day to day activities.
Andy Olrich 22:26
It's so great. And again, things that stand out for me, I love calling out the highlights in all of these things. So yeah, really, you have clarity over what that really is. And we talk about standards a lot, so you've actually documented you have your standard for what your purpose is and how you wish for others to know what that is, connect with it, see it, read it, and incorporating it into other documentation. A lot of places will have values just up on the wall in some of the front areas, and it's kind of there, and that's about all it is. You ask the people on the floor, what are the company values here? And I don't know. Or when we do a toolbox talk, we call out a particular value that's in focus. Or if we celebrate success, it's like, well, which value are we living there that we that we are giving you this recognition for and just that continual cut through. And, yeah, I work with a lot of HR professionals, and they sometimes find there's a bit of a funny sort of, oh, yeah, you know, tell us about the values in the interview. Like, that's so important to a lot of organizations, because if it for them, it's not just lip service. It's like, This is who we are. And, yeah, I think that's, it's great to have, the more that you can have it somewhere, and you've documented it, you've got a standard you can measure against that reflection, etc. That's that's really powerful. Hassan and and I think a lot of places and people miss that. It's just more about there's our values. But go out there and do it like this,
Hessam Vali 23:55
one of the companies, I just want to talk about it really interesting practice that I've seen we are not practicing ourselves, but I think that that's a great practice. And I'm, you know, I've been thinking about it, how to bring it in life in our company, but I'm working with this, this particular manufacturing here in Kansas, and they have, they're, they're, they're big in values, and they live that, right? So it's not just something that it's on the wall because it's nice. This is something that the leadership team lives those values, and you can see and feel just walking in the shop, you can feel that. So one really interesting practice they have. They built this program. They call it value champion. So they have all these storytelling that they encouraging people, even at the lowest level, at the shop floor, or someone the janitor who is cleaning, if you see someone is doing something that is tied to the value, go to the storytelling board and just put it in there. And they look at those the storytelling and they ask people constantly. Be, and they put surveys out, and they define these value champions on a quarterly basis, so people selecting their peers as the value champion and and they celebrate that. So I think that that's another really great tool, because it's not top down approaches, bottom up approach that you know, make it, make it really spread out across the whole organization, as opposed to just the leadership team practicing
Andy Olrich 25:25
it. It is so cool. And it's not just all the bosses playing favorites or they just like, it's one of your own, as they say. And they have it. They have it at my son's school, and it's to, it's called a got you award and, what it is is, if somebody sees you doing something in the playground or in class that they've got the values up on the wall, and they go, actually, I think he's done that, they actually go, here's a gotcha award. And they have, they don't, they don't get it in the moment that they're doing it straight away, but it's like, it might be 10 minutes later, or it's just like, actually, one of the kids in your classmates saw you over there helping that kid who'd fallen over and hurt himself that's living our values, and they've recognized that. And as you said, like the reward and recognition coming from you know, the team so powerful. And if they do recommend someone for an award, and it's not quite hitting the mark, it's an opportunity to coach and advise and say, Well, look, that's close, but what we're really looking for is something like this. And you've got another example to point to, so and
Hessam Vali 26:31
you know, it's, it's pretty much aligned with, with all the Lean practices, because then you talking for just a second, talking about, like visual management. So in this particular company, or the daycare that you're talking about, walking to that to the lobby, and looking at the wall, and you see all the value champions or a gotcha moments that you're talking about. That's the visual management, right? That's basically the excitement. So you can see, hey, you can be on the wall, and you know how to get there, because the value is absolutely clear. So there's a path to it, and if you want to just get on the wall, there are steps to take, or there are behavior that you got to practice. So I really like that program that that that way of working and expanding the, you know, the right behaviors across the whole organization,
Andy Olrich 27:24
the classic employee of the month. Or there's an initiative where there's, if you were employee of the month, you got the car park right at the front, right near the bath house where you go in. They didn't have to park way out the back, or even pay for parking right. The name the face was put up at that and said, this month, it's Hassan, and people, it would absolutely drive that. Well, why are you parking there? Why did you get that? Yeah, and it's like, Well, what I did was, and it's not just a, as I said, like the boss is just picking favorites. Or it's like, well, actually, I I got this because all I did was, is I just went and that's, yeah, living that value. And people like, yeah, how can I get there? It gives them that they get excited or that it becomes a bit competitive, too. In a lot of places, it's like, how I want that car park, or I want whatever's of value to them. There's not just one way to do it, but that was just one where, if nothing else, some of the negative people would say, Oh, what did you get that I live the values. And he's, he's a tangible measure on the wall. Yeah, this
Hessam Vali 28:31
story behind that, it's, it's, yeah, story that's the, that's the, that's the powerful piece behind it, that it should be, if you're talking about values, there should be always stories to support that, right? It's it's different. In many cases, the story, I mean, you got to look at a number, or you got to look at a KPI. But I think when it comes to the value and purpose, I think that the stories behind those, those actions, I think absolutely, powerful and touching.
Andy Olrich 29:08
Yeah, it becomes not just that a good scorer, but it's a good player thing, right? Yeah, it's like, no, this is actually these people are actively doing it, and we're going to see it and reward it, and then others can follow. And I think you know people even just you being who they are, I touched on authenticity before, and it's really important in this space, if you're if you have a purpose and it's authentically, you tell us a bit how, in your experience, Hassan, we talk about that impact, it has to trust and credibility with Your team and stakeholders. So, yeah, how do you show being you connects them to the purpose and moving forward?
Hessam Vali 29:49
You know, the first thing is, Andy, I think if you're not authentic, right, people see it. If I'm doing something and that's, that's I I'm. Playing a game. I mean, I might be able to just, you know, get what I want, the first trial, the second time, third time, but eventually, I mean, it will be just become very obvious. So I think that the the you're talking about authenticity and trust, and I think that there is a really solid link in between. I mean, there might be, if you're if I'm not authentic, and I may do something that builds some level of trust, but because it's not on a solid foundation or just basic, you're gonna lose that. So the first thing in my mind, is the bottom line is, we cannot be always the best version of ourselves, right? There will be always moments. Well, not going to be, never will be the best version of cells, right? This is a pursuant to that point. There is a like, like, lean and operational excellence journey. There is no excellent condition. There's always pursuance to that excellence condition. So that's the same thing. So I think that the very first thing is to to accept that we are all vulnerable in in situations, there are cases that we cannot do what in best situation we are going to we are not going to act the way that we are going to act in the best situation. So I think that's the very first in my in my book, the very first thing is that vulnerability and making sure that we are not hiding it from other people, right? It has to be. Has to be. I mean, it is us. It's part of us, and the humility to accept that, I think that that's the very first step. If, if I'm, if I'm always right with my team members, I mean, they start talking about us, you know, even when I'm not in the room, right? But if, if they see that I'm open to be wrong, and then they feel comfortable to talk about it with me, they feel to they feel comfortable to talk in front of me about it, right? So I think that really the first that's the same thing with the clients, right? It's absolutes, it's okay. Sometimes we try, especially in Lean transformation, sometimes we try things that it's not going to work out. I don't feel that if I go to the customer and say, Hey, we decided to do this, it's not going to work out, I don't think that is going to affect my credibility at all. I think that it's, it's, it's that's helping me to show that I'm vulnerable. It helps me to show that, yeah, we tried, we tried hard, and then I work out I'm okay to just try something else. I'm open to try something else. So I think that that's probably the very first step, being open to to be understand that everybody, understand that everybody's vulnerable, and then accept that and do not hide it. I think that these are the the few steps to take to build that trust coming of um, attempted city that we are talking about here.
Andy Olrich 33:08
Yeah, that word trust, it's uh Andy Andy's quite openly vulnerable leadership. Lead with humility, those those core principles, but even if they're not connecting with the purpose. Now, if they go, Well, look, I kind of know who has some is, and I trust the guy, you know, I might just come along for a little bit longer, and then hopefully, or well, if it's not working, he'll, he'll turn around and say, You know what, this isn't working, guys. And again, help me. Help me. Help us find a way, instead of my way the highway type things, and yet, being you, you never, and that, yeah, you're never going to get it right all the time. And I think that relaxes a lot of people again, to just kind of, yeah, we're just when perfection is just not something that has to be all the time or possible. So yeah, it's a great, it's a great link there, the trust, the reflection measuring there's, there's a few things here, making it visible. So, all right, this, it's been a great conversation, but I think, you know, we always like to hand over some little nuggets of advice. So for some for our listeners out there, if you had a piece of advice, there's some people who are starting to step into the leadership space and they're hearing this and they're thinking, well, that's great. I wouldn't even know how to start writing my values, or what is the purpose, etc. How could you help them start to take steps through that? But also when they're actually in that moment and they're getting challenged by their teams or other leaders who've been around for a while. How do you stick to your guns, or how do you how do you keep going when you feel that pressure or the need to compromise?
Hessam Vali 34:55
Yeah, I mean, always giving advice. It's a difficult thing, right? Because. Uh, I can, I can say what worked for me or what I think works for me. So I'm basically pursuing yet and and hopefully the listeners do who, whoever is watching this episode, they can build their own own version, right? But I would say that the very first step is, is to accept that we are not complete. We are not we all have a lot, lot to do and lot to grow to and develop. So that's, I think, that accepting it as the first step, right? And when we accept that, the next next logical thing to do, when you say, Hey, I have this weakness here. The next logical is to to invest in yourself, right? And again, I'm, I really enjoy going to like leadership summits and leadership conferences. I enjoy reading books, listening to books. So I think that investing in yourself. It's, it's a really good starting point right after we accept that we need to invest in ourselves, right? So these are some very high level starting points. But when we get into it, when we start, when we start, you know, start enjoying the feel of, hey, I'm not, I'm not the best version of myself. I need to work on it. The next thing is, I want to say that this is a really good spot. A lot of Lean principles and leadership principles. We can just merge them together, right? So I'm always fan of writing down, I encourage everybody that was absolutely like, you know, eye opening for me when I when I sat in my office at one point and start writing down, who do I want to be when I'm 75 and start writing it down, who do I want to be for my family? Who do I want to be for my community? Who do I want to be for for the team members are working at Tech on and when I start thinking about it, the first couple of hours, I couldn't even write down one sentence that was so difficult. But when you know, and I probably went through like 567, versions of that, until I said, Yes, this is who I want to be, and I start, start documenting yet, to start making it bold for everybody. Because when you make something, when you when you when you express your where you're heading to, then you there is some pressure that you gotta get there right when you post that. Even I have a, I have a I have our my personal values, that I created, that I posted a wall in my bedroom. And every, every morning I wake up, I'll see it on the wall, right? So that generates some pressure, and that's a good reminder. So documenting it is another, another good, good practice. And then visualize it right? Document it somewhere. But if it's just documented in a file on my computer, doesn't mean anything. Make it, make it accessible to in different platforms that people go they can see it if I want again, if I want to look at a Expense Report. How to Create Expense Report, I go in there and see our value set at top of the page, right that those are good reminders and encouraging each other in our in our company, to talk about it and consult with our guiding principles. I think that was another good step that would take. We still have a lot to go, a lot, a long way to go and a lot to do, but I think that these are good steps that people can can stop practicing, right? So, yeah, my
Andy Olrich 38:38
thank you. Yeah, getting started documenting. I had a great experience. Katie Anderson, she's been on the podcast quite a few times, and went to one of her workshops when she came down to Australia. And yeah, we did a purpose exercise, and it was just drawing a picture. And that was and that was hard, straight off the bat, I was like, Okay, what do I want to Who do I want to be, and what's my purpose, and what do I want others to see? And then we Yeah, and then that was the visualizing pieces to then show it to others without telling them what it was meant to be and seeing what they got out of that. So I, and that was a really good exercise. Like you said, you just, it's, can be quite hard to write it down, but you document it, then make it visual. Then you've got somewhere to start and and start to make that connection through to the teams.
Hessam Vali 39:28
And this makes it, makes it difficult, with all honesty here, because you want to write something that is really cool, that's really good. Everybody reads that and be impressed with it, right? That's what you want to do. But the other side, you say, No, you just want to do what you who you really want to be, not just be something that people admire and people be impressed. So at least my case, that was the. Moments That was really difficult, because I had this battle in my head that is not about looking good, it's about meaning good and doing good. So that was the difficult part for me to start writing it down, because again, it just you gotta look at your weaknesses. You gotta look at your strength and and then start building yet. So that was, that's, that's what made it really difficult for me. Yeah,
Andy Olrich 40:30
reflection, and sometimes hard reflection. But just getting started, just anyone who's watching or listening here, take a Psalms advice. Just get a bit of paper and just start jotting some things down, and just, yeah, just start. And I found that personally valuable as well. So Hassan, it's been a great conversation. It's been great having you back on again, and I'm sure we'll have you back on in future. We'll just do a bit of a wrap up here. So if people want to connect with you and your organization to find out more about you or what what they can do, how do people track you down?
Hessam Vali 41:08
Yeah, that's That's great. So I'll provide my my email address Andy when you're posting this. So please feel free to just share that with the audience our company, we have two companies, actually. One is www, dot w, dot TechCom solutions, T, E, C, H, A, M solutions.com and the other one is uptegrity solutions.com and my email address is hisam at TechCom solutions.com or Hassam at Integrity solutions.com I have access to both, and I'm pretty active on LinkedIn as well, so I'd love to to connect with your audience and and exchange ideas and talk about all these great topics.
Andy Olrich 41:56
Yeah, great mate. And yeah, we'll have them in the show notes for everyone. And yeah, it's been a great conversation. Is there any final sort of reflection or wrap up, Hassan that you want to leave us with today? Well, I would like
Hessam Vali 42:08
to appreciate you Andy and lean solutions podcast that's been a pleasure to be here for the second time. I really enjoyed talking to you all and share my story with the audience. It's not necessarily best story, but it's my story. And again, I wish everybody a great amount of success and pursuing their leadership journey, or getting into it or advancing. And I'd say it's a journey that it's definitely pays off, or the individual who's getting into it and the people in contact with with that individual. So good luck.
Andy Olrich 42:45
Yeah, good on you, mate. And that's what this show is all about. It's, it's your story. We have authentic, real life examples and stories and guests. And you know, there's something in all of that for everyone. And we really appreciate all of our listeners and people watching on here, for for jumping on, and we look forward to catching up with you next time, so see you then.
Hessam Vali 43:04
Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.