Todd Wangsgard
Enterprising, results-driven, and grounded are words that describe Todd Wangsgard. He brings 24 years of leadership and organizational development experience to his clients.
Clients value his ability to create clarity out of the business fog that prevents most companies from enabling greatness and developing the capabilities of their associates.
Todd has excellent professional experience. He was Senior Manager of Training, Talent Management, and Communications for ATK Lake City, a government-owned, company-operated manufacturing center in Independence, Missouri. He organized the training department, developed and implemented all levels of leadership curriculum, and oversaw the operation’s succession planning and teambuilding strategies.
As the Manager of Professional Development for ATK, a $4 billion aerospace and defense company, Todd led the creation of employee and leadership assessment and development initiatives for operations in 23 states.
Todd worked for Intermountain Healthcare, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah, the intermountain west’s largest physician, clinic and hospital network. He founded IHC University and managed the implementation of curriculum as well as the administrative team of IHCU.
An industry cross section of Todd’s clients represent higher education, health care, insurance, manufacturing, aerospace, and defense.
Todd holds a PhD from Walden University in Leadership and Organizational Change. He has also earned his MBA from the University of Phoenix and a B.A. from Weber State University (Ogden, Utah) in communications.
Todd is affiliated with a number of professional organizations and holds certifications to teach a number of programs. He is a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), a Master Facilitator for Achieve Global, and a Certified Professional Behavior Analyst (DISC).
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FranklinCovey Consultant Blogs | Todd Wangsgard | Dozens
Pulling the Andon Cord: Lessons on taking a time-out
In the world of manufacturing, the “Toyota Way” has always been held up as the epitome of lean and six-sigma manufacturing. One of the more prominent concepts in lean is called the Andon Cord.
The andon cord is literally a cord that workers can pull – a cord they should pull – any time something in the manufacturing process goes wrong that would compromise the quality of the product or safety of the people. The line stops immediately. Everyone’s attention is turned to the problem. Everyone helps to solve the problem. And the line doesn’t restart until the problem’s been fixed, thus ensuring that zero scrap or defects are allowed to perpetuate.
Some have called auto manufacturers’ recent recall woes, pulling “the big andon cord.” Although I’m sure these events will weigh on their reputation and short-term sales, righting wrongs is never bad for long-term business.
It’s remarkable to me how many of the 13 Behaviors from our Speed of Trust practice are manifest in the actions being taken by industry lately to fix these gaps in reliability and consumer confidence.
Pull the andon cord, sooner rather than later!
- Confront Reality
- Talk Straight
- Right Wrongs
- Get Better
- Practice Accountability
- Show Loyalty
- Deliver Results
And the list goes on.
Each of us can take a lesson from this industry “time-out.” I’ve gained a greater appreciation for stepping back from the line and fixing things the right way when they go wrong. Individuals and teams can “pull the andon cord” and avoid a path of perpetual mediocrity.
A few years ago, my team and I were working feverishly on creating hundreds of training documents for the dozens of different positions across a complex and dispersed workforce. It wasn’t until after scores of freshly published training procedures had been implemented that we realized the format of the documents didn’t meet the expectations of the organization’s own quality control standards. As painful as it was to admit the mistake and redo much of the effort that had been expended, we vowed to immediately notify management, correct the faulty documents, and promise to meet a revised (albeit still challenging) deadline. Pulling the andon cord was the right thing to do.
The trust that comes from owning up to a mistake early on and taking swift corrective action is a much better alternative than the suspicion that comes from trying to get away with a mistake that is later discovered by someone else. In fact, it is ideal to create a culture where people are actively looking for mistakes in order to pull the cord.
The sooner we fail, the sooner we succeed. Don’t be afraid to pull the andon cord.
Storms
Last Wednesday I drove to the Kansas City International airport to catch a flight bound for Chicago and then onto Louisville, Kentucky. I even checked the flight status before leaving home – On Time. No sooner had all 137 passengers boarded the plane when the captain entered the main cabin and announced over the intercom that a ground freeze had been issued for all flights coming into or out of Chicago due to severe thunderstorm activity. We would wait another 45 minutes – in the plane, at the gate – to hear him offer another apology for why we need to wait yet another 30 to 45 minutes. After the third appearance and regrettable announcement, we were now 2 hours behind schedule – while waiting the entire time on the plane. The temperature in the main cabin seemed to fluctuate 20 degrees in either direction during our wait – sometimes too cold, sometimes too hot. To add insult to an already difficult situation, once the freeze was lifted and we finally pushed back to the runway, the captain turned off the starboard engine, came back onto the intercom and announced that the dozens of planes now bound for Chicago had been given an order in which they could take off and that we were scheduled to leave in another 45 minutes. We took off 3 hours late, due to a late summer thunderstorm that was 500 miles away.
Granted, this would have been a challenging scenario for anybody, but I was still surprised by the various ways that different passengers dealt with the delay. I was particularly taken back by the language spewing from the woman seated directly behind me. I’m guessing she could have issued a tongue lashing that would embarrass a hardened criminal.
The storm was completely out of any human control, and yet some people behave in ways that serve only to make the situation worse – for everybody.
I’ve flown enough to know that getting upset doesn’t help me or the situation. I figure, if I can’t model some of our principles – such as Be Proactive – I don’t deserve to teach them. That doesn’t mean I’m always perfect, but this scenario was the perfect lesson to reinforce why I don’t typically book travel on the last flight of the day, why I study my driving options, why I always take manila folders full of projects and books to read while caught waiting in unexpected places.
In fact, I got caught up on quite a bit of work during my 6-hour journey to Kentucky and tried to get to bed as quickly as possible once I arrived, in order to be fresh for my client assignment the next morning. Two days of successful project management instruction followed. I made my 90 min. drive back to Louisville on Friday afternoon, checked through Security, only to learn that my flight (among several others) was delayed yet again. And what made the situation almost laughable was that this delay was caused by the same storm that had kept me waiting on Wednesday! Yes, the exact same system that plagued our mid-week departure from Kansas City had slowly made its way across the country eastward during the intervening 48 hours, only to tie up air traffic in Baltimore, Maryland, where many of the planes were coming from on Friday night.
This taught me a valuable lesson about life. Perhaps you’ve been there, too. Often, once we appear to have overcome a particular challenge or obstacle – be it physical, mental, personal, or professional – there’s a good chance that the same barrier will rear its ugly head again, sometime in the future. When we count on bumps in the road, when we plan to be detoured from time to time or delayed along our intended route, we are much more prepared to deal with each diversion much more constructively. Good planning turns to great when you and I have a rock solid Plan A and a thorough Plan B to back it up.